Research & Evaluation
Termination of Parental Rights-Legislative Change Process
The process of changing child protection and child custody statutes requires careful attention to legislative strategy. Using a core planning group can help to formulate a legislative change strategy. Two areas that require planning include how to frame your message and how to garner support. The following are some critical components to devising legislative change strategy aimed at removing discriminatory language and adding protections for parents with disabilities involved in child protection and child custody proceedings.
Frame the issue
An important step in legislative change strategy is to pay careful attention to framing the issue of concern. Framing an issue involves describing and explaining the context of an issue in the way your target audience understands. Thus, it is vitally important to understand the attitudes and beliefs of your target audience within your state, and be aware of any recent events or issues within your state with which you may be able to connect. Discrimination is certainly one way of framing this issue, and one reason why state laws should be changed. When statutory language lists disability within the grounds for termination of parental rights and does not require states to allow parents with disabilities to show their parenting capabilities with the assistance of adaptive technology or parental supports, there is a clear argument that these laws are unfair to parents with disabilities. However, there are other ways to frame this issue which may resonate better with some audiences. For example, in the child welfare system, there are currently three central themes: child safety, child permanency, and child well-being. Tying a legislative change strategy to these three themes may work well with some audiences in some states. Such an approach could involve arguing that treating a parent with a disability unfairly ultimately hurts his or her child, as removing a child from his or her parent disrupts the child-parent bond (e.g. permanency), which impacts a child’s well-being.
Key stakeholders
When proposing changes to the child custody and termination of parental rights statutes in your state, it is important to consider the key stakeholders in this issue. Key stakeholders are the individuals or groups who have an interest in the outcome of this proposed change -- either positive or negative. Knowing the key stakeholder groups within your state, and anticipating their positions on this issue, is an important step in building a coalition of support. For this issue, key stakeholders may include: disability advocacy groups (e.g. NAMI, The Arc, CILs), child welfare advocacy groups (e.g. Children’s Defense Fund, Prevent Child Abuse America, Child Welfare League of America), parent groups, state prosecutors, Protection and Advocacy centers, parents with disabilities, children of parents with disabilities, professional association groups (e.g. State Chapter of National Association of Social Workers), civil liberties organizations and state and county agencies (e.g. Governor’s Councils on Developmental Disabilities, Ombudsman offices, child protection services, developmental disability services, mental health services).
The more that key stakeholders can join into a coalition of support, the more likely your process is to succeed. Stakeholder groups can serve as a resource to your effort in a number of ways, including: providing information, helping to make connections with legislators, providing personal stories, providing a network for coalition building, deciding how to frame and market the issue, and providing financial backing to the effort. However, not all key stakeholder groups may support this legislative change effort, so it is wise to contact each group thoughtfully.