Appendix C Guidelines for Implementing the Indian Child Welfare Act, December 2016

• Library: The Indian Child Welfare Act Handbook: A Legal Guide to Custody and Adoption (ABA) (2018 Ed.)

Appendix C

Guidelines for Implementing the Indian Child Welfare Act, December 2016

The reader is referred to the entire version of the Guidelines for Implementing the Indian Child Welfare Act, December 2016, which can be found at https://www.bia.gov/bia/ois/dhs/icwa or https://www.westlaw.com/Browse/Home/AdministrativeDecisionsGuidance/FederalAdministrative-DecisionsGuidance/DepartmentoftheInterior/GuidelinesforImplementingtheIndianChildWelfareAct?contextData=(sc. Default)&transitionType=Default&VR=3.0&RS=cblt1.0. The guidelines further clarify the meaning of both the Indian Child Welfare Act and the regulations. For your convenience and reference, we provide as follows the table of contents to inform you of the contents of the guidelines.

Purpose of These Guidelines........................................ 4

Context for ICWA, the Regulations, and These Guidelines.................................................. 5

A. General Provisions........................................................ 7

A.1 Federal ICWA and ICWA regulations and other Federal and State law.......................................... 7

A.2 Tribal-State ICWA agreements............................. 7

A. 3 Considerations in providing access to State court ICWA proceedings...................................... 8

B. Applicability & Verification.......................................... 9

B. 1 Determining whether the child is an "Indian child" under ICWA.............................................. 9

B.2 Determining whether ICWA applies.................. 12

B.3 Determining which requirements apply based on type of proceeding........................................ 15

B.4 Identifying the Tribe.......................................... 18

B.5 Identifying the Tribe when there is more than one Tribe........................................................... 18

B.6 Contacting the Tribe.......................................... 19

B.7 Verifying Tribal membership.............................. 20

B. 8 Facilitating Tribal membership.......................... 22

C. Emergency Proceedings............................................... 23

C. 1 Emergency proceedings in the ICWA context.............................................................. 23

C.2 Threshold for removal on an emergency basis.................................................................. 23

C.3 Standards and processes for emergency proceedings....................................................... 24

C.4 Contents of petition for...