National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities

08/28/2026

“I’m worried that when a parent emails us and says, ‘Hey, I’m going through a custody battle and my husband is telling the judge that I can’t parent my kid because I have a disability,’ that no one is going to be there to help them.” - Nicole Lomerson, Research associate at the Center and a physically disabled parent

From The New York Times 📰Federal Funding for Research on Parents With Disabilities Vanishes

Read the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/well/parents-disabilities-center-funding-cut-trump.html
Learn more about the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities funding crisis:TinyUrl.com/ParentingCenterFunding

📢 Join us in taking action. Spread this information and use our toolkit to talk to your representatives on this issue: TinyUrl.com/ParentingCenterFunding

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Image descriptions:
1: A screenshot of an article published in the New York Times by Roni Rabin. Text reads: Federal Funding for Research on Parents With Disabilities Vanishes. A photo of son helping his disabled mom use a Hoyer lift to get into bed.
2: A comment from Nicole Lomerson, Research associate at the Center and a physically disabled parent. Quote. I’m worried that when a parent emails us and says, ‘Hey, I’m going through a custody battle and my husband is telling the judge that I can’t parent my kid because I have a disability,’ that no one is going to be there to help them.
3: A comment from Michael Lewis, vice president of policy with the nonprofit American Association of People with Disabilities. Quote. All of this is a very clear pattern, part of an effort to roll back disabilities rights and civil rights protections for people with disabilities.
4: Text reads: “Take action: Share this post. Use our toolkit to contact your representatives. Use our pre-made graphics and alt text to spread the word. Tiny U R L dot com forward slash Parenting Center Funding.”

08/27/2026

An Update on the Future of the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities
August 27, 2026

Thank you to everyone who has supported the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities over the past decade and especially over the past month. We are deeply grateful for the extraordinary support we have received from disabled parents and other community members, disability advocacy organizations, researchers, policymakers, and others who value our work.

At this time, we do not have a clear path forward for continued federal funding of the Center. Our current National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) funding ends on August 31, 2026, and we have not received any assurances about future funding. Although our current grant period is ending, we remain committed to completing and sharing projects, research findings, and briefs that are currently underway. At the same time, we are actively pursuing other opportunities to sustain this important work and preserve the expertise, resources, and partnerships built over the past ten years. We will continue to provide updates as we learn more about the future of the Center.

We remain enormously grateful for NIDILRR’s support over the past decade. That investment has enabled the Center to build a national body of research, resources, training, technical assistance, and partnerships focused on parents with disabilities and their families.

Our deepest thanks go to everyone who has raised awareness, reached out to policymakers, shared the Center’s work, and expressed support for parents with disabilities and their families. Your continued support means a great deal to all of us.

Thank you,
The National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities staff

Visit our website to more about the Center's funding situation and explore ways you can continue to support this work:

The National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities—the nation's only research center dedicated to advancing the rights, health, and well-being of parents with disabilities and their families—may be forced to close after the federal government withdrew the funding opportunity that has his...

08/26/2026

From The New York Times: "Federal Funding for Research on Parents With Disabilities Vanishes"
The government gave no explanation for terminating the funding, which for decades has supported the only national center focused on the issue.

Read the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/well/parents-disabilities-center-funding-cut-trump.html
Learn more about the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities funding crisis: https://heller.brandeis.edu/parents-with-disabilities/about/nrcpd-funding-2026.html

The government gave no explanation for terminating the funding, which for decades has supported the only national center focused on the issue.

08/26/2026

Join the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities for three upcoming webinars about the work we’ve accomplished over the past five years! Center researchers will present their work and then engage in a discussion with disabled parents about the work’s meaning, purpose, and impact.

Webinar Sessions:
1. Policy Overview and Next Steps
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 1–2 PM ET
2. Trainings for Professionals and Next Steps
Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 1–2 PM ET
3. Peer Support Interventions for Disabled Parents
Monday, September 28, 2026 at 12–1 PM ET

Learn more and register on Zoom: TinyURL.com/StateOfScience2026

Accessibility
Each webinar will have simultaneous American Sign Language interpretation and English closed captioning. For any other accommodations, please email [email protected] as soon as possible.
The webinars will be recorded and made available after the webinar on our website and YouTube channel.

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Image description:
The National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities State of the Science Webinar Series promotional graphic. Graphic of a parent using a wheelchair holding hands with two family members alongside graphics of a pie chart and bar chart. Webinar 1. Policy Overview and Next Steps. Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 1–2 PM ET. Webinar 2. Trainings for Professionals and Next Steps. Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 1–2 PM ET. Webinar 3. Peer Support Interventions for Disabled Parents. Monday, September 28, 2026 at 12–1 PM ET. Series will be held on zoom. American Sign Language and closed captions will be available.



The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University Brandeis University

08/16/2026

"I can’t tell you the number of times doctors have asked me over the years would you like to have a hysterectomy? And that has never been for medical justification. There’s never been me indicating that that’s something I wanted. But doctors continue to have those eugenics based beliefs that people with disabilities should not be reproducing."

In a recent episode of the UpEnd podcast, Dr. Robyn Powell, Senior Research Associate at the Lurie Institute, discusses how the child welfare system discriminates against parents with disabilities and perpetuates stigma around mental health.

Learn more and listen here: https://zurl.co/TdPxG
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Image Description: Light yellow graphic for the UpEnd podcast episode titled “What About Disabled Parents?” The graphic includes a portrait of Dr. Robyn Powell, a white woman with brown hair, beside the episode title text.

08/16/2026

Danielle Kelly reflects on her experience of parenting with a disability and how becoming a mother changed the way she understood her own ADHD. In her latest blog, Kelly shares how letting go of shame and unrealistic expectations helped her embrace accommodations, practice self-compassion, and recognize the strengths her lived experience brings to parenting.

Read the full story on our blog: https://zurl.co/Ryjch

Image description: A graphic featuring a photo of Danielle Kelly, a white woman with long brown hair, wearing a black top. A large light-blue speech bubble contains a quote from Kelly: “Parenting with a disability does not make me less capable of loving, understanding, protecting, or advocating for my child. If anything, it has made me more empathetic to how hard it can be to move through a world not built for your brain. And maybe that understanding is one of the greatest gifts I can offer him.” The quote is attributed to Danielle Kelly and her blog post, “I Thought I Was Failing at Motherhood... Then I Realized I Was Parenting With a Disability.”



Chaos & Caffeine - ADHD Parenting Podcast

08/06/2026

“As a Black father with a disability, the history of just being able to have a family has always been one not necessarily possible.” -Keith Jones, Advisory Board member for the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities

From GBH / GBH News 📰 Staff at Brandeis research center for disabled parents say federal funding cut may force closure: https://zurl.co/EJYao

📢 Join us in taking action. Spread this information and use our toolkit to talk to your representatives on this issue: TinyUrl.com/ParentingCenterFunding

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Image descriptions:
1: A screenshot of an article published in GBH News by Meghan Smith. Text reads: “Staff at Brandeis research center for disabled parents say federal funding cut may force closure” Nicole Lomerson with her daughter Evelyn Schickling at the State House in Boston in March 2026.

2: A comment from Keith Jones, a Lurie Institute advisory board member, has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair, father of four. “As a Black father with a disability, the history of just being able to have a family has always been one not necessarily possible. We’ve never had a moment to exist without the government specifically targeting the ability to even be a parent.”

3: A comment from Monika Mitra, the Lurie Institute’s director and a professor of disability policy. “You’re not just removing another grant. It’s dismantling a national resource that’s [used by] thousands of disabled parents in the United States, service providers, researchers, policymakers, the families of disabled people, prospective parents.” A comment from Nicole Lomerson, a research associate at the Center and a physically disabled parent. Nicole shares about a technical assistance request where, quote, a parent with a physical disability who uses a wheelchair who is doing a Google search and realizes that there really is no adaptive baby equipment. That’s the one that’s keeping me up at night. Unquote.

4: Another comment by Nicole Lomerson. I got into this work because I had a baby in one of the big hospitals in Boston in the NICU, and my ability to parent her based on my disability was called into question. Then, the text reads: “Without new funding, the nation’s only research center on parents with disabilities will disappear by August 31, 2026.”

5: Text reads: “Take action: Share this post. Use our toolkit to contact your representatives. Use our pre-made graphics and alt text to spread the word. TinyUrl.com/ParentingCenterFunding.”

08/04/2026

"This center has made me so heard and seen." - Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Advisory Board member for the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities

From The Waltham Times 📰 Brandeis research center for disabled parents confronts closure after federal funding opportunity removed: https://zurl.co/HTNdJ

📢 Join us in taking action. Spread this information and use our toolkit to talk to your representatives on this issue: TinyUrl.com/ParentingCenterFunding

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Image descriptions:
1: A screenshot of an article published in the Waltham Times by Charlie Johnson. Text reads: “Brandeis research center for disabled parents confronts closure after federal funding opportunity removed.” Exterior of Brandeis's Heller Building where the research center is located.

2: A comment from Morénike Giwa-Onaiwu, and Advisory board member, mother of six, who is autistic and has rheumatoid arthritis and other disabilities: “You’ve dangled a carrot in front of [disabled parents], and now if they can no longer access the support that they need, the answers that they need. It would have been better to just leave us at the vortex that we had before.”

3: A comment from Nicole Lomerson, a research associate at the Center and a physically disabled parent: “I’m a disabled parent who knows what it’s like to have my ability to parent my child called into question by people with more power and authority than I have, and that was incredibly terrifying, and that made my career take a hard left turn towards this issue.” A comment from Miriam Heyman, the Center’s project manager. Regarding a parent’s barriers to getting their child to school, quote: "If it was the child's disability, then they would have had to provide a bus. But because it was a parental disability, there was no mandate for that school to provide a bus, so they didn't."

4: Comment from Monika Mitra, the Lurie Institute’s director and a professor of disability policy: This is the only center which focuses on the needs, the experiences of disabled parents. Then, the text reads: “Without new funding, the nation’s only research center on parents with disabilities will disappear by August 31, 2026.”

5: Text reads: “Take action: Share this post. Use our toolkit to contact your representatives. Use our pre-made graphics and alt text to spread the word. TinyUrl.com/ParentingCenterFunding.”


Brandeis University The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University Disabled Parenting Project

07/30/2026

💬 “This is not the cancellation of one proposed study. It threatens a functioning national infrastructure built over ten years.” - Robyn Powell

Read about the far reaching impacts of the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities' impending closure on the disability community of in this Forbes piece by Keely Cat Wells: https://www.forbes.com/sites/keelycatwells/2026/07/30/americas-only-research-center-for-disabled-parents-faces-closure/

📢 Join us in taking action. Spread this information and use our toolkit to talk to your representatives on this issue: TinyUrl.com/ParentingCenterFunding

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Image descriptions:
1: A screenshot of an article published in Forbes by Keely Cat-Wells. Text reads: “America's Only Research Center For Disabled Parents Faces Closure.” A disabled mom of color smiles as she holds her toddler up in the air. The mom uses a full leg prosthetic.

2: A comment from Robyn Powell, a disability legal scholar, a team member at the Center and lead author of the landmark 2012 Rocking the Cradle report: “The ultimate loss will not be measured only in unfinished research or outdated webpages. It will be measured in policies made without evidence, professionals working without guidance, parents unable to find help, and children unnecessarily separated from their parents because systems continue to misunderstand disability."

3: A comment from Amy AbuShanab,Associate Director for Administration and Engagement of Lurie Institute: “The biggest loss falls on disabled parents themselves, through the disappearance of technical assistance, resources, and the training that improves practice among practitioners, attorneys, and child welfare workers.” Then, a comment from Nicole Lomerson: “Reflecting on the Center's existence and the first time seeing its website, Nicole wrote, ‘it was literally the first time I saw my own experience as a brand new mom validated.’”

4: Comment from Robyn Powell: I am afraid the absence of research will be mistaken for the absence of harm. When no one is collecting data, monitoring laws, evaluating interventions, and documenting disabled parents' experiences, discrimination becomes easier to overlook and harder to challenge." Then, the text reads: “Without new funding, the nation’s only research center on parents with disabilities will disappear by August 31, 2026.”

5: Text reads: “Take action: Share this post. Use our toolkit to contact your representatives. Use our pre-made graphics and alt text to spread the word. TinyUrl.com/ParentingCenterFunding.”

07/30/2026

💬 "The ultimate loss will not be measured only in unfinished research or outdated webpages. It will be measured in policies made without evidence, professionals working without guidance, parents unable to find help, and children unnecessarily separated from their parents because systems continue to misunderstand disability." - Robyn Powell

Read about the far reaching impacts of the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities' impending closure on the disability community of in this Forbes piece by Keely Cat Wells: https://www.forbes.com/sites/keelycatwells/2026/07/30/americas-only-research-center-for-disabled-parents-faces-closure/

📢 Join us in taking action. Spread this information and use our toolkit to talk to your representatives on this issue: TinyUrl.com/ParentingCenterFunding

A decade of research serving 4.4 million disabled parents ends August 31 after HHS quietly withdrew the funding opportunity.