In re Ari S.

Filed 10/6/21 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

In re ARI S., a Person Coming B307714, B311334 Under the Juvenile Court Law. ______________________________ (Los Angeles County LOS ANGELES COUNTY Super. Ct. No. 20CCJP03596A) DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

KRISSY S.,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from orders of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Sabina A. Helton and Stacy Wiese, Judges. Affirmed. Jesse McGowan, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rodrigo A. Castro-Silva, County Counsel, Kim Nemoy, Assistant County Counsel, and Sally Son, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent. _______________________

Krissy S., the mother of Ari S., challenges the juvenile court’s assumption of jurisdiction under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (“the Act”). She asserts Montana, not California, has jurisdiction. We affirm because California has significant connections jurisdiction under Family Code section 3421, subdivision (a)(2). Undesignated statutory citations are to the Welfare and Institutions Code. I The mother has three adoptive children: Serenity (born in 1993), Genesis (born in approximately 2002), and Ari (born in 2013). Ari is the only child at issue in this case. Serenity is Ari’s biological parent. The mother adopted Serenity in Nevada through an adult adoption when Serenity was pregnant with Ari. When Ari was six months old, the mother adopted Ari in Nevada. The mother, Ari, and Genesis traveled and lived in a van. The timeline of the family’s whereabouts is indistinct. Most record dates come from the family’s involvement with child protective services agencies in different locations. We refer to the Los Angeles County agency as the Department. The family was in Montana in the beginning of 2019 when Montana’s child protective services agency removed Ari and Genesis from the mother’s care. We have few details about this removal. A Montana social worker spoke with a Washington state social worker, who told the Department this removal was because the mother neglected Ari and physically abused Genesis. A Montana court placed the children with their maternal grandparents but later returned them to the mother. The mother and the two children traveled to California. In March 2019 and September 2019, the San Luis Obispo County child protective services agency received referrals about them.