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."

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What's Happening at the Center for Parents

Introducing an interactive dashboard to learn more about people with disabilities

Disability Data Dashboard. A graphic of a black woman interacting with the data dashboard.

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.

Access the Disability Data Dashboard

Living with Anxiety as a Disabled Parent. Moderator: Nicole Lomerson, MPH. Panelists: Judith Brown & Jenny Senda. Headshots of Nicole Lomerson, Judith Brown, and Jenny Senda. Recording now available! National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities logo.

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.

Access the WEBINAR RECORDING

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.

📆 Access the Recording of the Keynote Event

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

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

Living with Anxiety as a Disabled Parent

Webinar: Living with Anxiety as a Disabled Parent

The webinar will discuss 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.

Housing Circumstances of Parents with Disabilities within the Child Welfare System

New Brief: Housing Circumstances of Parents with Disabilities within the Child Welfare System

This study examines the housing circumstances of parents with disabilities in the child welfare system, with particular attention to race/ethnicity and disability.
Addressing Perinatal Health Inequities Among Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals through Clinical, Research, and Community Insights

Webinar: Addressing Perinatal Health Inequities Among Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals

The National Center for Disability & Pregnancy Research is excited to hold its newest webinar on Addressing Perinatal Health Inequities Among Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals through Clinical, Research, and Community Insights. Register for the webinar here.
Research Summary: Life Circumstances of Diverse Parents with Disabilities with  Child Welfare System Involvement

Research: Life Circumstances of Diverse Parents with Disabilities with Child Welfare System Involvement

New research examines the life circumstances of parents with disabilities involved with the child welfare system, with a focus on parents from racial and ethnic minority groups. Access the summary, also available soon in ASL format.

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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