In re N.T. CA3

Filed 10/25/23 In re N.T. CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Sacramento) ----

In re N.T., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court C098041 Law.

SACRAMENTO COUNTY DEPARTMENT (Super. Ct. No. JD241035) OF CHILD, FAMILY AND ADULT SERVICES,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

M.G.,

Defendant and Appellant.

Appellant M.G. (father) is the father of minor N.T. (the minor) and appeals from the juvenile court’s orders terminating parental rights and freeing the minor for adoption. (Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 366.26, 395; undesignated statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code.) Father’s sole contention is that the Sacramento County Department of Child, Family, and Adult Services (the Department) and the juvenile court

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failed to comply with the inquiry requirements of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) (25 U.S.C. § 1901 et seq.) and related California law. The Department agrees, and so do we. We conditionally affirm, subject to further ICWA compliance. DISCUSSION The minor was born in August 2020 with opiates and amphetamines in his system; he was hospitalized with withdrawal symptoms. His mother, G.T. (mother), who has developmental or cognitive delays, admitted to using drugs and tested positive for opiates at his birth. She agreed to voluntarily place the minor in foster care. After mother and father (the minor’s then-alleged father) failed to successfully engage in informal supervision services, the Department filed a section 300 petition in December 2020, alleging that the minor had suffered or was at a substantial risk of suffering serious physical harm from mother given her history of substance abuse and cognitive or developmental delays that impaired her ability to adequately protect, care, and supervise him. An attached Indian Child Inquiry form (ICWA-010(A)) stated that the Department had asked mother and father about the minor’s status as an Indian child, but the Department did not check the boxes indicating whether the inquiry gave the social worker reason to believe or no reason to believe that the minor was or may be an Indian child. According to the detention report, mother denied having any Native American ancestry in September 2020 and father did the same in December 2020. The detention report did not identify any other relatives that the Department had asked about potential Indian ancestry even though the Department had been in contact with maternal aunts L.T. and B.E., as well as maternal uncle R.T., and the report also referenced a maternal great- grandmother. At the detention hearing in December 2020, the juvenile court detained the minor from the parents. During the hearing, mother’s counsel informed the court that mother said she did not have any Native American or Alaskan Native ancestry. Mother also filed