CRONE, J.
Four young children were determined to be children in need of services and removed from their mother’s care. The juvenile court entered a parental participation decree against an incarcerated man who the mother claims is the father of one of those children. The decree requires the alleged father to participate in that child’s care, treatment, placement and/or rehabilitation and also to reimburse the county for the expenses of the child’s out-of-home placement. The alleged father appeals, asserting that the juvenile court erred when it entered a parental participation decree against him when his paternity of that child has not been established. He also argues that certain procedural prerequisites for a parental participation decree were not met. Concluding that paternity must first be established and that certain procedural deficiencies deprived the juvenile court of authority to enter the parental participation decree, we vacate the juvenile court’s parental participation decree with regard to the alleged father and remand for further proceedings.
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Although we understand why, as an alleged father, F.T. was summoned as a necessary party to the CHINS proceeding, F.T.’ mere status as a party did not confer authority to the juvenile court to order his parental participation prior to a determination that he is, in fact, a parent. [Footnote omitted.] DCS fails to direct us to any authority that permits a juvenile court, prior to an establishment of paternity, to enter a parental participation decree against one who is only an alleged parent. The juvenile court in this case put the cart before the horse.
Moreover, this Court has held that before parental participation can be ordered as part of a CHINS disposition, certain procedural requirements must be met. Mikel v. Elkhart County Dept. of Pub. Welfare, 622 N.E.2d 225, 229 (Ind. Ct. App. 1993). Indiana Code Section 31-34-16-1 provides that a “petition for the juvenile court to require the participation of a parent, guardian, or custodian in a program of care, treatment, or rehabilitation of a child” may be signed and filed by the attorney for the DCS or the guardian ad litem or court appointed special advocate. This petition must be verified. Ind. Code § 31-34-16-2. . . . .
In Mikel, we held that the procedural requirements of the statute regarding parental participation must be followed before a juvenile court “may mandate parental involvement subject to contempt of court.” Mikel, 622 N.E.2d at 228. We determined that these procedures are mandatory and must be complied with prior to a juvenile court affirmatively ordering the participation of a parent in a dispositional decree. Id. at 229. Accordingly, absent the filing of a proper verified parental participation petition, a juvenile court does not have authority to order parental action. Id. Although the statutory provision at issue in Mikel, Indiana Code Section 31-6-4-17, has since been recodified at Indiana Code Section 31-34-16-3, our interpretation of the procedures to be followed before a juvenile court can issue a parental participation decree as part of a CHINS disposition remains the same. See A.E.B., 756 N.E.2d at 542-43 (following Mikel and holding that nearly identical procedural rules contained in recodified statute regarding parental participation in juvenile delinquency disposition must be complied with before juvenile court can issue parental participation decree as part of delinquency adjudication). Because the proper procedures were not followed here, the juvenile court did not have authority to order F.T.’s parental participation as part of its CHINS disposition.
FRIEDLANDER, J., and BARNES, J., concur.