 Major sponsors for Abledon on Air include Green Mountain Support Services of Vermont, Washington County Mental Health, Israel, Geffen Foods Israel, Osam Foods Israel. Major media sponsors for Abledon on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, www.thisisthebronks.info, Associated Press Media Editors, U.S. Press Court, Domestic and International. Hello and welcome to this edition of Abledon on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs concerning the achievements of the different label. I've always been your host, Lawrence Siler, and Arlene is here today. Say hi, Arlene. Yes. On this episode of Abledon on Air, before we get to our episode today, and we're going to talk about the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we would like to thank our sponsors, Green Mountain Support Services, Washington County Mental Health, Israel, and many other sponsors. Thank you for sponsoring Abledon on Air. Now, we'd like to introduce Alice Goaltz. She is a mother of a child with a... She is a disabled person who we've had on the show previously in 2015 when Abledon on Air first started. Here at Orca Media. Alice, why don't you tell a little bit about your story? Hi, my name is Alice Goaltz, and I just wanted to share with you. I'm a parent with a disability, and my rights would take it away from me due to my disability. How were your rights, just so people can understand your story. Again, how were your rights taken away being disabled? Rights were taken away as the state of Vermont had not given me any services that were recommended by doctors and you on. And this went into court when they were terminating my parental rights. And it states in the Miranda that the state of Vermont DCF is supposed to give parents with disabilities reasonable accommodations. And it just was disregarded by the state of Vermont. Well, why don't you explain a little bit? Well, there's a law that's supposed to be passed according to what you told me. There's a law that's supposed to be passed along with the disability law project. If I'm not mistaken, it's in Washington DC, right? Can you tell me a little bit about that and when it's supposed to be coming to pass? Exactly what's gonna happen, but on Monday, the 27th, there'll be a Zoom meeting with somebody from Washington DC. And I think it's a sender. And that's when I'll be able to, I will be able to ask questions and other parents with disabilities will be able to ask questions. Now, according to certain states, such as South Carolina, let me pull this up quick. According to certain states, such as South Carolina, they already passed a law, it's not right here. South Carolina legislation to protect the rights of parents with disabilities. It was already passed in 2017. According to this, May 11th, 2017, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed House Bill 3538, which amended South Carolina Code to add a new chapter to the South Carolina Code for Persons with Disabilities Rights to Parent Act. Abled South Carolina, which is an agency that works with partners, including the Department of Social Services, DSS, and Protection of Advocacy, People with Disabilities, Inc., to draft a bill which codified with practices in sharing the protection of rights of individuals with disabilities. The law requires the Department of Social Services in South Carolina, law enforcement, and the family of probate courts, and probate courts, among others, to protect the parents and rights of people with disabilities by establishing requirements and safeguards applicable in child custody, child protection and probate guardianship proceedings to ensure that persons with disabilities are not denied. The key word here is denied, the right to parent or have custody or visitation rights of a child because of a disability. Let's take a look at the old report from Al Jazeera, America. Many groups helped Alice Goltz, including the Council on Disability in Washington, D.C. They helped her tell her story through Al Jazeera, America. Let's take a look at that report. Every afternoon, Alice Goltz stands at the corner of Union Elementary. Have a nice afternoon, bye-bye. And every afternoon, she looks at the children she helps cross the street and thinks of the daughter she lost. In 2007, I had a little baby girl and the day after I gave birth to my daughter, two men had came into my hospital room stating that DCF was taking custody of my daughter. They already made their minds up that they were gonna have my daughter. I didn't give my child up. She was taken, she was stolen from me. A nurse first tipped off the DCF, the Department of Children and Families. Alice Goltz has Fragile X Syndrome, a condition which results in a mild cognitive disability and her arm shake when she's under stress at a disorder called dystonia. But she insists neither should disqualify her from taking care of her child. I feel my rights will violate as a parent with a disability. Parents learn differently, you know, it may take me longer, but no parent should have to lose their child. And who are you to make the decision who's a good parent and who's not a good parent? I've never met a parent who's more dedicated to her child than Alice. Really? Psychologist and parenting expert Susan Yuan assessed Alice twice. Yuan was tasked to see if Alice was up to the demands of being a single parent. Was Alice fit to be a parent? I definitely believe she's fit to be a parent. I still believe she's fit to be a parent. She needed to build both her skills and her confidence. There were things that she needed to learn, but you figure out how to teach them. But the Department of Children and Families disagreed. With the baby's father out of the picture, they tried to work with Alice for a year, but failed to give her social workers trained in handling those with intellectual disabilities. The DCF took Alice's daughter into state custody and moved to terminate Alice's parental rights. You feel like you were set up? Yes. Set up to fail? Set up to fail, just like in court cases. I felt like this is like being a prisoner. The only thing is I didn't have handcuffs on me. Handcuffed by what some say is a bias against parents with disabilities. There are more than four million parents living with disabilities. A staggering 80% with intellectual or developmental disabilities have children removed from their homes. 37 states allowed disability to be used as a strike against parents seeking custody. The fact that a parent has a disability does not in itself result in us seeking custody. The question is, does the disability impact the parent's ability to safely parent? Sheila Duranlow of Vermont's Department of Children and Families says the answer isn't always easy. I think we can always make improvements in everything that we do, and I think the resource issue is very real. Duranlow admits her resources are limited. In Vermont, each social worker handles an average workload of at least 17 families, often with multiple children. Susan Yuan and others fighting for disability rights say more support would protect people with disabilities and their children. Parents with disabilities aren't going to go away. And people with intellectual disabilities, for instance, are encouraged now to have real lives and to have real relationships. And that can include intimacy. And they're going to be babies. So what we need to do is to build capacity around the country. This is my daughter. One month, two months, three months. Wow, she's beautiful. These are pictures from our visits. Does she know who you are when you're visiting her? Yes. She would wait at the door for me. She looked through the glass window. She knew I was coming. Alice knows she won't get her now eight-year-old daughter back. The little girl was adopted by a foster family. But she holds on to hope that she can maintain a connection with the child she last saw only by chance on a city street. We hugged and kissed, and it was a happy, joyful, sad time. It was just by coincidence. Yes. I guess I was, like, startled, but I was happy. Because even though they weren't going to give me a visit, that God was going to make sure I have a visit. Basically, you had your child, and after birth, after you gave birth, two men came into your hospital room. Here's the thing that people don't understand. Your child knows nothing. Meanwhile, your child got stolen from you or, per se, taken from you by the Department of Children and Families. So what actually happened? Two men came in. They came in unannounced. I mean, you weren't told about this, correct? Did you know who those two men were? So, you see, the Americans with Disabilities Act does protect people, but who does it protect? It's not really... We have problems here. Under Title II, it's supposed to give technological help for people with disabilities to help with parents, parents in classes, parents in counseling, et cetera. But meanwhile, states are taking your children away. Does that make sense? No. That doesn't make sense. So there has to be... There's problems with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Yes, it helps certain things with employment, but it needs to help all around. That's the problem. And how do states really determine... Yes, you had Susan and Nuan helping you, but how do states really determine if a person's really qualified? They really can't see... Yes, you have tremors, but they really can't see your disability. That's the problem. That was the state... No, but that was the state's... Do you get my point here? I'm trying to help you. I'm trying to explain to you, they disregarded... They disregarded what you just had read about protecting parents. That was also put into court, which was also disregarded. Why was it disregarded? Was there a reason? Because it shows that it did not want me and my daughter to be reunited. So when this law supposedly is passed, how old is your daughter now? Thirteen. Okay. So five more years supposedly, or five or six more years or so, when your daughter turns 18 or 19, they're looking for you. But when this law passes, do you think that this law will give you more rights as a parent? Yes or no? Well, if it's in... I'm not arguing with you. No. If this law passes, then the parents or the foster parents that have your child have no choice but to give you visitation rights. So basically, if they don't give you visitation rights, they can either go to jail or fined or something. Or, you know... No, but according to this law, if when you show up at the door with somebody, obviously maybe supervisor, I'm not sure, but if you show up to the door and ask for visitation, if they don't abide by this law, they can get in trouble. Point blank. Because if there's a law that is being put into place, and if people don't abide by that, then it's in your favor, pretty much. But in terms of the American Disabilities Act, let's get to this. This Sunday is the 30th anniversary of the American Disabilities Act. Do you feel that being a parent and also a person with a disability or a person with a challenge, do you feel that the American Disabilities Act needs to change? Because there's a lot of things that people with disabilities... I mean, okay, we're in a current administration. I'm not going to talk bad about the president, but the president has done things like take services away from people with disabilities and from, like, state of New York. They're getting ready to cut more services. How much services can you cut? You're basically taking from Peter to pay Paul, and you're cutting from nothing. Yeah, no, but I'm saying OPWDD in New York, for example, there is so much disarray. First, during coronavirus, they don't allow people who have people in group homes and nursing homes because, you know, they don't see their family members. Then they get ready to cut certain services. It's like example. It's like you have a roast beef, right? A really nice roast beef. If you get down to that roast beef and you're trying to cut the fat away from that roast beef, and if the roast beef has all that fat, you're basically cutting the gristle. You're cutting from nothing. You can't feed people just the fat. You got to feed them a nutritious meal. See my point? Yes. So that's the analogy I'm using here. How do you see the American Disabilities Act? How do you see it needs to change, both for being a parent and other services? Because the parent is disabled. Now, it's taken away. This 1972 law should be changed too. Now, explain to our listening audience the difference between Social Security and SSI because, okay, they're taking, the child is taking or the Social Security is being taken and given to the child. You don't have to say the amount. But on the father's side, they can't take anything because he's on SSI. So what's the difference? What is the difference there between regular SSI and SSI? So much credit to add up to get this all-scary disability as SSI is the needs-based program. Well, okay, what's a needs-based program mean? Does that mean that the money can't be taken from that program? He touched on the person. So he's not giving child support? Yeah, thank you. There's no child support being given, right? You want to say anything? Try to speak a little louder, okay? Go ahead. There ain't so much of a parent with disabilities. What is he talking about? He's cutting this, he's cutting that. He is a child with a disability himself. So he hides everything behind this. Okay, so we have 10 minutes left. Can we have some advice? Give some advice to parents who are really going through this and knowing that this is the anniversary of the American Disability Act, okay? Today this will be changed. What do you mean the more people know the better it is? Explain that. A lot of people don't know what's happening. I have shared my story, my Alps Zero report with parents, and they were so horrified. They cried about it. People need to know what's going on. Well, yes, sure. Think about it. The child comes from you. You're the mother, okay? It's the same thing. When a child dies and that parent bore the child, you know, that's a bad thing, right? It's the same thing. Someone takes your child away and then it goes, oh my God, oh my God, you get worried. It's a loss. Okay, my question is this. Your child got taken away from you. But there was a point where you were in Vermont going from place to place, right? So you had your child with you. Yes. But wait a minute. If your child got taken away, how did you have your child with you? That's confusing. I would go into custody with her. So I would live at the same home with her. But that never happened. It did. But the last home that we lived in was in the state of Virginia. It was with the so-called friends who was also a single mom who had us in Maryland and then we moved to Virginia. And then the child's father was supposed to be paying tax. So at that time, I put on my door that we had 30 days to get out. Virginia temporary foster care. And I was somewhere else in Virginia. And there were supposed to be two court hearings, one in Vermont and one in Virginia. I was never on the court hearings in Vermont. But when Virginia had found that Vermont was taking custody back, they told me to go wherever. So I took two airplanes to get to the state. And my daughter came back to the state May 2, 2008. I came back May 3, 2008. May 5, 2008. I came into the courtroom. And my attorney had asked what business set up for the mom. And my case worker was there and some files were there at that time. And she had said, no, we didn't know the mother wasn't coming. The mother was coming. The judge, the first judge had ordered five-day visits with my daughter. And then when they went for CPR, we had a different judge. A what? They went to what? We went for termination from D.C. I went for termination of parental rights. We had a different judge. And in our case, the judge was really bad. He was fall asleep on the bench. He was fighting with my attorney. There was something put in for the ADA law, which was just disregarded as I was entitled to get the physical accommodations. And D.C.F. refused to do that. So do you think D.C.F. It basically comes down with also the judge too. You were right after our case. Right after our case, the judge. Do you think? And then in 2014, we write a letter to the council on disabled. And then they send out zero. And it gets revealed. And there's still no change in this state. The state of Vermont looking here where a social worker had got shot and the person was mentally ill. And now she's... Social worker is gone. Our children have to suffer for the lost. And they still don't change. Do you think D.C.F. I'm gonna ask you two questions. Do you think D.C.F. If this law is passed, using D.C.F. of Vermont will give you an apology? Arlene, before we end, do you have any more questions? Do you have any questions you want to add? Take your time. I think after this... I think after this people are gonna start to think once this is passed, I think more rights are gonna be given to parents who are dealing with this. Alice, we want to thank you for joining us in this edition of Abledon. Anything else you want to say before we end? I just want to say thank you very much for having me and thank you for supporting parents with disabilities and other disabilities as you are disabled too. Mm-hmm. Well, we consider ourselves able because, you know, this gets taken out of it. Anyway, we would like to thank our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services and many others for joining us and for sponsoring this program. Again, thank you for joining us in this edition of Abledon on Air. I'm Lauren Seiler. See you next time. Sponsors for Abledon on Air include Green Mountain Support Services of Vermont, Washington County Mental Health, Alaa, Israel. Food sponsors for Abledon on Air include Geffen Foods Israel, Osam Foods Israel. Major media sponsors for Abledon on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, www.ThisIsTheBronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, U.S. Press Court, Domestic and International.