DILIGENT SEARCH
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Effective immediately, the following changes and procedures will be used in identifying and tracking suspected Indian children who need to be entered into the system showing that the child(ren) are inDHS's care and that verification of Indian status needs to be obtained as soon as possible.
CHANGE: For FACIS entry, a new code has been selected to identify suspected Indian children of which a diligent search is underway for determining whether ICWA protections apply or not. The new "Search Underway" (9999) selection, listed alphabetically, indicates that SCF is processing a diligent search towards the determination of whether the child(ren) are eligible for enrollment or not. This code should be used in combination with the ICWA code ("I" code) and will allow us to track these cases until the determination is made.
We are in the process of setting up a report, available by Mobius, that will show us these cases by branch as these cases should not have a "Search Underway" (9999) selection for more than 60 days.
PROCEDURE:
- When there is reason to believe that a child may be Indian you will need
to go to the "Ethnicity" field and enter an "I" for American Indian or Alaskan
Native. To do this click on the "Edit Members" button at the bottom of the
Case Notebook, Members tab.
- Go to the "ICWA" field and enter "Yes".
- If there is no proof of the child's enrollment, or prior history in the
child's file validating ICWA, the "Tribal Name" field should be marked "Search
Underway" (9999) selection, listed alphabetically, until identification of
the Tribe and ICWA has been verified.
- Upon completion of the search, the Branch will need to go back and change the case record as follows:
ICWA APPLIES: |
Change the "Search Underway" (9999) selection, listed alphabetically, in the "Tribal Name" field by selecting the specific Tribe to which the child is enrolled. |
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ICWA RULED OUT: |
Change the "ICWA" field from "YES" to "NO" and change the "Tribal Name" field to the "Non-Recognized Tribe" (9995) selection, listed alphabetically. |