Following pressure from several Alaska Native groups, the Walker administration has issued an emergency regulation designed to ease burdens on Alaska Natives hoping to adopt Native children.
The
regulation, issued Wednesday, comes in response to concerns that
current state requirements pose barriers to Native families seeking to
adopt, particularly those in remote settings with limited access to
state courts.
Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska
Federation of Natives, applauded Walker’s willingness to listen and dig
into challenging issues. She said he met the Native community “more than
halfway.”
“You’re seeing a new sensitivity and
understanding by the governor that there are very complex issues
there and that Alaska Natives have very strong views on things that
affect Native children and their communities,” she said. “What’s new
here is he’s taking this extra effort to understand what people are
talking about as opposed to battling it out in court.”
The emergency regulation, an idea the AFN organization came up with, will immediately protect at least 200 children, Kitka said.
The
regulation came with an adoption order signed by state Health
Commissioner Valerie Davidson with filing certification by Lt. Gov.
Byron Mallott. It became effective Wednesday.
The state
currently requires that families file for adoption in a state court, a
requirement that was “sufficiently challenging,” particularly in rural
Alaska, said an emergency finding associated with the regulation. It
placed an obstacle between Native foster children in state care and
families hoping to adopt under the Indian Child Welfare Act.
“For
example: Child In Need of Aid proceedings, the proceedings by which
children in the custody of (the state health department) may be freed
for adoption, are confidential; filing a petition to adopt a Native
child requires the assistance of a lawyer; the majority of rural
Alaskans and low-income Alaskans do not have access to a lawyer; in
rural Alaska, limited access to computers, printers, reliable internet
service, and the lack of Native-language court forms further limit
access to the courts,” said the finding.
The development
stems from a state Supreme Court decision made in September in Native
Village of Tununak v. State, a case brought in 2011 involving a woman
from that Southwest village who wished to adopt her young granddaughter.
The
state had said the woman never formally filed to adopt her, though she
had taken several steps to do so, including expressing her intentions in
a courtroom hearing as state officials had instructed, said her
attorney, Jim Davis of Alaska Legal Services.
The state
court’s decision, citing a U.S. Supreme Court case, said a formal filing
or a proxy was required, Davis said. Yet the state had not defined the
steps needed to satisfy a proxy.
The new emergency regulations say a proxy can consist of
the request of a relative, tribal member or other Indian family
interested in immediate placement and adoption of a child at any court
hearing in the Child in Need of Aid matter; the request of a relative,
tribal member or other Indian family interested in immediate placement
and adoption of a child, conveyed to the department by phone, mail, fax,
electronic mail, or in person; or the request by the child's tribe or
tribe in which the child is eligible for enrollment to the department on
behalf of a relative or tribal member who the tribe has confirmed is
requesting immediate placement and adoption of a child.
Native
organizations, including AFN and the Tanana Chiefs Conference, had
petitioned Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott to urge the state
Supreme Court to reopen the case. The state’s deadline to respond was
Wednesday and Davis said he had not seen what the state intended to do.
But he said the emergency regulations are a “huge” improvement.
“Whether
it fixes all the problems, time will tell, but it’s certainly a very
positive step that AFN and the governor took relatively quickly,” he
said. “They and commissioner Davidson put their heads together and said,
‘How do we make things right so Native kids are not left in limbo for
years?’ ”
The finding notes most children in state foster
care are Alaska Native or American Indian. About 525 of those 1,500
Native or Indian children will achieve permanency through adoption, it
notes.
“There is an immediate need to improve access to the
formal adoption process” for those children and Native families, the
regulation says. The longer they wait, the more likelihood there is that
trauma will occur to the children.
“Placement with a
relative or a tribal member for purposes of adoption allows for the
child to grow up with the necessary familial and cultural connections to
reduce this trauma. For those children who will ultimately find
permanency through adoption, their best interests are served by adoptive
placement in homes that reflect the unique values of Native culture:
ICWA-preferred adoptive placements,” the finding notes.
Davidson, reached Friday, said she could not comment.
Kitka, Davidson, Mallott and the governor are scheduled to appear at a live-streamed press conference Thursday morning at 10:30 in the Capitol building in Juneau to discuss the emergency regulations.
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