In re R.S. CA4/1

Filed 10/27/23 In re R.S. CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

In re R.S., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law. D082347 SAN DIEGO COUNTY HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY, (Super. Ct. San Diego County No. EJ4854; Super Ct. Riverside Plaintiff and Respondent, County No. DPSW2300312)

v.

C.S. et al.,

Defendants and Appellants.

APPEALS from orders of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Mark T. Cumba, Judge. Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with directions. Jesse McGowan, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant, K.S. Christopher R. Booth, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant, C.S.

Claudia G. Silva, County Counsel, Lisa M. Maldonado, Chief Deputy County Counsel, and Emily Harlan, Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

MEMORANDUM OPINION1 C.S. (Father) and K.S. (Mother) appeal from jurisdictional and dispositional orders concerning their child, R.S. (Child). The sole issue on appeal is whether the juvenile court erred by finding that the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA; 25 U.S.C. § 1901 et seq.) did not apply before the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (Agency) completed

its initial inquiry under ICWA and Welfare and Institutions Code2 section 224.2. We affirm the jurisdictional and dispositional orders but remand the case for the limited purpose of compliance with ICWA inquiry requirements. Section 224.2 imposes an “affirmative and continuing duty” upon the Agency and the juvenile court to inquire whether a child subject to juvenile dependency may be a child of Native American ancestry. (§ 224.2, subd. (a).) Subdivision (b) of section 224.2 creates an expanded duty of initial inquiry that requires the Agency to ask “extended family member[s]” and “others who have an interest in the child” whether the child may have Native American ancestry. ICWA defines “ ‘extended family member’ ” to include the “child’s grandparent, aunt or uncle, brother or sister, brother-in-law or sister-in-law, niece or nephew, first or second cousin, or stepparent.” (25 U.S.C. § 1903(2); Welf. & Inst. Code, § 224.1, subd. (c) [“ ‘extended family member’ . . . defined as provided in [§] 1903” of ICWA].)