Indispensable People
Making the Gospel Accessible to people of ALL abilities so that they may know Christ, grow in Him, and serve Him with the gifts He has given them.
Indispensable People
FQA: Exempt isn’t enough
We trace why churches are exempt from the ADA but called to a higher standard, then lay out practical steps for safe, welcoming ministry that serves people of all abilities. We share policy baselines, seizure and behavior plans, medication boundaries, and how to build social and spiritual access.
• ADA exemption contrasted with a call to excellence
• Physical, social, and spiritual accessibility defined
• Insurance consultation and state-specific checks
• Volunteer screening, two-adult rule, bathroom protocols
• Seizure preparedness and individualized action plans
• Identifying on-site medical professionals and roles
• Behavioral safety plan for self/other harm risks
• Medication boundaries and emergency exceptions
• Documentation, training, and continuous improvement
• Vision for belonging and discipleship for all abilities
For deeper dives into these topics and more, check out indispensable-people.com and visit Amazon to purchase the books The Indispensable Kid and God's Full Accessibility and Indispensable People
Hi, my name is Tracy Coral and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a wife, mom, teacher, pastor, and missionary, and I believe that every person should have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in him, and serve him with the gifts that he is given, no matter their ability. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 25% of the population. However, over 80% of them are not inside the walls of our church. Let's dive into those hard topics, biblical foundations, perceptions, and world-changing ideas. Hey, hey, and welcome to this episode of Indispensable People. We are in a series of facts, questions, and answers, and we are ready to answer some more. So we're first of all, where do these questions come from? Who gets to submit these? Every year we do a training in our local area in Youngstown, Ohio, and we offer it free. And as a part of that registration, we ask people to submit a question that if they had anything they wanted to be answered in that particular day of training, what would it be? And so we have talked about a couple topics already, which is interaction with individuals with disabilities, how to serve them best. And now we're on to some logistics, right? So for those of you who really like the planning procedures stuff, here we go. And really, I'm not gonna give you a ton of information on that. I am gonna give you your basic generalities because every state is different and expectations are different, and your church insurance is applicable and all that kind of stuff. So here are the question. Well, here's the question. What are the legal requirements of a special needs ministry? Well, I'm gonna tell you a couple of things that you need to do. But first, we need to know that religious entities are exempt from Title III of the ADA. So that means that all of their facilities, programs, activities, whether they are religious or secular in nature, are exempt. So that means, and listen, the ADA just sets some mostly physical accessibility guidelines. And I say guidelines because it's meant to be sufficient. It is not meant to be excellent, but scripture calls the church to be excellent. So we go above and beyond what is considered sufficient to make sure that people with disabilities are welcomed, included, and have an accessible church. And we know that accessibility goes beyond the physical. It is not just physical accessibility, entrance to the building, using the restrooms, able to wash your hands, reach the towels. It is social, meaning, can I be with people in my own peer groups, build relationships where those relationships are interactive, that I can depend on them and they can depend on me. And last but certainly not least, are we spiritually accessible? Are we discipling all people? And so the ADA will never be able to direct or make that sufficient. But here's what you need to know. And I'm gonna say what I already said. The ADA is sufficient, the church is called to be excellent. So just remember that. So when it comes to the ADA, we're not required to you, you don't fall under all of those same things, but that doesn't mean that's where we stay. So the next thing that you're going to want to do as a church, if you are going to consider serving individuals with disabilities and have maybe specific ministry to them through events and other things like that, you want to check with your insurance. Like I said, every state is different, the requirements are different. And so if you bring it up to them, share with them what you're doing, the next thing that you're gonna want to do is you're gonna check your church's policies and procedures. Oftentimes people will say to me, Do you have a disability ministry policies and procedures book? I do. I utilize it. However, the majority of it is the same as my children's ministry and youth ministry in the church. So we have a lot of the same volunteer requirements. Our volunteers are background checked, no volunteers ever alone with a child and a teen or an individual. We have other things in place, such as, you know, bathroom usage and how that works to protect both parties, all of that kind of stuff that you would have in place for those ministries you're going to continue utilizing. There are a couple of things that I will highlight at this point with those policies and procedures that they just may not come up as regular things in your youth ministry or your children's ministry. However, you need to have some emergency procedures in place specifically for seizures. That's one of the bigger things that you're gonna maybe encounter. So knowing what the, you know, where the medical personnel in your church are or what the steps that are suggested by medical professionals to do and your reaction to it, you're gonna have, you know, a general medical direction, but also sometimes individuals will come with a plan. We have an individual who attends our respite nights. It's a teenager, and he has seizures that are typically very prominent, very invasive, severe for him, that he oftentimes ends up at the hospital. And so there are steps and policies and procedures in place that this is what we would do to help him in an emergency. And along with that, I will tell you that I don't do any big events without a medical professional that's volunteering in this space that way, and we're covered in in that respect. We also know who the medical professionals are in the church and where they sit on a Sunday morning so that they can be retrieved in a medical event. The second thing that I would tell you that you should be aware of and have a plan for that may or may not be in your children's or youth policies and procedures is a behavioral safety plan. So if an individual is harming themselves or potentially going to harm someone else, what do you do? So as a general rule of thumb, this is what we suggest. It doesn't apply to every person in every situation. So, you know, take parts of what you what work for what you need to do. But if an individual is in an unsafe situation where they are causing harm to themselves or harm to someone else, then we remove all the other someone else's from the space. After we've done that, then we move back any furniture or anything that's in the space that could cause harm. And then we have another individual get the parent or caregiver because at that point there are things that they can do that we cannot. So I'll give you a kind of it was a little bit of a crazy example. We had, I was serving at a very large event for my denomination, and we had lots and lots of kiddos, and we had several identified children with disabilities, and one of which could not be a part of or attend in the space with all the other kids just because her needs were significant and she would not thrive in that space. And so we had to set up a different space for her. And the parent indicated at one point that this particular individual, that if sh if she were to get angry or out of control, they instructed us to administer a an emergency sedation drug, at which I responded to the parent and I said, We do not do that. However, if there comes a situation, we will notify you. And if you feel that that's what needs to be done in that moment, then you may administer that medicine across the board, except at our summer getaway program, which is an overnight camp for people with disabilities of all ages. Aside from that environment, we do not pass medication. There are lots of layers and reasons. Obviously, there are emergency meds and you know, inhalers, epipens that are, you know, for life-threatening situations. And regardless if they had a disability or not, you would still teach someone how to do that and utilize that in a life-saving situation. So there are going to be things that you're going to need to consider extra in your policies and procedures, but I would I would really say that the majority of the things that you're going to consider for disability ministry are going to apply across the board. And the things that I mentioned, the behavior, the seizure policy, all that kind of stuff can happen with a child without a disability or a teenager without a disability or an adult without a disability. And so having plans and procedures in place will only better prepare everyone for that situation. Again, I will tell you to check your state requirements. And again, just because we're not required to do certain things doesn't mean we should consider ourselves exempt. Again, we're called to be excellent. So we want to make sure that we're living up to God's standards, not the world's standards, not the state standards. We can go above and beyond to make sure people know that they are loved, welcomed, wanted, and cared for inside the walls of our church. Do I know everything about disability ministry? Do I have all the answers? Have I done everything perfectly? I have absolutely not. But we are going to continue this conversation so that people of all abilities can have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in him, and serve him with the gifts that he has given them. For deeper dives into these topics and more, check out indispensablepeople.com and visit Amazon to purchase the books The Indispensable Kid and God's Full Accessibility and the Indispensable People.
