In re A.N. CA2/6

Filed 9/25/23 In re A.N. CA2/6 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION SIX

In re A.N., a Person Coming 2d Juv. No. B326268 Under the Juvenile Court Law. (Super. Ct. No. 21JD-00029-001) (San Luis Obispo County)

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

ANTHONY F. et al.,

Defendants and Appellants.

Ana N. (Mother) and Anthony F. (Father) appeal an order of the juvenile court declaring that their minor child A.N. is adoptable and terminating their parental rights. (Welf. & Inst.

Code, § 366.26, subd. (c)(1).)1 We conclude that failure to make inquiries of extended family members pursuant to the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) (25 U.S.C. § 1901 et seq.) and related California law was error, and we conditionally reverse for a limited remand. (In re Benjamin M. (2021) 70 Cal.App.5th 735, 744.) This appeal concerns the single issue of the adequacy of inquiries regarding possible Indian ancestry of a dependent minor child. The San Luis Obispo County Department of Social Services (DSS) requests that we take judicial notice of, or augment the appellate record with: 1) an ICWA due diligence report dated October 20, 2021, and a juvenile court order dated November 3, 2021, filed in a companion dependency proceeding involving A.N.’s full-blood newborn sibling (In re A.F., case No. 21JD-00115-001); and 2) a newly filed report dated July 18, 2023, in this dependency proceeding regarding additional inquiries of family members involving possible Indian ancestry. We grant judicial notice of the report and order filed in the companion dependency proceeding and augment the record to include DSS’s additional inquiries in this proceeding. (In re Allison B. (2022) 79 Cal.App.5th 214, 219.) FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Mother and Father are parents to minor children A.N. and a newborn. The newborn was removed from the parents’ custody and care at birth and is the subject of a later and separate dependency proceeding. On March 15, 2021, Paso Robles police officers found Mother, Father, and A.N. inside a cluttered vehicle parked at a