Ohio Gov. Mark DeWine signed Senate Bill 202 on Monday. The bill prohibits authorities from denying or restricting participation in parenting activities based solely on disability. The law applies to custody and visitation rights, adoption, foster care and guardianship. Rights to these activities are not guaranteed to individuals with disabilities, but a disability does not prevent them from participating in caregiving.
Courts, public child services agencies, private child protection agencies, and private non-protection agencies all must comply with the new law and support services are “needed” to assist people with disabilities in their parenting activities. and reasonable. Such decisions must contain good reasons, and caregivers can challenge such decisions.
The bill continues to make use of the definition of disability set out in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which defines a disability as “a physical disability that materially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual.” defined as “physical or mental disability”.