The California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC) has issued a statement reinforcing its support of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) through its educational programs and of its continued collaboration with Tribes.
This comes in light of the recent Brackeen et al. v. Zinke decision (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas) stating that ICWA infringed on states’ rights to oversee child welfare proceedings. Although the ruling does not impact California, the state is home to the nation’s largest Native American population, and CalSWEC stands with Tribal Nations to affirm the importance of ICWA.
The statement includes 131 signatories from the CalSWEC consortium and reads, in part, “CalSWEC continues to impress the importance of ICWA compliance and support of Tribal sovereignty to our students, social work educators, county partners, training academies, and other community partners, with the goal of ongoing collaboration with Tribal communities, both urban and rural.”