When you sustain a spinal cord injury, depending on its level and severity, loss of motor function can significantly limit physical activities. When you experience injury causing disability as a parent, these limitations extend to parental tasks and duties that pose challenges post paralysis.
Despite limitations, and society’s assumptions about them, thousands of parents with disabilities make it work. They are relentlessly innovative. They work harder than their able bodied counterparts. They reach out for help when it is needed. They cultivate a capacity for compassion in their children, who lack nothing.
Yet 35 states include disability as grounds for termination of parental rights.
Yet a majority of dependency statutes allow the court to determine that a parent is unfit on the basis of a disability.
Yet in and D.C. and 9 states (GA, KS, MD, MS, ND, NM, OH, OK, & SC) physical disability can be the sole grounds for terminating parental rights.
But now, new rules could help child welfare systems treat parents with disabilities more fairly.
In July 2024 the first federal protections specifically for parents with disabilities were finalized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The new rules ban discrimination against parents and caregivers with disabilities throughout the child welfare system, who have long been more likely than other parents to be reported for child abuse and neglect, and have allegations substantiated by child welfare workers. They are also more likely to have their children placed in foster care and more likely to permanently lose their parental rights.
But there’s no evidence that parents with disabilities abuse or neglect their children at higher rates than anyone else.
And parental disability is the only grounds for termination of parental rights that focuses on a condition of the parent, rather than behavior. (For example, parental poverty is not listed as grounds for termination of parental rights in any state, but neglect is.)
Doesn’t the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protect parents with disabilities?
Confusion regarding how the ADA should be applied to parents in the child welfare system leads to state courts denying ADA claims by parents with disabilities who believe they were discriminated against.
Another problem is child welfare workers do not receive formal training on working with parents with disabilities. They are not trained in how to assess parenting skills, leading them to make decisions based on stereotypes or speculation.
In 2015, Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services released guidance directing child welfare agencies to protect parents with disabilities from discrimination. This was the first federal action indicating that the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act applied to child protection services.
Are disabled parents really losing parental rights?
Although child protection services is rarely involved directly following an injury, when parents with disabilities find themselves in divorce court, the non disabled parent may try to allege that the disability prohibits proper parenting. Typically these individuals try to use the disabled parent’s inability to drive independently to their child’s events, or participate in physical acts of nurture unassisted.
How will the changes to the ADA affect the way the child welfare system assesses parents with disabilities?
The federal government’s revision of the rules of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act is a major step forward for parents with disabilities.
Section 84.60 of the rule clarifies that disability discrimination is not allowed in any part of the child welfare process.
Now, when a child welfare agency evaluates how a child is being parented, the tools it uses must be backed by research, and evaluations conducted by a qualified professional, tailored to the needs of the individual parent.
Agencies must ensure that parents with disabilities can participate in any services they provide: parent-child visitation, parenting skills programs, child placements, ect.
Spinal cord injury can have a significant impact on lifestyle. But people are enormously adaptive, parents with disabilities remarkably resilient, and children maybe the most adaptive of all.
If you have been discriminated against by the child welfare system, know that legislation is on your side. You can read more about your rights here.
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