• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Indian Child Welfare Act directors from South Dakota's nine Native American tribes and federal officials are planning a summit focusing on Indian child foster care in the state after allegations surfaced that the state was routinely breaking the law.
• The South Dakota Indian Child Welfare Act Directors' Coalition is working in conjunction with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to plan the summit, which was announced this week and is scheduled for April 15-17 in Rapid City.
• The ICWA directors' coalition also submitted a report to Congress that details how they believe the state of South Dakota is willfully violating federal law by removing too many American Indian children from their homes and placing them in foster care with non-Indian families.
• "We look forward to assisting the coalition to producing a summit that will highlight their priority tools and strategies as they fulfill their responsibilities related to the implementation of ICWA," said Nedra Darling, spokeswoman for the Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs at the Department of Interior, which oversees the BIA.
• The summit and report are in response to a 2011 National Public Radio series that said the state routinely broke the Indian Child Welfare Act and disrupted the lives of hundreds of Native American families each year.
• Under federal law, Native American children removed from homes must be placed with relatives or put in foster care with other Native American families except in unusual circumstances.
• The three-part NPR report, which was based on an analysis of state records, said a disproportionate number of Native American children removed from their homes in South Dakota each year are sent to foster care in non-Indian homes or group homes. The report also claimed that Native American children are placed in South Dakota's foster care system at a disproportionate rate.
• But state officials have called the NPR stories inaccurate, unfair and biased, but acknowledged a disproportionate number of Native American children are involved in the child welfare system because the state receives more referrals for alleged abuse and neglect involving them.
• Following the report, six bipartisan congressmen asked the Department of Interior to investigate the alleged ICWA violations made in the NPR report and find out what the BIA intended to do if the violations were found to be true.

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