Background
A mother and her two children appealed permanency judgments in a consolidated juvenile dependency case governed by the federal Indian Child Welfare Act and the Oregon Indian Child Welfare Act. Each child qualified as an “Indian child” under those laws.
The juvenile court changed the children’s permanency plans from reunification to guardianship. The mother and children challenged the court’s determination that the Oregon Department of Human Services had made the statutorily required “active efforts” to reunify the family.
The Court’s Holding
The Oregon Court of Appeals held that DHS did not demonstrate active efforts and that the juvenile court therefore erred by changing the permanency plans away from reunification. DHS conceded the error, and the appellate court’s review of the record confirmed that the concession was well-taken.
Active efforts must be affirmative, active, thorough, timely, and intended to maintain or reunite an Indian child with the child’s family. They also must include assisting a parent through the steps of the case plan and with obtaining or developing the resources needed to satisfy it. Here, DHS’s assistance to the mother was fairly minimal and was not timed to help her through the case plan, so it did not meet that standard.
Key Takeaways
- DHS must prove active efforts before a juvenile court may change an Indian child’s permanency plan away from reunification.
- Minimal assistance that is not timely enough to help a parent complete the case plan does not qualify as active efforts.
- The court reversed the permanency judgments changing the plans from reunification to guardianship.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores that the active-efforts requirement demands practical, timely assistance to a parent, not merely limited agency involvement. In cases governed by ICWA and ORICWA, failure to satisfy that requirement prevents a permanency-plan change away from reunification.
This is a nonprecedential memorandum opinion under ORAP 10.30 and may be cited only as permitted by ORAP 10.30(1).