Indian Child Welfare Act

Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978

Long title	An Act to establish standards for the placement of Indian children in foster or adoptive homes, to prevent the break-up of Indian families, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	ICWA
Enacted by	the 95th United States Congress
Effective	November 8, 1978; 46 years ago (1978-11-08)
Citations
Public law	95-608
Statutes at Large	92 Stat. 3069
Codification
Titles amended	25 U.S.C.: Indians 43 U.S.C.: Public Lands
U.S.C. sections created	25 U.S.C. ch. 21 § 1901 et seq.
U.S.C. sections amended	43 U.S.C. ch. 33 §§ 1602, 1606
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 1214 by James Abourezk (D-SD) on April 1, 1977 Committee consideration by Senate Indian Affairs, House Interior and Insular Affairs Passed the Senate on November 4, 1977 (Passed) Passed the House on October 14, 1978 (Passed, in lieu of H.R. 12533) with amendment Senate agreed to House amendment on October 14, 1978 (Agreed) Signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on November 8, 1978
United States Supreme Court cases
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, 490 U.S. 30 (1989) Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, 570 U.S. 637 (2013) Haaland v. Brackeen, No. 21-376, 599 U.S. ___ (2023)

The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA, enacted November 8, 1978 and codified at 25 U.S.C. §§ 1901–1963^[1]) is a United States federal law that governs jurisdiction over the removal of American Indian children from their families in custody, foster care and adoption cases.

It gives tribal governments exclusive jurisdiction over children who reside on, or are domiciled on a reservation. It gives concurrent, but presumptive jurisdiction over foster care placement proceedings for Native American children who do not live on the reservation.