Legislation to streamline legal proceedings for children in foster care, and also offering strategies to improve the child welfare system was signed into law in Anchorage on July 26 by Gov. Bill Walker.
House Bill 200, sponsored by Walker, is designed to correct and minimize recent legal barriers that were put in place for families interested in adopting Alaska Native children, following the U.S. Supreme Court Baby Girl Veronica decision and the Tununak litigation in the Alaska Supreme Court.
The 2013 Baby Girl Veronica decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court held that several sections of the Indian Child Welfare Act do not apply to Native American biological fathers who are not custodians of an Indian child. The court found that procedures required by the ICWA to end parental rights do not apply when the child has never lived with the father.
In the 2015 Tununak case the Alaska Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision in which a Native child identified as “Baby Dawn” was permanently placed into a non-Native home. While the child’s grandmother said she wanted to adopt, the state said that the grandmother never filed a formal petition for the adoption. In addition, the state Office of Children’s Services found issues with her home, including that some others at the home had criminal records.
HB 200 also helps to more formally recognize and identify extended family members of children in care, and reduces barriers for family members, particularly those of a child covered under the Indian Child Welfare Act who want to preserve and have the court apply heir adoptive placement preference.
According to Health and Social Services Commissioner Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson, HB 200 will increase the number of Alaska children, especially Alaska Native children, who are able to be placed immediately and permanently, with their family, culture and traditions. The bill additionally creates a “one family-one judge” approach, in which all matters related to the child and the family are consolidated to one judge.
HB 27, the Child Protection and Opportunity Act, sponsored by Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, mandates that the Office of Children’s Services have an active and ongoing effort to recruit for foster and adoptive parents when shortages exist, aligning Alaska statute with the federal mandate which calls for “diligent recruitment.”
HB 27 includes additional requirements on the Department of Health and Social Services when making placement decisions and mandates that DHSS continue to search for suitable adoptive or permanent legal guardianship for a child in custody who is under 21 years of age.
The legislation changes the age and requires consent for a person of 19 or older to be released from DHSS’s custody, adds dormitory placements to the statute as a legal placement option, important for youth ready for higher education.
HB 27 further makes changes to statues governing the confidentiality of departmental records and changes the procedure for releasing a youth from state custody.
