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Welf. & Inst. Code, § 381 · Article 11. Dependent Children—Transfer of Cases Between Counties

Welf. & Inst. Code, § 381

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) If a case is dismissed by a state court because the child is already a ward of a tribal court or the tribe has exclusive jurisdiction over Indian child custody proceedings pursuant to subdivisions (b) and (c) of Section 305.5, the state court shall ensure that all state court records are transmitted to the tribal court pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 305.5. The state court and the tribe shall each document the finding of the facts supporting jurisdiction over the minor. The state court and the county welfare department shall maintain a copy of the order of dismissal and the findings of fact.

(b) If a case is transferred from a state court to a tribal court pursuant to subdivisions (d) and (e) of Section 305.5, the state court shall issue an order of transfer of the case that states all of the findings, orders, or modification of orders that have been made in the case, and the name and address of the tribe having jurisdiction. All papers contained in the file shall be transferred to the tribe having jurisdiction. The transferring state court and county welfare department shall maintain a copy of the order of transfer and the findings of fact.

(c) If an order of transfer from a state court to a tribe is filed with the clerk of a juvenile court, the clerk shall place the transfer order on the calendar of the court, and, notwithstanding Section 378, that matter shall have precedence over all actions and civil proceedings not specifically given precedence by any other law and shall be heard by the court at the earliest possible moment after the order is filed.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 833, Sec. 33. (AB 3176) Effective January 1, 2019.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=WIC&sectionNum=381.
Text hash
sha256 c0e3a821824c06115679080c1bba73cea2ba54cb0f525ef532b3b622aba5d365
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compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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