Welcome to the Center for Parents
The National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities conducts research and provides training and technical assistance to improve the lives of parents with disabilities and their families. We share our findings here on this website. We also offer information sheets, research briefs, and other resources.
Our resources are for parents with disabilities, legal professionals, social workers, and researchers, and cover a variety of topics, including child-welfare law and its effects on parents with disabilities, firsthand narratives from disabled parents about how they raise their children, and advice for professionals working with specific populations of parents with disabilities.
The Center for Parents recognizes that parents with disabilities know what they need. We are guided by the principle "nothing about us without us."
What's Happening at the Center for Parents
Strategies for Supporting Parents with Disabilities: when there is Child Protection Involvement
The webinar provides an overview of ableism and discrimination within child protection and provide parents with strategies for addressing these injustices. Presenters are Dr. Elizabeth Lightfoot, Distinguished Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Arizona State University School of Social Work, and Dr. Kara Ayers, Associate Professor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. ASL and captioning were provided.
Introducing an Interactive Dashboard to Learn More about People with Disabilities
Historically, data about people with disabilities and their experiences has been difficult to access, navigate, and understand. Our interactive data dashboards offer a solution for advocates, policymakers, and researchers, portraying information about parents with disabilities and community living services in visually engaging and easy-to-use ways. We hope these dashboards can serve as an effective tool for disability advocates to further the rights, access, and inclusion of the disability community.
Living with Anxiety as a Disabled Parent
This webinar recording discusses the anxiety of new parenthood from the viewpoint of two disabled mothers. Both generalized anxiety disorder among disabled parents as well as the day-to-day anxieties of parenting with a disability when parents often experience stigma and ableism at both a structural and personal level are discussed.
Inclusion of Black and Latina Parents With Physical Disabilities in a Qualitative Research Study: A Peer Researcher Training Model
Compared to a small but growing community of Black and Latinx academic researchers with disabilities, there is little inclusion in the research process of non-academic community members with similar intersectional identities. Lurie Institute researchers conducted a qualitative study examining the pregnancy experiences of people from Black/Latinx communities who have physical disabilities that involved training four peer researchers to conduct interviews and analyze the data. This article describes the researchers' approach and suggests how it might offer a model for training peer researchers in qualitative research methodology.
Black, Disabled, Deaf, & Proud
Webinar panelists discussed the intersectionality of their disability identity with their racial identities and what this means for their parenting. Recording and summary now available.
ParentingWell Learning Collaborative
Massachusetts Behavioral Health Providers are participating in the ParentingWell Learning Collaborative
ParentingWell® is an approach to routine practice that makes talking about parenting, children, and family experiences a natural part of the conversation and of an adult’s recovery process.
Go to: Upcoming Webinars | Past Webinars
Upcoming & Recent
Brief: Legal Ableism: A Systematic Review of State Termination of Parental Rights Laws Policy
This study examined State statutes in all 50 States and the District of Columbia concerning the inclusion of parental disability as grounds for termination of parental rights (TPR). This study found that 42 States and the District of Columbia include parental disability as grounds for TPR, which is largely the same as the National Council on Disability’s (NCD) prior 2012 investigation.
Webinar: Living with Anxiety as a Disabled Parent
The webinar discussed the anxiety of new parenthood from the viewpoint of two disabled mothers. Both generalized anxiety disorder among disabled parents as well as the day-to-day anxieties of parenting with a disability when parents often experience stigma and ableism at both a structural and personal level will be discussed. Register here.
New Brief: Housing Circumstances of Parents with Disabilities within the Child Welfare System
Webinar: Addressing Perinatal Health Inequities Among Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals
Our Map Resources
Current U.S. State Legislation Supporting Parents with Disabilities
Despite notable achievements in other areas of disability rights, parents with disabilities continue to encounter significant discrimination. Parents with disabilities are more likely to have their children removed by the child welfare system as well as have their parental rights terminated. Moreover, within the family law system, disabled parents are less likely to gain access to custody or visitation of their children. Finally, prospective parents with disabilities encounter barriers to adopting children or becoming foster parents. While there are many reasons for the pervasive discrimination, it is notable that the child welfare, family law, and adoption systems are largely driven by state statutes.
Go to Interactive Map | Go to Legal Background | Go to Summary of State Legislation
Current U.S. State Laws Terminating Parental Rights on a Basis Including a Parent's Disability
Current laws in many U.S. states include parental disability as grounds for the termination of parental rights. While some states have no laws allowing for parental disabilities as such to be grounds for terminating parental rights, most states have laws permitting this. Our map represents the nine combinations of disabilities that states now allow as grounds for terminating parental rights based on a parent's disability.
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