## Facts

- Gregory was born March 3, 1997, with serious medical and developmental needs, including mild cerebral palsy, feeding difficulties, and significant speech and language delays.
- Hospital staff filed a neglect report soon after birth due to concerns about the parents’ ability to provide safe care; DSS obtained temporary custody on March 11, 1997.
- Both parents had cognitive limitations and mental-health disabilities; Gregory’s condition required consistent, skilled caregiving and stable routines.
- The mother exhibited poor impulse control, difficulty focusing on the child, inability to learn basic caretaking skills, and made hostile statements about Gregory.
- The father was unable to provide adequate support; the parents frequently argued in Gregory’s presence, which aggravated his distress.
- DSS provided extensive, disability-tailored services, including a social worker experienced with cognitively limited parents, referrals to specialized parenting programs, extended/enhanced visitation arrangements, and an offered supervised living placement with 24-hour staff support.
- The parents participated inconsistently, missed training sessions and medical appointments, struggled during visits to apply parenting instruction, and the father declined the supervised residence option.
- DSS petitioned to dispense with parental consent to adoption under Massachusetts law; the trial court terminated parental rights, made detailed unfitness findings, and denied posttermination/postadoption visitation.

## Issues

1. Whether proceedings to terminate parental rights and dispense with consent to adoption constitute “services, programs, or activities” under Title II of the ADA, permitting the ADA to be raised as a defense.
2. Whether DSS failed to reasonably accommodate the father’s disabilities in providing reunification-related services, making termination improper.
3. Whether the trial court’s unfitness findings were supported by clear and convincing evidence.
4. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to order posttermination and postadoption visitation.

## Decision

- The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the decree terminating parental rights and dispensing with parental consent to adoption.
- The court held that termination-of-parental-rights proceedings are not “services, programs, or activities” under Title II of the ADA; the ADA may not be raised as a defense to the termination petition.
- Even if reasonable accommodation duties were considered in assessing DSS’s prepetition services, DSS had reasonably accommodated the parents’ disabilities.
- The unfitness findings were supported by clear and convincing evidence and were not clearly erroneous.
- The denial of posttermination and postadoption visitation was within the trial judge’s discretion and did not require remand.

## Legal Principles

- A termination-of-parental-rights proceeding is not a public “service, program, or activity” within Title II of the ADA; the ADA does not operate as a defense to prevent termination.
- Child-welfare agencies must provide reasonable accommodations in reunification and support services offered to parents with disabilities, consistent with antidiscrimination norms.
- Disability alone does not establish parental unfitness; however, disability-related limitations that, even with reasonable accommodation, prevent minimally adequate and safe parenting may support termination.
- Termination requires clear and convincing evidence of parental unfitness, and posttermination/postadoption visitation is discretionary and governed by the child’s best interests.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed termination and adoption-consent dispensation, holding that the ADA cannot be used as a direct defense in termination proceedings, that DSS reasonably accommodated the parents’ disabilities in provided services, that unfitness was proven by clear and convincing evidence, and that denial of posttermination visitation fell within the trial court’s discretion based on the child’s best interests.


In re Adoption of Gregory, 747 N.E.2d 120 (Mass. 2001)