National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities: Parents Empowering Parents / Padres Empoderando a Padres

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."

The Center for Parents community blog ...

What's Happening at the Center for Parents

Inclusion of Black and Latina Parents with Physical Disabilities in a Qualitative Research StudyInclusion 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.

Access the research article

Plain-language summary to come soon!

Two-Part Series on Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Mothers

Two-Part Series on Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Mothers

Now in ASL format!

This research report series from the National Center for Disability & Pregnancy Research describes Lurie Institute research in collaboration with researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School on the pregnancy and postpartum experiences of Deaf and hard-of-hearing mothers.

Access the 2-part series in ASL video format

Accessing Reproductive Justice: Using Intersectional Self-, Systems, and Community Advocacy to Create Inclusive Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare and Expression - A conversation with Robin Wilson-Beattie

Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellowship 2024: Robin Wilson-Beattie

The Lurie Institute for Disability Policy hosted a conversation with Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellow Robin Wilson-Beattie and Rebecca Cokley on March 7, 2024 at 5 p.m. ET. In-person and online.

Robin's groundbreaking insights into the intersection of disability, sexuality, healthcare, design, and identity have revolutionized sexual-health education.

📆 Recording of the Keynote Event will be available soon

Video Guide Series for Women with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities Who Are Pregnant or Thinking About PregnancyA New Video Guide Series on Pregnancy Among People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

The National Center for Disability and Pregnancy Research has published a video guide in four segments for women with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities who are preparing to have a baby or thinking about pregnancy, or who have just had a baby.

Learn more and browse the video guides

Webinar: Black, Disabled, Deaf, & ProudBlack, 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.

Access the Webinar recording

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. 

Learn more about the ParentingWell Practice Profile

Upcoming & Recent

'I challenge them a bit': Encounters between Parents with Disabilities and the Medical Institution

Webinar: Encounters between Parents with Disabilities and the Medical Institution

People with disabilities face particular additional barriers of access to health care. Drs. Herrera and Rojas explore how these barriers increase when parents with disabilities require medical attention for their children.
Residency Differences Between Fathers With and Without Disabilities in the United States

New Brief: Residency Differences Between Fathers With and Without Disabilities in the US

This study examines the residential status of fathers by their disability status and explores whether fathers' residence with their children varies by different types of disability.
Webinar: The Role of the HHS Office for Civil Rights in Advancing Rights for Disabled Parents: Safeguards in Child Welfare Cases

Webinar: The Role of the HHS Office for Civil Rights in Advancing Rights for Disabled Parents

We hosted a webinar on The Role of the HHS Office for Civil Rights in Advancing Rights for Disabled Parents: Safeguards in Child Welfare Cases with Carla Carter of HHS Office for Civil Rights and Robyn Powell of NRCPD. Access the webinar recording.

Strategies to Support Parents with Psychiatric Disabilities with Child Welfare Involvement: Perspectives from Staff Providing Legal Services

Webinar: Strategies to Support Parents with Psychiatric Disabilities with Child Welfare Involvement

This webinar focused on parents with psychiatric disabilities involved in the child welfare system, with perspectives from legal services providers. Access the webinar recoding.

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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