Opinion ID: 1172030
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: placement preference

Text: Section 1915(b) requires that in a foster care or preadoptive placement determination the child should be placed, in the absence of good cause to the contrary, with: (i) a member of the Indian child's extended family; (ii) a foster home licensed, approved or specified by the child's tribe; (iii) an Indian foster home licensed or approved by an authorized non-Indian licensing authority; or (iv) an institution for children approved by an Indian tribe or operated by an Indian organization which has a program suitable to meet the Indian child's needs. [24] The statutory norm was originally followed in this case when N.L. was placed with his maternal grandmother. The district court did not make an explicit finding as to why the court did not continue to follow statutory placement preferences when it changed custody from the maternal grandmother to the Huddlestons. Because the trial court's dispositional decision is fatally infirm, on remand it should determine if there was sufficient reason to reach for placement purposes outside the statute's preferences. The court should consider that the good cause' exception in § 1915, as with the issue of transfer to a tribal court (see Part V infra ), was designed to allow state courts flexibility in rendering an Indian child custody decision. [25] If the child's best interests are served by a placement outside of the statutory preferences, then that placement should be upheld.