![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.gif)
The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was passed in 1978 to prevent unnecessary removals of Indian children from their families and, when removal was necessary, promote expedient permanency options that maintained connection to family, Tribe, and culture. Some states demonstrated their commitment to ICWA practice by passing statutes that enhance ICWA practice standards and state level rulemaking. One such statute (Nebraska, 2015) articulates the most rigorous practice standards for active efforts and placement preference in the country.
This study, using heterogeneous treatment effects and treatment-effects survival analysis, examines whether the statute changed both routes to discharge (reunification, guardianship, adoption, transfer to another agency) out of foster care and average length of time to discharge for Indian children.
Subjects and Method
This analysis used an AFCARS event history compiled dataset of all American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) children in Nebraska (n=1277) from FFY 2014-2018. To be included, the child’s case either closed before the statute took effect (7/1/2015) or opened after 7/1/2015 and closed by 9/30/2018. This reduced the analysis to 777 children, 401 whose cases closed before 7/1/2015 and 376 whose cases closed after 7/1/2015. Based on research indicating that children identified as AIAN only are more likely to receive ICWA-congruent services, these 777 children were further divided into AIAN only (n=486) and AIAN Multiracial (n=291). Theoretically, every child should have triggered an ICWA Notice to a Tribe; however, it is unknown how many of these children are ICWA-protected.
The average treatment effects on the treated (ATET) and the treatment-effect survival analyses were calculated in STATA 15 using inverse probability-weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA). Each subpopulation was analyzed separately; when the etregress command was used to back-check using subpopulation as a moderator, the parsimony test indicated the need to separate AIAN only and AIAN multiracial children in analyses.
Results
Treatment effects were only found for AIAN-only children. While there was no evidence the statute improved reunification discharge rates, AIAN-only children were less likely to discharge to adoption and the observed treatment effect was large (ATET=.54). They were also less likely to discharge to guardianship, a problematic finding given kin guardianship is a promoted pathway to permanency in Nebraska. Finally, AIAN-only children were more likely to be discharged through transfer, which may indicate transfer to Tribal jurisdiction – and thus out of AFCARS but still in care. Survival analyses indicate that length of removal episode for AIAN-only children shortened by 130-159 days after statute passage, depending on the reason for discharge.
Discussion
Findings demonstrate that the Nebraska ICWA law has affected Indian children’s discharge from foster care and may be selective for Tribal citizens in state custody. It is unclear what explains these results, but one possible mechanism may be the statute’s active efforts and placement language. However, due to a lack of direct ICWA data, it is unknown what was implemented to cause this change. Any analysis of ICWA compliance should include case record reviews whenever possible.