Rule 3.002.Indian Children

Subchapter 3.000 — General Provisions · Last verified September 5, 2026

In one sentenceMCR 3.002 supplies the definitions Michigan courts use when applying the Indian Child Welfare Act and the Michigan Indian Family Preservation Act to proceedings under the Juvenile Code, the Adoption Code, and the Estates and Protected Individuals Code.

Full Text of Rule 3.002

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For purposes of applying the Indian Child Welfare Act, 25 USC 1901 et seq., and the Michigan Indian Family Preservation Act, MCL 712B.1 et seq., to proceedings under the Juvenile Code, the Adoption Code, and the Estates and Protected Individuals Code, the following definitions taken from MCL 712B.3 and MCL 712B.7 shall apply.

(1) "Active efforts" means actions to provide remedial services and rehabilitative programs designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian family and to reunify the child with the Indian family. Active efforts require more than a referral to a service without actively engaging the Indian child and family. Active efforts include reasonable efforts as required by title IV-E of the social security act, 42 USC 670 to 679c, and also include doing or addressing all of the following:

(a) Engaging the Indian child, child's parents, tribe, extended family members, and individual Indian caregivers through the utilization of culturally appropriate services and in collaboration with the parent or child's Indian tribes and Indian social services agencies.

(b) Identifying appropriate services and helping the parents to overcome barriers to compliance with those services.

(d) Requesting representatives designated by the Indian child's tribe with substantial knowledge of the prevailing social and cultural standards and child rearing practice within the tribal community to evaluate the circumstances of the Indian child's family and to assist in developing a case plan that uses the resources of the Indian tribe and Indian community, including traditional and customary support, actions, and services, to address those circumstances.

(e) Completing a comprehensive assessment of the situation of the Indian child's family, including a determination of the likelihood of protecting the Indian child's health, safety, and welfare effectively in the Indian child's home.

(f) Identifying, notifying, and inviting representatives of the Indian child's tribe to participate in all aspects of the Indian child custody proceeding at the earliest possible point in the proceeding and actively soliciting the tribe's advice throughout the proceeding.

(g) Notifying and consulting with extended family members of the Indian child, including extended family members who were identified by the Indian child's tribe or parents, to identify and to provide family structure and support for the Indian child, to assure cultural connections, and to serve as placement resources for the Indian child.

(h) Making arrangements to provide natural and family interaction in the most natural setting that can ensure the Indian child's safety, as appropriate to the goals of the Indian child's permanency plan, including, when requested by the tribe, arrangements for transportation and other assistance to enable family members to participate in that interaction.

(i) Offering and employing all available family preservation strategies and requesting the involvement of the Indian child's tribe to identify those strategies and to ensure that those strategies are culturally appropriate to the Indian child's tribe.

(j) Identifying community resources offering housing, financial, and transportation assistance and in-home support services, in-home intensive treatment services, community support services, and specialized services for members of the Indian child's family with special needs, and providing information about those resources to the Indian child's family, and actively assisting the Indian child's family or offering active assistance in accessing those resources.

(k) Monitoring client progress and client participation in services.

(l) Providing a consideration of alternative ways of addressing the needs of the Indian child's family, if services do not exist or if existing services are not available to the family.

(2) "Child custody proceeding" shall mean and include

(a) "foster-care placement," which shall mean any action removing an Indian child from his or her parent or Indian custodian for temporary placement in a foster home or institution or the home of a guardian or conservator where the parent or Indian custodian cannot have the child returned upon demand, but where parental rights have not been terminated,

(b) "termination of parental rights," which shall mean any action resulting in the termination of the parent-child relationship,

(c) "preadoptive placement," which shall mean the temporary placement of an Indian child in a foster home or institution after the termination of parental rights, but before or in lieu of adoptive placement, and

(d) "adoptive placement," which shall mean the permanent placement of an Indian child for adoption, including any action resulting in a final decree of adoption.

Such term or terms shall not include a placement based upon an act that, if committed by an adult, would be deemed a crime or upon an award, in a divorce proceeding, of custody to one of the parents.

(3) "Court" means the family division of circuit court or the probate court.

(4) "Culturally appropriate services" means services that enhance an Indian child's and family's relationship to, identification, and connection with the Indian child's tribe. Culturally appropriate services should provide the opportunity to practice the teachings, beliefs, customs, and ceremonies of the Indian child's tribe so those may be incorporated into the Indian child's daily life, as well as services that address the issues that have brought the child and family to the attention of the department that are consistent with the tribe's beliefs about child rearing, child development, and family wellness. Culturally appropriate services may involve tribal representatives, extended family members, tribal elders, spiritual and cultural advisors, tribal social services, individual Indian caregivers, medicine men or women, and natural healers. If the Indian child's tribe establishes a different definition of culturally appropriate services, the court shall follow the tribe's definition.

(5) "Department" means the department of health and human services or any successor department or agency.

(6) "Exclusive jurisdiction" shall mean that an Indian tribe has jurisdiction exclusive as to any state over any child custody proceeding as defined above involving an Indian child who resides or is domiciled within the reservation of such tribe, except where such jurisdiction is otherwise vested in the state by existing federal law. Where an Indian child is a ward of a tribal court, the Indian tribe retains exclusive jurisdiction, regardless of the residence or domicile or subsequent change in his or her residence or domicile.

(7) "Extended family member" shall be as defined by the law or custom of the Indian child's tribe or, in the absence of such law or custom, shall be a person who has reached the age of 18 years and who is the Indian child's grandparent, aunt or uncle, brother or sister, brother-in- law or sister-in-law, niece or nephew, first or second cousin, or stepparent and includes the term "relative" as that term is defined in MCL 712A.13a(1)(j).

(8) "Foster home or institution" means a child caring institution as that term is defined in section 1 of 1973 PA 116, MCL 722.111.

(9) "Guardian" means a person who has qualified as a guardian of a minor under a parental or spousal nomination or a court order issued under section 19a or 19c of chapter XIIA, section 5204 or 5205 of the estates and protected individuals code, 1998 PA 386, MCL 700.5204 and 700.5205, or sections 600 to 644 of the mental health code, 1974 PA 258, MCL 330.1600 to 330.1644. Guardian may also include a person appointed by a tribal court under tribal code or custom. Guardian does not include a guardian ad litem.

(10) "Guardian ad litem" means an individual whom the court appoints to assist the court in determining the child's best interests. A guardian ad litem does not need to be an attorney.

(11) "Indian" means any member of any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community of Indians recognized as eligible for the services provided to Indians by the secretary because of their status as Indians, including any Alaska native village as defined in section 1602(c) of the Alaska native claims settlement act, 43 USC 1602.

(12) "Indian child" means any unmarried person who is under age 18 and is either

(a) a member of an Indian tribe, or

(b) is eligible for membership in an Indian tribe as determined by that Indian tribe.

(13) "Indian child's tribe" means

(a) the Indian tribe in which an Indian child is a member or eligible for membership, or

(b) in the case of an Indian child who is a member of or eligible for membership in more than one tribe, the Indian tribe with which the Indian child has the most significant contacts.

(14) "Indian child welfare act" means the Indian child welfare act of 1978, 25 USC 1901 to 1963.

(15) "Indian custodian" means any Indian person who has custody of an Indian child under tribal law or custom or under state law, or to whom temporary physical care, custody, and control have been transferred by the child's parent.

(16) "Indian organization" means any group, association, partnership, corporation, or other legal entity owned or controlled by Indians, or a majority of whose members are Indians.

(17) "Indian tribe" means any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community of Indians recognized as eligible for the services provided to Indians by the Secretary because of their status as Indians, including any Alaska Native village as defined in section 43 USC 1602(c).

(18) "Lawyer-guardian ad litem" means an attorney appointed under MCL 712B.21 to represent the child with the powers and duties as set forth in MCL 712A.17d. The provisions of MCL 712A.17d also apply to a lawyer-guardian ad litem appointed for the purposes of MIFPA under each of the following:

(a) MCL 700.5213 and 700.5219,

(b) MCL 722.24, and

(19) "Official tribal representative" means an individual who is designated by the Indian child's tribe to represent the tribe in a court overseeing a child custody proceeding. An official tribal representative does not need to be an attorney.

(20) "Parent" means any biological parent or parents of an Indian child or any Indian person who has lawfully adopted an Indian child, including adoptions under tribal law or custom. It does not include the putative father if paternity has not been acknowledged or established.

(21) "Reservation" means Indian country as defined in section 18 USC 1151 and any lands not covered under such section, for which title is either held by the United States in trust for the benefit of any Indian tribe or individual or held by any Indian tribe or individual subject to a restriction by the United States against alienation.

(22) "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Interior.

(23) "Tribal court" means a court with jurisdiction over child custody proceedings and that is either a Court of Indian Offenses, a court established and operated under the code or custom of an Indian tribe, or any other administrative body of a tribe that is vested with authority over child custody proceedings.

(24) "Ward of tribal court" means a child over whom an Indian tribe exercises authority by official action in tribal court or by the governing body of the tribe.

End

Plain-English Summary

MCR 3.002 is a definitions rule and nothing else. It gathers the vocabulary a court needs when it applies the Indian Child Welfare Act, 25 USC 1901 et seq., and the Michigan Indian Family Preservation Act, MCL 712B.1 et seq., to proceedings under the Juvenile Code, the Adoption Code, and the Estates and Protected Individuals Code. The definitions are taken from MCL 712B.3 and MCL 712B.7, which keeps the court rules and the statute speaking one language. Twenty-four numbered definitions follow.

Who the rule covers

Subrule (12) defines an Indian child as an unmarried person under age 18 who is either a member of an Indian tribe or eligible for membership as that tribe determines. Eligibility is the tribe's call. Subrule (13) then identifies the child's tribe and, where the child is a member of or eligible in more than one, points to the tribe with which the child has the most significant contacts. Subrule (20) defines a parent as any biological parent of an Indian child, or any Indian person who has lawfully adopted the child, including adoptions under tribal law or custom, and excludes a putative father whose paternity has not been acknowledged or established. Subrule (7) defines extended family member first by the law or custom of the child's tribe, and only in the absence of such law or custom by a listed set of relatives, each of whom has reached the age of 18 years.

Which proceedings

Subrule (2) sets out four kinds of child custody proceeding, each with its own short definition: foster-care placement, termination of parental rights, preadoptive placement, and adoptive placement. The subrule then marks the outer edge. The term does not reach a placement based on an act that would be deemed a crime if an adult committed it, and it does not reach an award of custody to one of the parents in a divorce proceeding.

Active efforts

Subrule (1) carries the longest definition in the rule. Active efforts are actions providing remedial services and rehabilitative programs designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian family and to reunify the child with that family. The rule states that a referral to a service is not enough on its own, without actively engaging the child and family. The definition takes in the reasonable efforts required by title IV-E of the social security act, 42 USC 670 to 679c, and then adds twelve items, (a) through (l), all of which must be done or addressed. They range from culturally appropriate engagement of the child, parents, tribe, and extended family, through a diligent search for extended family members for placement, to monitoring client progress and participation in services.

Tribal definitions and tribal roles

Subrule (4) describes culturally appropriate services and closes with a deference clause: if the Indian child's tribe establishes a different definition, the court follows the tribe's. Subrule (19) recognizes an official tribal representative designated by the tribe, who does not need to be an attorney, as is also true of the guardian ad litem in subrule (10). Subrule (6) states what exclusive jurisdiction means for a child who resides or is domiciled within the tribe's reservation, subject to an exception where existing federal law vests that jurisdiction in the state, and it keeps that exclusive jurisdiction with the tribe for a ward of tribal court regardless of a later change in residence or domicile. Subrule (3) fixes the word court as the family division of circuit court or the probate court.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who counts as an Indian child under the Michigan Court Rules?

Subrule (12) defines an Indian child as an unmarried person under age 18 who is a member of an Indian tribe, or who is eligible for membership in a tribe as that tribe determines. The membership question belongs to the tribe.

Subrule (13) then names the Indian child's tribe. Where the child is a member of or eligible for membership in more than one tribe, the rule points to the tribe with which the child has the most significant contacts.

What are active efforts in a Michigan Indian child case?

Subrule (1) defines active efforts as actions to provide remedial services and rehabilitative programs designed to prevent the breakup of the Indian family and to reunify the child with the Indian family. The rule adds that a referral to a service, standing alone, does not satisfy the standard without actively engaging the child and family.

The definition includes the reasonable efforts required by title IV-E of the social security act, 42 USC 670 to 679c, and lists twelve further items, (a) through (l), all of which must be done or addressed. Among them are a diligent search for extended family members for placement, identifying, notifying, and inviting tribal representatives to participate in all aspects of the proceeding at the earliest possible point, offering and employing all available family preservation strategies, and monitoring client progress and participation in services.

Which cases are child custody proceedings under MCR 3.002?

Subrule (2) names four: foster-care placement, which is a removal for temporary placement where the child cannot be returned on demand but parental rights remain intact; termination of parental rights; preadoptive placement, which is temporary placement after termination but before or in lieu of adoptive placement; and adoptive placement, the permanent placement for adoption, including any action resulting in a final decree of adoption.

Does a custody award in a divorce fall under these definitions?

No. Subrule (2) closes by taking an award of custody to one of the parents in a divorce proceeding outside the term child custody proceeding. The same sentence excludes a placement based on an act that, if committed by an adult, would be deemed a crime.

Who is an extended family member for placement purposes?

Subrule (7) looks first to the law or custom of the Indian child's tribe. Only where the tribe has no such law or custom does the rule supply its own list: a person who has reached the age of 18 years and who is the child's grandparent, aunt or uncle, brother or sister, brother-in-law or sister-in-law, niece or nephew, first or second cousin, or stepparent.

The definition also takes in the term relative as it is defined in MCL 712A.13a(1)(j).

Can a tribe's own definition of culturally appropriate services control in court?

Yes. Subrule (4) describes culturally appropriate services as services that enhance an Indian child's and family's relationship to, identification, and connection with the child's tribe, and it names the people who may be involved, including tribal representatives, extended family members, tribal elders, spiritual and cultural advisors, tribal social services, individual Indian caregivers, medicine men or women, and natural healers.

The subrule ends with a deference clause. If the Indian child's tribe establishes a different definition of culturally appropriate services, the court follows the tribe's definition.

Source & verification. Rule text reproduced verbatim from the Michigan Court Rules, Chapter 3 (Special Proceedings and Actions), as published by the Michigan State Court Administrative Office, current through September 1, 2026. Promulgated by the Supreme Court of Michigan (Mich. Const. 1963, art. VI, § 5). Last verified September 5, 2026. · Official text

Also known as: icwaindian child welfare actmifpamichigan indian family preservation actindian childactive effortschild custody proceedingtribal court