Disabled Children And The Law

Now in its completely updated second edition, this accessible guide provides essential information about how the law can be used to promote good practice and policy development for disabled children and young people. The authors take an anti-discriminatory and inclusive approach that involves parents and children in decision-making and advocacy. They summarise recent research on common needs and problems of disabled children, young adults and their families, and what support services are valued by them. Individual chapters cover issues affecting children at different stages in the lifecourse, including receiving diagnosis, ensuring educational and social inclusion, and establishing autonomy and independence in early adulthood. The overlapping legal responsibilities of social services, health and education are explained and changes arising from the Children Act 2004 are highlighted. Disabled Children and the Law is an essential reference for practitioners, policy makers, students and families.

This book explores the series of issues that emerge at the intersection of disability, care and family law. Disability studies is an area of increasing academic interest. In addition to a subject in its own right, there has been growing concern to ensure that mainstream subjects diversify and include marginalised voices, including those of disabled people. Family law in modern times is often based on an "able-bodied autonomous norm" but can fit less well with the complexities of living with disability. In response, this book addresses a range of important and highly topical issues: whether care proceedings are used too often in cases where parents have disabilities; how the law should respond to children who care for disabled parents – and the care of older family members with disabilities. It also considers the challenges posed by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, particularly around the different institutional and state responsibilities captured in the Convention, and around decision-making for both disabled adults and children. This interdisciplinary collection – with contributors from law, criminology, sociology and social policy as well as from policy and activist backgrounds – will appeal to academic family lawyers and disability scholars as well as students interested in issues around family law, disability and care.

This open access book presents a discussion on human rights-based attributes for each article pertinent to the substantive rights of children, as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It provides the reader with a unique and clear overview of the scope and core content of the articles, together with an analysis of the latest jurisprudence of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. For each article of the UNCRC, the authors explore the nature and scope of corresponding State obligations, and identify the main features that need to be taken into consideration when assessing a State’s progressive implementation of the UNCRC. This analysis considers which aspects of a given right are most important to track, in order to monitor States' implementation of any given right, and whether there is any resultant change in the lives of children. This approach transforms the narrative of legal international standards concerning a given right into a set of characteristics that ensure no aspect of said right is overlooked. The book develops a clear and comprehensive understanding of the UNCRC that can be used as an introduction to the rights and principles it contains, and to identify directions for future policy and strategy development in compliance with the UNCRC. As such, it offers an invaluable reference guide for researchers and students in the field of childhood and children’s rights studies, as well as a wide range of professionals and organisations concerned with the subject.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the only UN treaty to date in which the people who are its target, that is disabled people, were actively involved in its drafting and the only one which requires the active participation of disabled people in its implementation. This does not, of course, automatically guarantee the direct participation of all disabled people. This is especially so for children with disabilities, whose status as legal minors may inhibit them from participating in decisions affecting their lives. This book focuses on the participation rights of the disabled child with regard to health, education, homelife and relationships, highlighting ways in which these rights are safeguarded and promoted throughout the EU, as well as exploring the factors that put these rights at risk. Finally, this groundbreaking text analyses whether disabled children’s needs for assistance in order to realise their participation rights results in fewer opportunities to participate or in an increase in support in order for them to be able to do so.

This book explores the series of issues that emerge at the intersection of disability, care and family law. Disability studies is an area of increasing academic interest. In addition to a subject in its own right, there has been growing concern to ensure that mainstream subjects diversify and include marginalised voices, including those of disabled people. Family law in modern times is often based on an "able-bodied autonomous norm" but can fit less well with the complexities of living with disability. In response, this book addresses a range of important and highly topical issues: whether care proceedings are used too often in cases where parents have disabilities; how the law should respond to children who care for disabled parents – and the care of older family members with disabilities. It also considers the challenges posed by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, particularly around the different institutional and state responsibilities captured in the Convention, and around decision-making for both disabled adults and children. This interdisciplinary collection – with contributors from law, criminology, sociology and social policy as well as from policy and activist backgrounds – will appeal to academic family lawyers and disability scholars as well as students interested in issues around family law, disability and care.

Going through a divorce is always tough, but when a child with special needs is involved it can be especially challenging. This book takes a clear and comprehensive look at every aspect of the legal divorce process, and addresses all of the legal issues that divorcing parents of children with special needs face. The author guides parents through the initial hurdles of choosing the right lawyer for their case, and explains exactly how to work with them to achieve the best possible outcome for all concerned. From agreeing upon child custody arrangements that meet the particular needs of the child, to making provision for child support payments, gathering together the documentation needed to prove a case, and dealing with financial issues such as debts and property distribution, no aspect of divorce is left uncovered. A set of checklists is included to ensure that parents consider everything they need to, and the book concludes with a useful list of further resources. Written by an experienced family lawyer who went through her own divorce when her son, who has autism, was six, this book offers much-needed guidance to divorcing parents of children with a variety of special needs.