New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) is currently being sued in federal court for failing to provide adequate services to parents with intellectual disabilities. Nationwide, parents with disabilities are more likely to have their children removed by child welfare agencies than parents without disabilities. Rather than being referred to resources that could support them in their parenting, parents with disabilities are too often separated from their children based on assumptions about what they can and cannot do. This panel will discuss these trends and the kinds of supports and services ACS could provide to strengthen families and keep them together.

Moderator: Emma Baber-Kessler, LCSW, Sinergia

Panelists:

• Donald Lash, Executive Director Sinergia, Author "When the Welfare People Come"

• Lauren Shapiro, Director of Brooklyn Defender Services, Family Defense Practice

• Thalia Julme, Staff Attorney at New York Legal Assistance Group