Justice Department Finds Arizona’s Department of Child Safety Discriminates Against Parents and Children with Disabilities
The Justice Department today announced its findings that the State of Arizona’s Department of Child Safety (DCS) violates Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by discriminating against parents, including foster parents and other caregivers, and children with disabilities.
Following a comprehensive investigation, the department found DCS failed to communicate effectively with parents and children with hearing disabilities, including by not providing interpreters. DCS also failed to reasonably accommodate the needs of parents with disabilities by, for example, not providing information in a simplified form. Finally, DCS denies parents with disabilities an equal chance to participate in and benefit from DCS programs and services.
“Under the ADA, parents and children with disabilities are entitled to fair and equal treatment by child welfare agencies,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Over four million parents with disabilities live in the United States, and discriminatory actions by child welfare agencies can have devastating and permanent consequences for parents and children. The Civil Rights Division is committed to ensuring that unlawful discrimination does not interfere with a parent’s opportunity to stay with or be reunited with their child and that separations are not prolonged because a child welfare agency does not give parents the effective communication and reasonable accommodations that the ADA guarantees.”
“Parents and children with disabilities deserve to be treated with dignity,” said U.S. Attorney Gary M. Restaino for the District of Arizona. “Our office will continue to work with the Civil Rights Division to guarantee that parents and children with disabilities are protected under the law, and to ensure that the Department of Child Safety more meaningfully accommodates disabilities in the pursuit of better outcomes for families.”
The department provided written findings in a letter to Arizona and DCS detailing the minimum steps DCS must take to fix the identified violations. The department’s letter explains DCS violates the ADA by denying effective communication and auxiliary aids and services to parents, caregivers and children with hearing disabilities. For example, DCS did not get American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters for deaf and hard of hearing parents, caregivers and children, including during important meetings and when children were removed from their homes. And DCS did not communicate with parents with vision disabilities and other disabilities that affect communication in ways those parents could understand. As a result, parents, caregivers and children with disabilities could not understand what was happening at times during their DCS cases and interactions with DCS.
The letter also documents DCS’s failure to make reasonable accommodations that parents with disabilities need, even though those accommodations could help parents address DCS’ concerns. For instance, DCS had safety concerns when parents with intellectual and developmental disabilities, one of whom also has a vision disability, had trouble making bottles and testing bath water temperature. But DCS did not consider whether simple accommodations could help the parents safely do those tasks, like a bottle with large-print measurements or a digital thermometer that uses colored lights or beeps to alert parents if bathwater is too hot or cold.
Finally, the department found that DCS also does not give parents with disabilities the chance to equally participate in DCS programs and services. For example, DCS relies on stereotypes and unfounded assumptions about parents with disabilities. In one instance, DCS delayed reunification based only on generalized concerns about whether a mother with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) could safely care for her young child because of her disabilities. But those concerns were based on stereotypes and speculation, not specific things the mother did.
If you or someone you know has a complaint about disability discrimination by DCS, please call 1-888-394-3540 (for TTY, dial 711 first) or file a complaint here. You can find more information about the rights of parents with disabilities here and in joint technical assistance from the Justice Department and Department of Health and Human Services. For more information on the ADA, please call the department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 1-800-514-0301 (TTY 1-833-610-1264) or visit www.ada.gov. For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt.
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
Source: Justice.gov
