Visible, Diverse and United:

Breakout Session #1: Parental Rights

Families in which one or both parents have a disability face significant barriers as they attempt to raise their children. These barriers include: attitudinal barriers including discrimination; lack of information about parenting adaptations; lack of funding for adaptive technology; exclusion from public policy considerations; and, lack of disability expertise in current service systems. These barriers are especially evident in situations in which a person with a disability's right to parent and/or their parenting capability is questioned. Parents with disabilities and deaf parents in the Bay Area as well as across the U.S. report concern and fear that they may lose custody of their children due to discriminatory legislation, societal bias and/or legal and social service professionals unprepared to fairly assess parents with disabilities.

As currently written, child custody laws in almost every state including California reflect the historical bias against parents with disabilities. Such laws present discriminatory and unrealistic views of parental disability by constantly citing disability as a factor in determining a parent's ability to raise their children. Such references imply that parents with disabilities are incapable of properly caring for their children. However, it is usually not a person's disability that inhibits a person's capacity to provide a stable and loving home for children -- rather it is a lack of disability related resources and supports that can result in an unstable home environment. Many parents with disabilities provide excellent care and stable homes for their children. Factors that should be considered in child custody cases include the same concerns as for those parents without disabilities -- abuse, neglect, abandonment - not the presence, type or degree of a parent's disability.

Specific Problems with Parental Rights:

• Unwarranted and unnecessary removal of children from their parents with disabilities.



• Lack of affordable and knowledgeable legal representation for parents with disabilities dealing with custody issues.



• Inappropriate/discriminatory language in current laws concerning parental rights. For example, California law singles out "developmental disability," "mental illness" or other parental "deficiency" as reasons for terminating parental rights (on the basis of two experts, who themselves may not be knowledgeable about disability).



• The medical model (e.g., a disabled individuals are primarily defined according to their "handicap", impairment or what they cannot do) as well as other similar professional models typically pathologize those with disabilities and may clash with a civil rights model (e.g., disabled individuals do not need curing or rehabilitating, but need equal rights, integration and appropriate accommodations).



• Although providing trainings to Bay Area professionals and service systems regarding parenting with a disability is crucial, there is almost no funding for adaptive babycare equipment or parenting adaptations (which are often suggested during such trainings as a means to alleviate or eliminate potential problems for parents with disabilities).



• There are problems with the quality and appropriateness of evaluations of parents with disabilities involved with child protection systems or family courts. These evaluations often determine the child custody outcome. There are also many problems with the quality and appropriateness of existing services provided to parents with disabilities and their children during the reunification process. When services are ineffective parents may be blamed, assumed to be noncompliant or unable to benefit from services.



• Even if legal and social services professionals are educated and trained concerning parents with disabilities and disability-appropriate evaluations and services, professional turn-over is an ongoing problem in maintaining adequately trained professionals.

Specific Solutions regarding Parental Rights:

• Create legislation similar to the historic legislation passed in Idaho (2003) and Kansas (2006). Each state passed legislation that removed discriminatory language against parents with disabilities as well as insured equal rights and disability-appropriate evaluations of parents with disabilities. TLG consulted in both of these cases.



• Develop resources and training for judges concerning parents with disabilities (similar to what exists in Tribal Law).



• Encourage Bay Area systems to provide training concerning parents with disabilities, rather than be at risk of lawsuits. For example, a recent case in San Mateo County resulted in mandatory training to three county systems. (CPS intervened with a newborn simply because both parents were blind.) The suit was filed by Disability Rights and Education Fund (DREDF), and the $188,000 settlement included extensive mandated trainings by TLG to the San Mateo systems involved (CPS, Sequoia Hospital and Early Intervention).



• APA (American Psychological Association) has a very large Public Interest Advocacy Board with a national review. Psychologists have guidelines for custody evaluations that should be reviewed and include guidelines for educating professionals about parents with disabilities.



• Train foster care nurses, as they can have an effect on the courts.



• Identify funding streams for services and resources for parents with disabilities.



• Contact and educate different professionals about parents with disabilities and parental rights. Provide CEU's for professionals.



• Send a letter from the Bay Area Task Force for Parents with Disabilities and Deaf Parents to the Children and Families Commission in each county, and ask what services they have or don't know about.



• Require Bay Area counties and service systems to begin counting and identifying parents with disabilities so they will be more visible and their needs will be better documented.



• Encourage diverse representation on the Task Force so that many ethnic and racial communities are represented.

• Introduction and Featured Presentations


• Overall Recommendations
• Breakout Sessions
1. Breakout Session #2: Recreation
2. Breakout Session #3: Parents with Disabilities and Their Child's School System
3. Breakout Session #4: Transportation
4. Breakout Session #5: Programming and Systems Change