Subdivision 1.Active efforts.

Active efforts includes acknowledging traditional helping and healing systems of an Indian child’s Tribe and using these systems as the core to help and heal the Indian child and family. Active efforts are not required to prevent voluntary out-of-home placement and to effect voluntary permanency for the Indian child.

Subd. 2.Requirements for child-placing agencies and individual petitioners.

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A child-placing agency or individual petitioner shall:

(1) work with the Indian child’s Tribe and family to develop an alternative plan to out-of-home placement;

(2) before making a decision that may affect an Indian child’s safety and well-being or when contemplating out-of-home placement of an Indian child, seek guidance from the Indian child’s Tribe on family structure, how the family can seek help, what family and Tribal resources are available, and what barriers the family faces at that time that could threaten its preservation; and

(3) request participation of the Indian child’s Tribe at the earliest possible time and request the Tribe’s active participation throughout the case.

Subd. 3.Required findings that active efforts were provided.

(a) Any party seeking to affect a termination of parental rights, other permanency action, or a placement where custody of an Indian child may be temporarily or permanently transferred to a person or entity who is not the Indian child’s parent or Indian custodian, and where the Indian child’s parent or Indian custodian cannot have the Indian child returned to their care upon demand, must satisfy the court that active efforts have been made to provide remedial services and rehabilitative programs designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian family and that these efforts have proved unsuccessful.

(b) A court shall not order an out-of-home or permanency placement for an Indian child unless the court finds that the child-placing agency made active efforts to, as required by section 260.012 and this section, provide remedial services and rehabilitative programs designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian child’s family, and that these efforts have proved unsuccessful. To the extent possible, active efforts must be provided in a manner consistent with the prevailing social and cultural conditions of the Indian child’s Tribe and in partnership with the Indian child, Indian parents, extended family, and Tribe.

(c) Regardless of whether the Indian child’s Tribe has intervened in the proceedings, the court, in determining whether the child-placing agency made active efforts to preserve the Indian child’s family for purposes of out-of-home placement and permanency, shall ensure the provision of active efforts designed to correct the conditions that led to the out-of-home placement of the Indian child and shall make findings regarding whether the following activities were appropriate and necessary, and whether the child-placing agency made appropriate and meaningful services, whether listed in this paragraph or not, available to the family based upon that family’s specific needs:

(1) whether the child-placing agency made efforts at the earliest point possible to (i) identify whether a child may be an Indian child as defined in section 260.755, subdivision 8; and (ii) identify and request participation of the Indian child’s Tribe at the earliest point possible and throughout the investigation or assessment, case planning, provision of services, and case completion;

(2) whether the child-placing agency requested that a Tribally designated representative with substantial knowledge of prevailing social and cultural standards and child-rearing practices within the Tribal community evaluate the circumstances of the Indian child’s family, provided the Tribally designated representative with all information available regarding the case, and requested that the Tribally designated representative assist in developing a case plan that uses Tribal and Indian community resources;

(3) whether the child-placing agency provided concrete services and access to both Tribal and non-Tribal services to members of the Indian child’s family, including but not limited to financial assistance, food, housing, health care, transportation, in-home services, community support services, and specialized services; and whether these services are being provided in an ongoing manner throughout the agency’s involvement with the family, to directly assist the family in accessing and utilizing services to maintain the Indian family, or reunify the Indian family as soon as safety can be assured if out-of-home placement has occurred;

(4) whether the child-placing agency made early and ongoing efforts to identify, locate, and include extended family members;

(5) whether the child-placing agency notified and consulted with the Indian child’s extended family members, as identified by the child, the child’s parents, or the Tribe; whether extended family members were consulted to provide support to the child and parents, to inform the child-placing agency and court as to cultural connections and family structure, to assist in identifying appropriate cultural services and supports for the child and parents, and to identify and serve as a placement and permanency resource for the child; and if there was difficulty contacting or engaging with extended family members, whether assistance was sought from the Tribe, the Department of Human Services, or other agencies with expertise in working with Indian families;

(6) whether the child-placing agency provided services and resources to relatives who are considered the primary placement option for an Indian child, as agreed by the child-placing agency and the Tribe, to overcome barriers to providing care to an Indian child. Services and resources shall include but are not limited to child care assistance, financial assistance, housing resources, emergency resources, and foster care licensing assistance and resources; and

(7) whether the child-placing agency arranged for visitation to occur, whenever possible, in the home of the Indian child’s parent, Indian custodian, or other family member or in another noninstitutional setting, in order to keep the child in close contact with parents, siblings, and other relatives regardless of the child’s age and to allow the child and those with whom the child visits to have natural, unsupervised interaction when consistent with protecting the child’s safety; and whether the child-placing agency consulted with a Tribal representative to determine and arrange for visitation in the most natural setting that ensures the child’s safety, when the child’s safety requires supervised visitation.