ICWA and Colorado Foster Care: What Foster Parents Need to Know About the Indian Child Welfare Act

If you are becoming a licensed foster parent in Colorado, there is a good chance you will encounter the Indian Child Welfare Act at some point during your training or in the course of a placement. ICWA is federal law — it applies in every state — but Colorado has added its own layer of protection through the 2023 Colorado Indian Child Welfare Act (CO-ICWA). For families who receive or might receive a placement involving a child with tribal heritage, understanding the basic framework is not optional — it is part of what it means to support that child properly.

What ICWA Is and Why It Exists

The Indian Child Welfare Act was enacted by Congress in 1978 in response to a documented and damaging pattern: American Indian and Alaska Native children were being removed from their families and tribes at wildly disproportionate rates and placed in non-Native homes, often losing their language, culture, and tribal identity in the process. Studies from the era found that between 25 and 35 percent of all Native children were being separated from their families and placed in foster or adoptive homes — the vast majority of which were non-Native.

ICWA was designed to reverse this by establishing minimum standards for the removal of Native children, requiring that specific placement preferences be followed, and ensuring that tribes have a meaningful role in custody proceedings involving their members' children.

The law applies to any child who is a member of a federally recognized tribe, or who is eligible for tribal membership and is the biological child of a tribal member. "Eligibility" is determined by each individual tribe according to its own enrollment criteria — which means a child does not need to have grown up on a reservation or have had any prior tribal contact for ICWA to apply.

Colorado's 2023 CO-ICWA: A Higher Standard

In 2023, Colorado enacted its own Indian Child Welfare Act, the CO-ICWA, which codifies ICWA's federal protections into state law and in some respects exceeds federal requirements. The CO-ICWA requires:

• Active efforts to prevent removal of an Indian child from their family — not just "reasonable efforts" as required in standard child welfare cases, but a higher standard specifically designed to reflect the federal intent
• Tribal notification in any proceeding involving an Indian child, with the tribe having the right to intervene
• Placement preferences to be followed in the order specified by federal and state law
• Cultural connection to be maintained for Indian children in out-of-home placement, regardless of where they are placed

The "active efforts" requirement is significant. It means that before a child is removed or before parental rights are considered, the county must document that it made affirmative, documented efforts — not just offered services, but actively engaged the family — to prevent the removal. Courts review this record carefully, and failures in the "active efforts" documentation have caused cases to be overturned.

Colorado's Tribal Nations and ICWA in Practice

Colorado has two federally recognized tribal nations with active child welfare programs and ICWA agreements with the state:

Southern Ute Indian Tribe — located in Ignacio, Colorado. The tribe's social services department handles ICWA cases involving Southern Ute children. Contact: (970) 563-2989.

Ute Mountain Ute Tribe — located in Towaoc, Colorado. The tribe's social services department handles ICWA cases for Ute Mountain Ute children. Contact: (970) 565-3751.

Both tribes have formal agreements with Colorado's CDHS that define how cases will be managed, how placement preferences will be applied, and how the tribe's right to intervene will be honored. Colorado caseworkers are expected to notify the relevant tribal social services department when a child who may be ICWA-eligible is involved in a custody proceeding.

ICWA Placement Preferences: The Hierarchy

ICWA and CO-ICWA establish a required order of preference for placement of Indian children. Courts and county departments must follow this hierarchy unless a departure is justified by a documented finding that it is not in the child's best interest:

1. A member of the child's extended family
2. A foster home licensed, approved, or specified by the child's tribe
3. An Indian foster home licensed or approved by an authorized non-tribal licensing authority
4. A children's institution approved by an Indian tribe or operated by an Indian organization

A non-Native foster home is not prohibited — but it comes after all of the above options have been genuinely explored and documented as unavailable or not in the child's best interest. If you are a non-Native foster family and you receive a placement involving an Indian child, it means the county has gone through this hierarchy and determined that the child needs a placement that the preceding options could not provide.

What This Means for Foster Parents

If you are matched with a child who is ICWA-eligible, your role as a foster parent includes supporting that child's connection to their tribal heritage — not undermining it. Colorado's CO-ICWA specifically requires that children in out-of-home placement maintain cultural connections. In practice, this might mean:

• Facilitating participation in tribal cultural events or ceremonies
• Supporting the child's relationship with extended tribal family members
• Working cooperatively with the tribal social services department, which has the right to receive information about the child's status and wellbeing
• Understanding that the tribe may seek to have the case transferred to tribal court, and that this is a legal right the tribe holds, not a criticism of your home

Your TIPS-MAPP pre-service training in Colorado includes a module on ICWA and cultural competence. This training covers the law's requirements and prepares you for the realities of caring for a child with tribal connections. It is not exhaustive — if you receive an ICWA placement, your caseworker and the tribal social services contact are your primary resources for navigating the specifics of that individual case.

The Intersection with Foster-to-Adopt

ICWA has significant implications for families considering foster-to-adopt. If you foster a child who is ICWA-eligible, the placement preferences apply not just during foster care but also in adoption proceedings. Before parental rights can be terminated for an Indian child, the court must find beyond a reasonable doubt (a higher standard than in non-ICWA cases) that continued custody would be likely to cause serious emotional or physical damage to the child. And placement preferences apply in the adoption phase as well.

This does not mean adoption from foster care is unavailable for ICWA-eligible children. It means the process is more deliberate and involves the tribe's participation throughout. Prospective families who understand this from the start have a much more realistic picture of what foster-to-adopt might look like in a case involving a Native child.

Preparing Yourself

ICWA is one of the areas where having a thorough, Colorado-specific resource matters most. The CO-ICWA's higher standards, Colorado's tribal agreements, and the specific cultural connection requirements are not well-covered by general online resources. The Colorado Foster Care Licensing Guide includes a dedicated section on ICWA compliance in Colorado — including what the "active efforts" standard means in practice, how tribal notification works, and what foster parents are expected to do to maintain a Native child's cultural connections during placement.

ICWA was created to protect children. Understanding it fully means you are prepared to honor that intent — which is ultimately what being a good foster parent requires.

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