Opinion ID: 1041538
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Iris Is Taken Into OCS’s Custody In June 2010.

Text: Claudio has twice been convicted and incarcerated for manslaughter — from April 1994 to November 2004, and from January 2006 to the present. In the 1 Pseudonyms are used throughout to protect the privacy of the parties. 2 AS 47.70.010-.080. -2- 6827 interim he fathered a child, Iris, with Sandy.3 Claudio was in prison in May 2006, when Iris was born. He expects to be released in 2015 or 2016. Iris has twice been in OCS’s custody. The first time, beginning in 2008, was due to Sandy’s problems with substance abuse and her neglect of Iris. OCS referred Sandy to substance abuse treatment, which she successfully completed. Iris was returned to Sandy in 2009, and the OCS case was closed. In early 2010 OCS began receiving reports about Sandy and her children.4 In June 2010, after Sandy was arrested for DUI, she voluntarily placed Iris and Dolores into State custody. At Sandy’s request OCS placed the children with the Normans, licensed foster parents who had cared for Iris during her earlier time in OCS’s custody. Sandy had a close relationship with the Normans, who were present at the birth of her children and who had adopted a close relative of Sandy’s. B. OCS Makes Reunification Efforts Primarily For Sandy; Claudio Participates In Services While Incarcerated. OCS’s efforts before 2012 were directed mainly at Sandy. OCS referred Sandy to Tanana Chiefs Conference Behavioral Health Service for an assessment, it referred her to Ralph Perdue Center and to Fairbanks Native Association for case management services, it set her up to participate in urinalysis testing, it assisted her in obtaining housing, it referred her to parenting classes at the Resource Center for Parents and Children family reunification program, and it offered to transport her from Minto to Fairbanks for visits with her daughters. 3 Iris is an Indian child for purposes of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). 25 U.S.C. §§ 1901-1963 (2006). She and Sandy are members of the Native Village of Minto. 4 In March 2010 Sandy had a second daughter, Dolores. -3- 6827 OCS did not offer many services to Claudio. Social worker William Downes testified that providing services to Claudio was difficult because of his incarceration. Downes testified that he was unable to call Claudio or send emails to him in prison. He stated that during case review meetings that Claudio attended telephonically, he stressed to Claudio the importance of communicating with OCS. However, Claudio never initiated communications. While incarcerated, Claudio participated in a program offered by the Department of Corrections that, according to Claudio, addressed anger management and thinking errors. OCS facilitated contact between Iris and Claudio, although actual visits did not occur until late in the case. Downes testified that he began contact slowly, by means of letters, cards, and pictures, because of bonding issues that Iris had exhibited. He testified that as the case progressed his supervisor directed him to “get going on” implementing visitation between Iris and Claudio. In the months leading up to the termination trial, OCS facilitated three in-person visits between Iris and Claudio at the Palmer Correctional Center. The visits, which were paid for by OCS, occurred monthly. Downes testified that arranging visits for Iris at Palmer was difficult because the visits took a full day for the child, who lived in Fairbanks, involved plane travel, and required that a familiar adult accompany her. C. Claudio’s Mother Requests Placement But Does Not Acquire Stable Housing Until January 2012. Claudio’s mother, Celina, retired from her job and left Alaska in August 2010. She did not learn that Iris had been removed from Sandy’s custody until October or November 2010. In summer 2011 Celina temporarily returned to Alaska, where she stayed with her daughter in Fairbanks and worked in Livengood. The record does not indicate that she requested placement at the time, and, in any event, her daughter’s home -4- 6827 was not large enough to accommodate Iris and Dolores.5 OCS provided Celina with inperson visits with the girls during this time but Celina’s unpredictable work schedule made organizing visits difficult. Telephone visits were not possible at Celina’s workplace. At some point during the summer or fall, Celina left Alaska, moving briefly to Arizona, where she house-sat, and then, in September 2011, to Texas. In January 2012 she bought a house in Texas. Celina had told OCS that she did not want a home study done for Iris until she acquired stable housing, but she stated that she would be willing to care for Iris. In March 2012, after learning that Celina had obtained stable housing, OCS requested an ICPC home study to investigate whether Iris and Dolores could safely be placed with her. Texas approved the placement in July 2012 and forwarded a favorable report to OCS the following month, shortly before the trial on the petition to terminate Claudio’s parental rights. D. Sandy Announces Her Intention To Relinquish Her Parental Rights; Claudio Provides OCS With Suggestions For Placement. In late August 2011 Sandy stated that she intended to relinquish her parental rights to her daughters. Claudio then provided his attorney with names of relatives, including his mother and his siblings, whom he suggested as placement options. Celina was not then available for placement, as she had yet to acquire stable housing. Downes testified that when he received the names of Claudio’s suggested placements, he contacted Claudio’s sister in October 2011 and his brother in January 2012. Claudio’s father, Paulo, testified that Claudio first told him that Iris was in OCS’s custody in October 2011. That month, Downes contacted Paulo and he initiated 5 OCS’s policy is to place siblings together, whenever possible, in order to maintain their sibling bond. -5- 6827 an ICPC home study for Paulo’s family in South Dakota. OCS had just received the positive result of the home study at the time the termination trial began. In addition to visits with Claudio, OCS facilitated weekly visits, initially by telephone and later by video conferencing, between Iris and Paulo’s family. At the time of the termination trial, OCS intended to set up an in-person visit. It appears that OCS also intended to facilitate visits with Celina, but for reasons not apparent in the record, those visits did not occur. At the time of the termination trial Iris’s permanent placement had yet to be determined. The trial court noted that her permanent placement would be decided in future proceedings. E. The Trial Court Terminates Claudio’s Parental Rights To Iris. In March 2012 OCS filed a petition to terminate Sandy’s and Claudio’s parental rights to Iris. Sandy then relinquished her rights. In August 2012 a termination trial was held with respect to Claudio’s rights. Witnesses included Claudio, Paulo, Celina, and Downes, as well as Cynthia Bridgman, a clinical therapist who had provided services to Iris, and who testified as an expert in evaluating and providing therapeutic services to children who have experienced trauma and to children who have relationship and adjustment disorders. The Native Village of Minto intervened in the case in October 2010, and participated in the trial. On November 29, 2012, the trial court issued an order terminating Claudio’s parental rights. The court found Iris to be a child in need of aid under AS 47.10.080(o) and AS 47.10.011(2), (6), and (8).6 The court found that Claudio had not 6 AS 47.10.080(o) and AS 47.10.011(2) allow a court to find a child to be in need of aid based on her parent’s incarceration. AS 47.10.011(6) allows a court to find a child to be in need of aid based on the child’s having been physically harmed or placed (continued...) -6- 6827 remedied the conduct that placed Iris at risk of harm, that OCS had made active but unsuccessful efforts to provide services to prevent the breakup of the Indian family, that Claudio’s continued custody of Iris would likely result in Iris suffering serious emotional or physical damage, and that termination of Claudio’s parental rights was in Iris’s best interests. Claudio appealed, challenging the trial court’s findings that Iris is a child in need of aid, that OCS made active efforts to provide services to prevent the family’s breakup, and that termination of his parental rights was in Iris’s best interests.