1 © h7 interactive, llc 2010 automated icwa compliance an introduction to: 28th annual...

1© H7 interactive, llc 2010

AYAZUTA.COMA u t o m a t e d I C WA C o m p l i a n c e

An Introduction To:

28th Annual "Protecting Our Children" National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect

From Opportunity to Reality: Honoring Our Dream

http://my.countrywide.com/Default.aspx






• The Dream• Practical Problems - Notice • Honoring the Dream• Introducing Ayazuta.com

• ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup• Automated ICWA Noticing

• Honoring the Dream • Current Status • Ayazuta Future

Content


The Dream

• Indian Tribes, People, and Traditions are fundamentally respected

Tribes have a right to exist

Tribes have a right to their history and traditions

Indian People have a right to pass those traditions forward to their children

Indian Tribes have a right to intervene when their children are being removed from their parents, separate from any parental rights

• When coming into contact with care agencies, the child has a right to:

Professional, diligent, involved, and documented investigation of their Indian heritage

To have requirements for Notice, Active Efforts and Placement Preferences systematically respected

Involvement of experts to ensure cultural appropriateness of actions

Proportionality and fairness


• Claims are mostly of historical Tribe membership rather than of Federally recognized tribal government, and many Tribes are not Federally recognized.

• There is poor Federal mapping of Historical to Federally recognized tribes.

• States may require all possible Tribes receive notice of all hearings, and one historical tribe could have 20 Federally recognized tribal governments.

• The Tribal ICWA contact address published in the Federal Register can be out of date.

• FACT 1 - This generates the bureaucratic nightmare of Case and Social Worker time spent administering Notices rather than supporting children

• FACT 2 - There is variable and in some cases poor compliance

• FACT 3 – BIA receives 20,000 notices per year, Los Angeles County reports it takes about 8 hours to notice a hearing, with 4-6 hearings per case per year plus countless hours and costs in appeals from failed noticing

• Assertion 1 – The process and paperwork are at the center of the system – not the child

• All of these issues work against the best interests of the Indian child

Practical Problems Notice


Honoring the Dream

The notice process, as is:

Difficult or impossible to comply

– Heavily paper based

– Poor audit trail

Largely manual

– Few if any supportive systems at a State or County level

– Time consuming, expensive, and fraught with the potential for error

– 8 hours average to produce notices for 1 hearing

Partial support from Federal Government

– Variable Federal to Historical Tribe mapping

– Aging of contact information

– Not responsible for noticing

Distrust between States, Counties and Tribes

– Poor statistics, measurement, analysis

– History

The process needs to be:

Compliant and Self Auditing

– Meeting Court and Tribe reporting requirements

Supportive of the Case and Social Worker

– All available information in one place and easy to use

– Fully Automated, with a target Notice production time of 8 minutes

– Fast, accurate, repeatable, with little potential for error

Nationally Available, up to date Data

– Maintained Federal Tribes to Historical Tribes, keyword and State mapping

– 6 Month review cycle

Trust based on Verification

– Statistics, Process measurement

– Consistent verifiable compliance


Introducing Ayazuta

www.ayazuta.com

1. ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup

• Live and being used

• Links…

• Illinois Administrative Office of the Courts

• NICWA

2. Automated ICWA Noticing

• Demo System

http://www.ayazuta.com/


A well defined verifiable process…

ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup

– Maps Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments

• Name, keyword, and State mapping in a single database

– Keeps Tribal contact data up to date

• Maintains the address published in the Federal Register

• Multiple contact points if appropriate, and ongoing validation of information


Tribal confirmation by an authorized representative…








Resolving issues with the Federal Register…








Serving an increasing number of users….








Tribal ICWA Contacts Database




• Problem – Mapping Historical Tribes to Federally recognized Tribal governments

• Ayazuta Solution – Public and free mapping of Historical Tribes, Keywords, States to Federally Recognized Tribes, available on the internet 24/7


Introducing Ayazuta

www.ayazuta.com

1. ICWA Tribal Contacts Lookup

• Live and being used

• Links…

• Illinois Administrative Office of the Courts

• NICWA

2. Automated ICWA Noticing



Automated ICWA Noticing

– Allows storage of the relevant case information• Tribal Claims related to a child

• Investigation information

• Notice information

• Tribal responses

• Notice/Response audit trails and Court documents

– Automates production of notices• Relating claims of historical tribal membership to appropriate Federally Recognized

Tribes

• Automated prompting and production of notices

• Automated update of responses from Tribes

– Nationwide Coverage • Up to date Judicial Council forms from all customer states

• Updates of contact information from all entities

– Audit Trail • All access and changes to records recorded


Automated ICWA Noticing



Compliance

• Problem – Variable, and in some cases, poor compliance

• Ayazuta Solution – Full audit trail of all activities, changes and Notices


Social Worker Time

• Problem – Social Services time consumed in paperwork

• Ayazuta Solution – Automated Notice, more time to concentrate on the Outcome


Relationship Between Tribes, States and Counties

• Problem – Variable relationships

• Ayazuta Solution – Focus on the Child – collaborative implementation of a structured solution increases trust

Court Federally Recognized Tribe - Receiving clearer communication from States and Counties- Tribe has data to exercise jurisdiction - Easy notice response

Bureau of Indian Affairs -Updates Tribal ICWA contacts-Facilitates ICWA notice oversight

- Retains ICWA Case Information- Maintains map of Federal to Historical Tribes- Maintains up to date ICWA related Forms - Prompts Notice and Hearings - Produces Declarations and Notices - Stores responses to Notices and Investigation- Produces an Audit Trail of Notices and all changes- Keeps Federal Tribal Information Current - Reduces costs at every stage of an ICWA enquiry- Reduces tribal workload

- Benefits from more accurate Notice- Higher probability of being reconnected with the tribe- Higher probability of being dealt with in a culturally sensitive way

Child

Social / Case Worker - Enters Case Informaion - Investigates Heritage Claims - Enters Results of investigation- Retrieves/Updates hearing details

- Receives compliant notice audit trail - Potential for Court notice - Fewer notice based Appeals


System Structure - Business Context Diagram


• ICWA helped define the Dream

• There are lots of “practical” and “real” reasons why the ICWA Dream was only ever partly realized; the conditions for compliance are not in place

• Without technology, the Dream cannot be delivered (after 32 years we can conclude that the manual way does not consistently work)

• Tribes are universally capable of adopting technology, and overwhelmingly and vocally support improvements in the administration of ICWA

Honoring the Dream


• Cost Benefits

– Reduced cost of maintaining accurate Tribal ICWA contact information

– Fewer Case and Social Worker hours in Notice, Administration and Hearing Preparation.

– Reduced hours preparing for Appeals

– Reduced cost of Notice production, USPS confirmations

– More effective tracking and responses from tribes

• Social Benefits

– Better relationships between Tribes and States

– Better handling of the child’s welfare through more accurate notice

– Children with Indian heritage are more likely to be identified and reconnected

– More people, focused more of the time, on better outcomes

Honoring the Dream


Current Status

• Tribal database is built and usable now

– Validation process continues, all Tribes contact information will be validated every 6 months.

– Fee based service for State, County and Commercial organizations to download the database and get updates monthly

• Community driven design

– Ayazuta to be developed by the community of users through a collaborative process that builds positive relationships between courts, social services, tribes, and Indian supportive services.

– Tribes and tribal support groups will have free access to system

• Great reaction from all interested parties

• Plan for system to be completed and rolled out to initial customer Q3/Q4, 2010


Ayazuta Future

• Capabilities to support

• Phase 1 – Tribal Contacts Database

• Phase 2 – Automated Notice production

• Demo produced to drive the design

• Getting the system delivered

• Tribal ICWA worker access

• BIA access

• Phase 3 – “Active Efforts” support

• Phase 4 – Placement Preferences

• Technology to support

• Print production and distribution of notices

• Digital confirmations and responses to digital notices

• Closer integration with Bureau of Indian Affairs

• Closer Integration with Tribes

• Incrementally reduced cost of ICWA compliance


What Can You Do

• If you're a connected to a Tribe

• Check the contact details on the site

• Tell your Social Services agencies about the site and ask them to use it

• Give us a letter of support

• Add a link to Ayazuta from your website

• Sign up for the Ayazuta newsletter, Twitter

• Apply pressure to your local BIA region, asking them to support an Ayazuta trial

• If your connected to Social services

• Use the contact details database, add its use to training materials

• Add a link to County and State court and social services department websites to Ayazuta

• Tell your State DSS and Courts, you want accurate, up to date Ayazuta data in their systems

• Get the people who do noticing to look at the Ayazuta demo

• Sign up for the Ayazuta newsletter, Twitter

• Apply pressure to your local BIA region, asking them to support an Ayazuta trial


Questions & Answers

Kevin HughesPrincipal , H7 interactive LLCCreators of Ayazuta.com [email protected] (310) 403 5565

Heather Zenone Director of Indian Child Welfare Indian Dispute Resolution [email protected] (916) 803 1919

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

1 © h7 interactive, llc 2010 automated icwa compliance an introduction to: 28th annual...

Documents

federal tribes

tribal governments

tribal contact data

recognized tribes

tribal icwa contact

h7 interactive

tribal confirmation

dream indian tribes