To streamline the process for tribes and other supporters, the MSU College of Law Indian Law Clinic developed a model comment tailored to their interests.
“To take proper care of nearly 500,000 children in the U.S. foster system and monitor their health and safety we need a robust nationwide data collection,” said Kathryn Fort, Director of Clinics at MSU Law and Director of the Indian Law Clinic. “We have been litigating for nearly 10 years to achieve it. We are pleased the federal government has once again put forth a rule to collect data on ICWA cases.”
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was convinced to collect data on ICWA in AFCARS. In 2016, they promulgated a new rule that collected both ICWA data as well as sexual orientation and gender identity elements (SOGIE) for all children.
The 2016 rule was withdrawn by the Trump Administration in 2019. And when they issued a new 2020 rule, all SOGIE elements and a majority of the ICWA elements were eliminated.
In 2020, with Democracy Forward and Lambda Legal, the Indian Law Clinic sued HHS in federal court on behalf of three tribes and LGBTQ+ clients, arguing that the 2020 rule change was arbitrary and capricious.
“The administration has finally released this 2024 rule for comment,” Fort said. “They’ve added the ICWA elements back to the data collection. However, they have left the SOGIE elements behind – much to our dismay.”
For the complete history of the Indian Law Clinic’s work on the AFCARS data collection case, see Turtle Talk.
For inquiries, please email fowler48@msu.edu.
