The Court of Appeal agreed with appellant that despite the significant efforts undertaken to comply with the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the juvenile court and the Health and the Human Services Agency did not fully satisfy their duty of inquiry under the ICWA. The record did not reflect that the Agency inquired of several relatives who were specifically identified as likely to have additional ICWA information. Additionally, the Agency did not provide the tribes with father’s birth name and mistakenly reported that father’s birth name was unknown. This omission is particularly significant since father’s Indian ancestry was known to flow from his biological family, not his adoptive family. Thus, this error by omission in the information provided to the tribes resulted in a failure of substantial evidence to support the finding that the Agency complied with its duty under the ICWA.

The orders terminating parental rights were conditionally reversed and the matter remanded for the limited purpose of complying with the inquiry and notice provisions of the ICWA.