Active Efforts Defined; Required – If a child is determined to be a Native American

Active Efforts Defined; Required – If a child is determined to be a Native American child, Active Efforts to keep the child in the home are required. Active Efforts means: affirmative, active, thorough, and timely efforts that are intended primarily to maintain or reunite and Indian Child with his or her family. To the maximum extent possible, Active Efforts will be provided in a manner consistent with the prevailing social and cultural conditions and way of life of the Indian Child’s Tribe and will be conducted in partnership with the Indian Child, parents, extended family members, Indian custodians, and Tribe. Active Efforts applies to both remedial and rehabilitative in-home services to the family prior to the removal of a Native American child from his or her parent or Native American custodian, and/or an intensive effort to reunify a Native American child with his or her parent or Native American custodian. Active efforts will involve assisting the parent or parents or Indian custodian through the steps of a case plan and with accessing or developing the resources necessary to satisfy the case plan. Active efforts will be tailored to the facts and circumstances of the case and may include: 1. Conducting a comprehensive assessment of the circumstances of the Indian Child’s family, with a focus on safe reunification as the most desirable goal; 2. Identifying appropriate services and helping the parents to overcome barriers, including actively assisting the parents in obtaining such services; 3. Identifying, notifying, and inviting representatives of the Indian Child’s Tribe to participate in providing support and services to the Indian Child’s family and in family team meetings, permanency planning, and resolution of placement issues; 4. Conducting or causing to be conducted a diligent search for the Indian Child’s extended family members, and contacting and consulting with extended family members to provide family structure and support for the Indian Child and the Indian Child’s parents; 5. Offering and employing all available and culturally appropriate family preservation strategies and facilitating the use of remedial and rehabilitative services provided by the child’s Tribe; 6. Taking steps to keep siblings together whenever possible; 7. Supporting regular visits with parents or Indian custodians in the most natural setting possible as well as trial home visits of the Indian Child during any period of removal, consistent with the need to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the child; 8. Identifying community resources including housing, financial, transportation, mental health, substance abuse, and peer support services and actively assisting the Indian child’s parents or, when appropriate, the child’s family, in utilizing and accessing those resources; 9. Monitoring progress and participation in services; 10. Considering alternative ways to address the needs of the Indian child’s parents and, where appropriate, the family, if the optimum services do not exist or are not available; 11. Providing post-reunification services and monitoring; 12. Any other activities or services as deemed appropriate or necessary by MDCPS staff, policies and procedures.