Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act November 5, 2009

WI Indian Child Welfare Act Bill passed October 20, 2009 Emphasis on Best Interest of an Indian Child Qualified Expert Witnesses Active Efforts Placement Preference

Indian Children in OHC

Qualified Expert Witnesses A member of the Indian child’s tribe recognized by the Indian child’s tribal community as knowledgeable regarding the tribes’ customs relating to family organization or child-rearing practices A member of another tribe who is knowledge regarding the customs of the Indian child’s tribe relating to family organization or children- rearing practices

QEW Continued 3. A professional person having substantial education and experience in the person's professional specialty and having substantial knowledge of the customs, traditions, and values of the Indian child’s tribe relating to family organization and child-rearing practices 4. A layperson having substantial experience in the delivery of child and family services to Indians and substantial knowledge of the prevailing social and cultural standards and child-rearing practices of the Indian child’s tribe.

(4) (g) Active Efforts (a) Representatives designated by the Indian child’s tribe with substantial knowledge of the prevailing social and cultural standards and child-rearing practice within the tribal community were request to evaluate the circumstances of the Indian child’s family and to assist in developing a case plan that uses the resources of the tribe and of the Indian community, including traditional and customary support, actions, and services to address those circumstances.

Active efforts Continued (b) Representatives of the Indian Child’s tribe were identified, notified and invited to participate in all aspects of the Indian child custody proceeding at the earliest possible point in the proceeding and their advice was actively solicited throughout the proceeding.

Active Efforts continued (c ) Extend family members of the Indian child, including extended family members who were identified by the Indian child’s tribe or parents, were notified and consulted with to identify and provide family structure and support for the Indian child, to assure cultural connections, and to serve as placement resources for the Indian child.

Active Efforts continued (d) Arrangements were made to provide natural and unsupervised family interaction in the most natural setting that can ensure the Indian child’s safety, as appropriate to the goals of the Indian child’s permanency plan, including arrangements for transportation and other assistance to enable family members to participate in that interaction.

Active Efforts continued (e) All available family preservation strategies were offered or employed and the involvement of the Indian child’s tribe was requested to identify those strategies and to ensure that those strategies are culturally appropriate to the Indian child’s tribe.

Active Efforts Continued (f) Community resources offering housing, financial, and transportation assistance and in- home support services, in-home intensive treatment services, community support services, and specialized services for members of the Indian child’s family with special needs were identified, information about those resources was provided to the Indian child’s family, and the Indian child’s family was actively assisted or offered active assistance in accessing those resources.

Active Efforts continued (g) Monitoring of client progress and client participation in services was provided. (h) A consideration of alternative ways of addressing the needs of the Indian child’s family was provided, if services did not exist or if existing services were not available to the family.

(7) Placement Of Indian Child (a) Adoptive placement; preferences –Extended family member –Member of the child’s tribe –Another Indian Family (b) Out-of-home care or preadoptive placement; preferences –Extended family member –Foster home or treatment foster home license, approved, or specified by the Indian child’ tribe (c ) Tribal or personal preferences (d) Social and Cultural standards

Potential Changes to eWiSACWIS

Access We currently have the question regarding information that the children have American Indian Heritage, a yes, no or Unknown radio button, and a narrative field.

Access Users would like the Yes radio button to pre-fill to yes if the child has been previously identified as a American Indian.

Access Users would also like to add this: If Yes or Unknown is selected, the following questions should be enabled, but not required

Access A mechanism needs to be added to transfer this information to the Screening for Child’s status as Indian. However, these questions should still be able to be answered on the screening, if they were not answered at access. These questions should not be required. If No is selected, the questions should be disabled.

Access Users would also like a link to ICWA contacts on the KWEB (program team will manage) and the link should be displayed at access. Currently, the ICW Cover Letter pre-fills the access worker, and this needs to be changed to the Supervisor.

Person Management We currently have a drop down for Tribes. However, if a child is not an enrolled member of a tribe, we have no way of documenting what tribe they are not a member of. Or if they are eligible for enrollment but not currently a member of a tribe, we have no way of documenting this.

Person Management Users would like to specify Member, Eligible but not a member, not a member – not eligible for membership in a drop down, and then state the tribe, also in a drop down. Also, Tribal Reference # needs to be changed to Tribal Membership #, and there needs to be two spots for Tribal Membership #.

Assessment Currently, we do not capture any ICW information at Assessment. Users would like to see those same five questions from Access and the Screening Template on the Initial Assessment.

Assessment Users would also like a pop up message reminding them to create the Screening for Childs status as Indian, if they have not already done so. This applies to ALL Initial Assessments for ALL children. The same would apply for the CW/JJ Assessment.

ICWA Currently, five templates are housed under this subject.. Users would like an easier way to navigate from one document to the next. If they are completing one, they are completing multiple. The current method of closing the first template, going back to Create>casework>ICWA etc is tedious.

ICWA One idea having a Central Location or ICW page that these templates would be launched from and much information gathered from the template would be captured on this page. The other option was to make moving from one template to the next easier then closing out and going back to create>casework.

ICWA Screening for Child’s status as Indian. This should be a template and not a notification. Users would also like the ability to create letters for multiple children in a family. (Copy for siblings)

ICWA Screening template. If users select yes to the first two questions, then they would like a connection to the Confirmation and Biological family history. They would like a way to easily access these two templates, and a pop up or a tickler reminding them to complete these forms

ICWA The request for Confirmation of Child's status as Indian and the Child's biological family history. Users would like to remove the approval from this document.

ICWA Users can currently create this for multiple children (on the Create Case Work, hold down the 'Ctrl' key for multi-selection and then the Child section pre-fills with all of the children. It should pre-fill child or juvenile based upon the selection. Therefore, if a user multi-selects and there is more than one child, that will automatically say Children. Another option is to change this to static text so it reads “Child(ren).”

ICWA For the Child’s Biological Family History template, users would like Agency to pre- fill. Under Child, the Yes, No, and Unknown for Native American is currently pre-filling from the Ethnicity. This needs to pre-fill from Race instead. The Tribes should also pre-fill based on Person Management.

ICWA The Notice of Involuntary child Custody Proceeding Involving an Indian Child. Users would like to see a history of who this was sent to.

ICWA For the Notice of Involuntary Child Custody Proceeding Involving an Indian Child, the tribal Affiliation should pre-fill off of person management.

ICWA For Voluntary Placement Agreements, the type of placement should pre-fill from the Agreements and Notices page

Additional Requirements Users would like to see a link to the knowledge web on the legal page that would give them a list of qualified expert witnesses. Users would also like a list of full faith and credit homes on the KWEB. Users would like an ICWA page as part of the design.

Placement Preference The Out of Home Safety Plan documents actions related to the notice and placement preference requirements of ICWA and must be completed to be in compliance with ICWA. We must take these questions off of the OHSP page and put them in a place that all workers will be able to access them

Placement Preference Users suggested adding these questions to the out of home placement page and making them required on a child identified as a member or eligible for membership for CPS, JIPS and Child Welfare Cases. These questions need to be able to be updated after approval of the Out of Home placement page. These questions also must include a date. These questions must be completed with each placement.

Placement Preference Also on the OHP page, users would like to be able to search for Tribal Sanctioned homes. So, when entering a provider, there should be a place to document if that provider is sanctioned by the tribe and by what tribe. Then, users should be able to search this out when looking for a placement.