A Case Record Review of Termination of Parental Rights Cases Involving Parents with a Disability

We completed an in-depth case record review of 31 child protection cases where a young parent with a disability had their parental rights terminated after involvement in the child protection system. We identified parents through matching education records with child protection records. The most common disabilities were mental health, behavioral, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. We found that parental disability was not correctly identified in about half of child welfare cases, with about one-quarter not being recorded as having a disability at all. Only two of the parents had service modifications noted that directly related to their disability, and only about one tenth received appropriate modifications. The most common modifications were repetition, reminders, and extra time for parent understanding. An expert was only consulted in about one-fifth of the cases, and the expert was typically a psychologist. The parents, all who had their rights terminated, had high rates of completion of services within their case plan (87%), with about one-third completing all services.