Ayazuta, Why Ayazuta Description

Care for Native American Children

Cultural awareness is a crucial element in Social Workers' developing successful outcomes, nowhere more so than in dealing with Native American children, where the history and traditions of the Tribe, and involvement of the extended family play a key role in the emotional wellbeing and development of children.

The Indian Child Welfare Act was put in place in 1978 to help ensure the involvement of a child's Tribe in deciding appropriate care and services, however this can only happen if the Tribe has an opportunity to intervene, that opportunity is often borne out of effective and timely ICWA noticing.

Ineffective noticing increases the probability of a poor outcomes in ICWA related cases including:

Delays in resolving placement
Loss of cultural heritage for the child
Extended instability due to potential Tribal intervention at any point in the case

However, Tribal heritage claims are often of a historical Tribe, not a Federally recognized Tribe, and this causes an exponential increase in required noticing, or results in significantly reduced compliance. Neither are in the best interests of the child

Ayazuta helps ensure that:

Effective, accurate and timely noticing happens in every ICWA related case
That Tribal responses can be processed quickly and effectively
That a full audit trail for all Noticing activity is maintained

Supports Federal, State and Tribal Law

ICWA noticing has proved complex and difficult to implement effectively, but remains crucial to the effective care of Native American children. It is robustly supported by Federal and Tribal Law and in State Appeals Courts.

In a 2008 opinion the Second Appellate District Court of California commented "We are growing weary of appeals in which the only error is the Department's failure to comply with ICWA." This followed 14 published opinions in 2002 through 2005, and 72 unpublished cases statewide in 2005 alone reversing in whole or in part for noncompliance with ICWA.

Ayazuta supports the Social and Case Worker, implementing Federal Law to accurately notify Indian Tribes in compliance with ICWA, helping significantly reduce the cost and incidence of failure and overturn on Appeal.

Ayazuta is the constructive tool to help care organizations, Courts, and Tribes resolve jurisdictional responsibility in a cost effective manner for the benefit of the Native American child.

	DEMO See how Ayazuta can improve ICWA Case Management for your organization
	INTERESTED? Connect an Ayazuta representative to discuss the benefits of Ayazuta for you

Reducing Agency Costs

The process of ICWA Noticing can be burdensome for the Case and Social Worker and costly for the Services organization in terms of:

The extent of research and record keeping required
The time involved in form preparation and production
The requirement to keep a full audit trail of all Notices and responses
The lack of support systems and automation
The cost of guaranteed delivery mail, and receipt handling
The extensive costs of errors leading to appeal

Ayazuta can support and automate all of these activities, significantly reducing operating costs and leaving case Workers to concentrate on the best outcome for the child.

Coins image

Ayazuta functions support the Case Worker at every step of the ICWA investigation and noticing process, and record and present all activities for use in Court:

ICWA specific record and document management
'Enter once and done' supporting information
Up to date mapping of historical Tribes, Federally recognized Tribes and common 'keywords' for Tribes
Up to date State specific forms for ICWA activities
Automated form completion and production
Automated tracking of outbound notices, delivery receipts and Tribal responses
Automated generation of a full case audit covering noticing and responses for multiple hearings