Department of Human Services v. W. H. F.

295 P.3d 78, 254 Or. App. 298, 2012 WL 6608135, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 1527
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 19, 2012
DocketJ0703401; J0703402; A150794
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 295 P.3d 78 (Department of Human Services v. W. H. F.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Department of Human Services v. W. H. F., 295 P.3d 78, 254 Or. App. 298, 2012 WL 6608135, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 1527 (Or. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

SCHUMAN, P. J.

In Dept. of Human Services v. W. F., 240 Or App 443, 247 P3d 329 (2011), this court reversed a juvenile court judgment that continued a permanency plan of adoption for father’s five-year-old son, S, for the reason that the judgment did not include certain statutorily required determinations. On remand, the juvenile court made the appropriate determinations and once again continued the permanency plan of adoption. The court also ordered the filing of a termination petition. Father appeals once again. We affirm.1

The facts are largely undisputed. S and mother are members of the King Island Native Community Tribe in Alaska, so this case is subject to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Father began a sexual relationship with mother when she was 14 years old and he was 33, and mother became pregnant with S as a result. Mother was a ward of the State of Alaska at that time and had run away from foster care. S was born on June 15, 2007. DHS took custody of S, who is now five years old, in August 2007, and he has been in foster care since that time.

Father was arrested in August 2007 and pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor, arising out of his sexual relationship with mother. With the exception of approximately one month during April and May of 2008, father has been serving time in a Wyoming correctional facility since his arrest in 2007.2 At the time of the hearing, he was in a re-entry facility with a projected release to occur some time between 2013 and January 2016. He is allowed to work in the community under supervision of a parole officer.

The permanency plan for S has been adoption since December 2008. S’s first potential adoptive placement fell through when the foster parents divorced. S has been with his current foster family since September 2011. The potential [301]*301adoptive father is an Indian tribal member, although not of the same tribe as S.

As noted, the judgment currently on appeal continues adoption as the permanency plan for S.3 Father requests [302]*302that we exercise our discretion under ORS 19.415(3) to review the juvenile court’s ruling de novo, “at least with regard to the ICWA issues in order to determine the facts that apply to this case.” We decline to do so, as this is not an exceptional case. ORAP 5.40(8)(c) (court will review record de novo “only in exceptional cases”). In any event, as noted, the facts are largely undisputed and the dispositive issues are legal.

In his first assignment of error, father asserts that, in continuing the permanency plan of adoption, the juvenile court erred by failing to require DHS to show “active efforts” to provide remedial services and rehabilitative programs designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian family. The state responds that, in the context of the permanency phase of a dependency proceeding, when, as here, the permanency plan at the time of the hearing is not reunification but adoption, the “active efforts” requirement set out in ORS 419B.476(2)(a) does not apply. That requirement applies only when the permanency plan is reunification. In this situation, DHS is required to make only “reasonable efforts” to find an adoptive placement. Father counters that each time a placement is changed for an Indian child, the state must show that it has made active efforts to provide remedial services and rehabilitative programs designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian family.

The state’s position is correct. ORS 419B.476(2) provides, in part:

“At a permanency hearing the court shall:

“(a) If the case plan at the time of the hearing is to reunify the family, determine whether the Department of Human Services has made reasonable efforts or, if the Indian Child Welfare Act applies, active efforts to make it possible for the ward to safely return home and whether the parent has made sufficient progress to make it possible for the ward to safely return home. In making its determination, the court shall consider the ward’s health and safety the paramount concerns.
“(b) If the case plan at the time of the hearing is something other than to reunify the family, determine whether the department has made reasonable efforts to [303]*303place the ward in a timely manner in accordance with the plan, including, if appropriate, reasonable efforts to place the ward through an interstate placement, and to complete the steps necessary to finalize the permanent placement.”

(Emphasis added.) Thus, in the permanency phase of a dependency case, the requirement for active efforts under ICWA applies only when the case plan at the time of the hearing is to reunify the family. ORS 419B.476(2)(a). See Dept. of Human Services v. T. C. A., 251 Or App 407, 413, 283 P3d 956 (2012) (provisions of ORS 419B.476(2)(a) apply only when case plan at time of hearing is reunification). When, as here, the case plan at the time of hearing was not reunification, the active efforts standard set forth in ORS 419B.476(2)(a) does not apply.

To the extent that father is arguing that, irrespective of the requirements of ORS 419B.476(2)(a), ICWA itself requires a showing of “active efforts” at this procedural stage, we note that that was not the argument father made below. In any event, we reject it. ICWA provides, in part:

“Any party seeking to effect a foster care placement of, or termination of parental rights to, an Indian child under State law shall satisfy the court that active efforts have been made to provide remedial services and rehabilitate programs designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian family and that these efforts have proved unsuccessful.”

25 USC § 1912(d). Under the statute, evidence of active efforts to provide specific services and programs for a parent is required only when a party is seeking to effect a “foster care placement” or termination of parental rights. It is undisputed that, although the hearing at issue in this case called for the initiation of a termination proceeding in the future, the permanency hearing itself is not a termination proceeding. Nor is it a proceeding to “effect a foster placement.” Under ICWA, a “foster care placement” is defined as

“any action removing an Indian child from its parents or Indian custodian for temporary placement in a foster home * * * where the parent * * * cannot have the child returned upon demand, but where parental rights have not been terminated.”

[304]*30425 USC § 1903(l)(i). Here, no party sought to remove S from his parents.

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Bluebook (online)
295 P.3d 78, 254 Or. App. 298, 2012 WL 6608135, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 1527, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/department-of-human-services-v-w-h-f-orctapp-2012.