A petition alleging neglect or abuse shall not be filed unless the children's court attorney has determined and endorsed upon the petition that the filing of the petition is in the best interests of the child. The children's court attorney shall, upon request of a person authorizing the filing of a petition, furnish legal services in connection with the authorization and preparation of the petition and the representation of the petitioner if the petitioner so requests. History: 1978 Comp., § 32A-4-15, enacted by Laws 1993, ch. 77, § 109. Removal of an Indian child from the custody of their guardian requires a finding that active efforts designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian family have been made. — When a petition for abuse and neglect seeking removal of an Indian child from the custody of their parent or legal guardian is filed by CYFD, the district court must make findings required by the federal Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) at the adjudicatory hearing, including the finding that active efforts designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian family have been made. The ICWA regulations and the legislative history of ICWA require remedial active efforts be made prior to initiating a placement and must be designed to prevent having to take a child into state custody. The definition of active efforts focuses on the timeliness of those efforts, provides that they be directed to maintaining the Indian child with their family, or, if a separation has already occurred, reuniting the child with their family, and specifies that efforts be conducted, to the maximum extent possible, in partnership with the Indian child's tribe and extended family. Active assistance in utilizing, accessing, and overcoming barriers to services is required regardless of the stage of the proceedings, and to be effective, remedial efforts must be undertaken promptly upon referral to the agency for abuse or neglect. State ex rel. CYFD v. Eric E ., 2024-NMCA-026. The district court's finding that the active efforts required by the federal Indian Child Welfare Act were made by CYFD prior to taking the Indian child into involuntary state custody was not supported by substantial evidence. — The district court's finding that CYFD made the active efforts required by the federal Indian Child Welfare Act prior to taking the Indian child into involuntary state custody was not supported by substantial evidence where the record established that CYFD's efforts were not tailored to the goal of restoring the child to his parents, to his extended Indian family, or to his tribal community; CYFD failed to actively search for the child's father and prepare him to reunite with the child, it failed to contact and obtain assistance from the child's tribe, it failed to provide any assistance to the child's guardians in freeing the child for return to a parent or placement with an extended family member, and it offered no evidence to show that it had made active efforts to place the child in the treatment foster care recommended by the residential treatment center where the child had been placed. State ex rel. CYFD v. Eric E ., 2024-NMCA-026.
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