Opinion ID: 2383020
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: OCS's failure to assign a second caseworker to Dale in Anchorage and Dale's further efforts on his case plan

Text: In February 2009 Tullar requested that OCS assign a secondary social worker in Anchorage to Dale. Dale was not assigned one, and in April or May 2009 Tullar resubmitted her request. Dale was never assigned a secondary social worker in Anchorage; Tullar became Dale's de facto secondary social worker, seeing him at least once a month in conjunction with his visits with Charlie. After Dale got back in contact with OCS in November 2008, Tullar informed him that he still needed to complete a state-approved domestic violence intervention program. Although Tullar was in charge of coordinating Dale's visits with Charlie, she did not assist Dale in identifying a program that would satisfy his case plan because she did not have specific knowledge regarding what domestic violence programs were available in Anchorage. Because OCS did not assign him a secondary social worker, Dale went to the Alaska Native Justice Center (ANJC) for assistance finding an appropriate domestic violence class. The ANJC informed Dale that it had a twelve-week state-approved anger management course that started in March 2009. Dale signed up for this course in February and informed Tullar that he was enrolled. In May 2009 the ANJC course was disbanded because of low enrollment. Dale then contacted the Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC), where he enrolled in an emotion management class and a parenting class. Dale informed Tullar that he was enrolled in classes at the CITC, and faxed release forms so that the CITC could provide OCS with information about his participation and receive information about Dale from OCS. CITC never received Dale's information. At the time of trial, Dale had completed an eight-week parenting class and was in the middle of the emotion management class. OCS testified that both the ANJC and the CITC programs were not state-approved domestic violence intervention programs and did not meet the requirements of Dale's case plan. Dale also would have been informed of the difference between a state-approved domestic violence intervention program and an anger management program when he attended the LEAP alternatives to violence orientation and the ABC orientation.