Changes at OCS:

Part 1: Transforming Child Welfare Outcomes for Alaska Native Children -Casey Groat

Part 2: OCS Centralized Intake -Lindsay Bothe

5 OCS REGIONS

229 FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED TRIBES

MOST ALASKA NATIVE FAMILIES ARE HEALTHY

• Less than 2% of the Alaska Native population is served by the Office of Children’s Services

• Ted Talk – The danger of a single story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie▫ A single story is created when society shows a group

of people as one thing and as only one thing, over and over again. This creates and perpetuates stereotypes and makes one story the only story. Don’t buy into the single story of Alaska Native People.

RACIAL DISPROPORTIONALITY DATA

As of September 25, 2017 - -

• 2,921 Alaskan children in OCS custody

• 1,738 of which are Alaska Native/American Indian

Disproportionality Rate = 60%

PREFERENCE PLACEMENTS DATA

• 1,480 Alaska Native Children are in Out-of-Home placement

▫ 769 (52%) are in First Preference Placement with Extended Family

▫ 431 (29%) are in Out-of-Preference Placement

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Statewide ICWA Coordinator Position• ICWA Specialists Positions in each OCS Region• Tribal Title IV-E Program Coordinator Position• Tribal-State Co-Facilitated ICWA Trainings• Tribal Representatives on Court Improvement

Project• Tribal Inclusion in Key Hiring and Policy Making

Decisions• Tribal Title IV–E Administrative and Short Term

Training Agreements (11)• Tribal Title IV-E Pass Through Maintenance

Agreements (2)• Undoing Racism and KWYA

KNOWING WHO YOU ARE AK

• Bethel:▫ October 25-26, 2017 ▫ April 12-13, 2018

• Juneau: ▫ November 7-8, 2017 ▫ Late January or early

February 2018• Dillingham:▫ November 14-16, 2017

• Palmer/Wasilla:▫ May 2018

• Anchorage:▫ October 25-26, 2017 ▫ January 9-10, 2018▫ April 10-11, 2018

• Nome: ▫ October 31-November 1▫ November 4-5, 2017

• Fairbanks:▫ January 25-26, 2018▫ April 26-27, 2018▫ August 23-24, 2018

THE TIMING IS RIGHT…• June 2014▫ Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on American

Indian/Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence held hearings in Anchorage and listening sessions in Bethel, Napaskiak, and Emmonak

• November 2014▫ Governor Bill Walker and Lt. Governor Byron Mallott

are elected on a historical ‘unity ticket’• December 2014 ▫ Valerie Davidson is appointed Commissioner of the

Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS)• February 2015▫ BIA published updated ICWA guidelines

• March 2015 ▫ BIA published new proposed ICWA regulations

COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF 2016-2020 STRATEGIC PLAN• March 2015 ▫ Tribal and State partners convene to develop an ICWA

Taskforce • May 2015 ▫ Alaska Native Conversations that Matter on the Well-Being of

Our Children stakeholder convening is held • December 2015 ▫ Casey Family Programs hires the Clarus Consulting Group to

help facilitate the development of the plan • March 2016 ▫ Strategic planning work session held

FROM ‘COMPLIANCE” TO ‘VALUES DRIVEN’

© Clarus Consulting Group

ALASKA NATIVE CULTURE KEEPS ALASKA NATIVE CHILDREN SAFE

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES & 2017 FOCUS

• Respectful Government-to-Government Collaboration & Partnership

• Self-Governance• Embrace & Implement the

Spirit of ICWA• State Government

Alignment• Community Engagement • Continuum of Culturally

Specific Services & Supports

Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation

Tribal Self Governance

Tribal Consultation

Branding/Messaging and Education

PROXY FOR A FORMAL PETITION FOR ADOPTION OR LEGAL GUARDIANSHIP• Tununak II -Alaska Supreme Court ruled the Baby

Veronica decision required it to affirm the OOPP adoption of an Alaska Native child, reasoning neither the Tribe nor the grandmother filed a formal petition or ‘proxy’ to adopt the child

• Emergency Regulations issued defining what constitutes a ‘proxy for a formal petition for adoption’

• HB 200 reduces barriers and combines up to four legal proceedings under one judge’s purview

• Alaska State Statute 47.10.112• Diligent Search and Adoption Decision Tree

QUESTIONS?

Casey Groat Statewide ICWA Coordinator, OCS(907) 269-4035 casey.groat@alaska.gov