ABSTRACT
In order to understand the special legal problems in protecting handicapped children, it is useful to examine the general approaches the law takes to protect children and to enhance the welfare of handicapped children. Parents may engage in unwise, even nasty behavior toward their children, but without harm or substantial risk of harm, it is difficult to argue a compelling state interest justifying intrusion upon family privacy. Subsidies are available for prospective adoptive parents who are willing to take responsibility for a handicapped child. Consistent with the tendency to view child maltreatment as the product of a parent's pathology, the dispositional inquiry often focuses almost exclusively on the "fitness" and mental health of the parent. A child's handicap may work at times to make termination of parental rights more difficult than it would be otherwise. The principal positive effect of termination is to render a child free for adoption.
