In Re Liliana S.

10 Cal.Rptr.3d 553 (2004) 115 Cal.App.4th 585 In re LILIANA S. et al., Persons Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

San Diego County Health And Human Services Agency, Plaintiff And Respondent,

v.

Frank S. Et Al., Defendants And Respondents,

Agua Caliente Band Of Cahuilla Indians, Intervenor And Appellant.

No. D042428. Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division One.

January 9, 2004. Art Bunce, Escondido, and Kathryn Clenney for Intervenor and Appellant.

John J. Sansone, County Counsel, Susan Strom, Chief Deputy County Counsel, and Katharine R. Bird, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Suzanne F. Evans, San Diego, under appointment by Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Respondent Frank S.

Patti L. Dikes, under appointment by the Court of Appeals, for Defendant and Respondent Angelina T.

Christopher Blake, under appointment by the Court of Appeals, for the Minors.

O'ROURKE, J.

Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (the Tribe) appeals orders at a Welfare and Institutions Code section 366.21 six-month review hearing continuing Liliana S. and Juliana S. dependent children of the juvenile court and continuing their placement [554] in the home of their paternal grandmother, Sonia S. (the paternal grandmother). The Tribe contends the mandatory order of preference for placement of dependent children of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)[1] and California Rules of Court, rule 1439(k)(1))[2] is not subject to the good cause exception of rule 1439(k)(4) and the juvenile court lacked good cause to deviate from the statutory order of preference. We affirm the orders.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In October 2002, the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (the Agency) petitioned under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, subdivision (g) on behalf of six-year-old Liliana and one-year-old Juliana, alleging they had been left without provision for support. The mother is an enrolled member of the Tribe and the children are eligible for enrollment. The father is not Indian. The Tribe's reservation is located in Riverside County. The paternal grandmother is employed by the Tribe and she lives in the Riverside area close to the reservation. The parents and children have lived with her off and on during the past five years and Liliana and the parents wanted the children placed with her. The maternal great-grandmother, Beverly D., (the maternal great-grandmother) is a member of the Tribe, but does not live on the Tribe's reservation. She lives instead on the Pala Indian Reservation in northern San Diego County.