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Children and Families Expert Group Chair Allison Schlesinger explains their position statement available at: Link .

Video description and transcript: Allison Schlesinger is standing in front an off-white wall. A small white NAD logo appears on bottom right corner.

ALLISON: Hello, my name is Allison Schlesinger. I am Chair of the Children and Families Expert Group, under the Public Policy Committee. We wrote a position paper focused on Child Welfare. The issues facing the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community tend to be about discrimination, with many stories about problems all over the United States. While we have the ADA there are still issues happening. Most issues happen because of misunderstandings, ignorance and ineffective communication. For example, no interpreter being provided at the initial child abuse investigation. Or sometimes interpreters are not provided during service provision such as parenting classes. Sometimes interpreters are not provided during court. The position paper explains all the issues and then outlines the best model to utilize. Currently, the best practice model is of the Department of Children and Family Services in Los Angeles, California. Reasons include: hearing and deaf staff members are fluent in ASL; they are knowledgeable with deaf culture, DeafBlind, late deafened and hard of hearing;
they have full time staff and interpreters; they know the service providers in the area; they accept cases county-wide; they accept cases from the beginning which is the initial investigation and then all the way through to the end such as adoption, foster care, or whatever else the outcome — the entire case; they also have dedicated courtrooms including specialized courtrooms where the judge, staff, and interpreters are all trained and have experience working with deaf families. That is the best practice model which is explained in the position paper. This position paper is to help you when working with your area’s child welfare system. Especially with the administration for when or if you need support and back up, this position paper will help. Now, what is next for the NAD is writing a model bill. The bill will be used to create system change related to ADA compliance, writing strong polices and procedures, and developing training programs. You can watch for updates from the NAD’s website. Thank you.

Video fades to a soft white background with several different font types showing "NAD" very quickly. Copyright video ends with the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) logo centered. Blue text below the logo appears, "A production of the National Association of the Deaf (copyright) 2016 All Rights Reserved".