Jon S., Appellant v. State of Alaska, Department of Health and Social Services, Office of Children's Services, Appellee

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the termination of Jon S.'s parental rights to his daughter Melissa, an Indian child under the Indian Child Welfare Act. The court held the record contained substantial evidence supporting the child-in-need-of-aid adjudication on abandonment grounds, the failure-to-remedy finding, the State's satisfaction of ICWA's active-efforts burden measured over the entirety of the case, and the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt finding that returning Melissa to her father would likely cause serious emotional harm, the last resting on sufficiently grounded qualified expert testimony. Justice Christen dissented in part, agreeing with every ruling except the active-efforts analysis, which she concluded OCS failed because avoidable, inadequately explained, and harmful delays attributable to the agency are inconsistent with active efforts.