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
FAQ: Build Safety, Preserve Dignity, Open The Gospel
We lay out the legal baseline for disability ministry and show how to move beyond minimums to real inclusion. We share de-escalation tools for meltdowns, clear safety steps, and policies that protect dignity while lowering risk.
• disability attendance gap and why it persists
• ADA exemptions for churches and local law checks
• insurance requirements tied to programs and events
• treating laws as baseline, aiming for excellence
• practical upgrades like adult changing tables and supplies
• building policies for seizures, elopement, evacuation
• sensory-aware drills and alarm planning
• de-escalation before meltdown, triggers, tools
• safety first, clear the room, create space
• legal limits on restraint and contacting caregivers
• two-adult rule and incident documentation
• dignity, privacy, and reducing audience effects
• policies as pathways to responsible gospel access
If you want to dive deeper on your own, you can check out the indispensable-people blog or my books on Amazon called The Indispensable Kid or Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People.
Hey, hey, my name is Tracy Coral and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a pastor, a teacher, a missionary, a mom, a wife, and I believe that every person should have access to the gospel so that they can know Christ, grow in him, and serve him with the gifts that he has given. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 15 to 20% of every community. And over 85% of those individuals do not attend church. 90% of pastors believe that they are a disability-friendly church, but only 20% of parents and families agree. Let's dive deep into hard topics, big questions, perceptions, stereotypes, and so much more. Thanks for joining me today. We are covering a series called Frequently Asked Questions, where viewers, listeners, readers have supported and have sent in some questions that they are wondering about. And we love to be able to answer this because if one person has a question, it is likely that many more have that question as well. So what's today's question? It is what are the legal requirements of a special needs ministry? And it's kind of a tricky question, simply because, first of all, if you're a religious entity, you we have different things that we're exempt from. For example, ADA, and so that affects your facilities, your programs, things like that. The number one thing that any church uh working to create a special needs ministry should consider is to check with your local and state law, make sure that your state requirements are specific to your church and your area. I am in Ohio, so what Ohio requires of me may be very different than what is required in another state. So that's something to consider. The next thing that any church should do is check in with their insurance. Different types of insurances have different requirements, and also based on your activity and event and all that other kind of stuff, it will apply specifically in that way. So that's gonna be an across the board thing to do. And here's what I want to encourage when it comes to this question of um what are our legal requirements? Those are going to be your base, right? Your foundation, you where you start, but it doesn't have to be where you finish. Whenever we talk about ADA and all that other kind of thing, we know that that means things are sufficient, but they aren't necessarily excellent. And just because you have a wheelchair ramp or an automatic door or an accessible bathroom, there are so many more stages and steps that could be provided that change the whole ball game. For example, in our accessible bathroom at my local church, we have an adult changing table. We also have a cabinet that has access to wipes and blue pads and sanitizing spray and gloves. Those are not required. None of that is required. It is chosen to do so to support families. Because if I'm coming to church with an adult child who needs to be changed, the other option is I'm finding the bathroom floor or hopefully closed room places that are probably not clean or sanitized for that use. And so as the church, we can go above and beyond. The next thing that we want to talk about is, and it's not really legal requirements, but I believe that every ministry should have some checks and balances in place. So I love some good policies and procedures. And we've talked in the past a little about policies and procedures and how that can apply, but you really want to be specific when it comes to special needs ministry and the things that you're going to experience within that ministry that you wouldn't in other places. And the flip side to that is use what you already have to build your foundation for your special needs ministry policies and procedures so that you can build on those kinds of things. So you're going to consider things like policies for seizures, what like evacuation, fire, tornado, all that kind of stuff to consider those with especially with physical disabilities and those with sensory sensitivities. I work at a school and the number one issue when you know you have to practice those drills and all that kind of stuff, the alarms go off and then they panic the individuals or the sounds of the alarms hit them. And so that becomes a struggle. So there's lots of things to consider within that. And we've covered some of the ADA before, we've covered some of the policies and procedures, but when we're considering the legal requirements, we want to understand that yes, they're requirements, they're the base of what we have to do, but we want to be able to go above and beyond because the church is expected to have excellence. It's scriptural, so we want to go above and beyond. We want to take into consideration the things that can be done, not just the basics. So with that, I want to go ahead and answer another question since that was kind of an easy, quick one. And there are lots of options that we could go with, but here is something that goes along with how do you prepare with policies and procedures and considering law requirements and stuff like that. So here's the question. When considering policies and procedures, one of the major considerations and probably the top question that I receive has to do with behavior and meltdowns. So this question is how do you handle a meltdown? First, I want to preface that we need to do a lot of things before we get to the meltdown. We want to use de-escalating strategies, which means like if we see someone is getting anxious or over, you know, overly upset, whatever, just those kind of differences in behaviors. If you start to see those kinds of things, you're going to do things so that it doesn't get worse. Do they need to take a break? Do they need to switch activities? Do they need noise-canceling headphones? Do they need a fitget? All of those kinds of things. We want to offer that. We want to look for triggers, things that are going to get them upset. And then we need to understand and know the things that helped them to calm. So we want to get all of that in place before we get to the meltdown place. Now, sometimes a meltdown can't be avoided. For instance, a buddy said to me last week, so-and-so has been doing so great, but last week was a little bit of a rough week. He wasn't feeling well. So there was something going on that triggered some behavior that wasn't natural for him. And so we could make some adjustments to help with that. Also, understanding that behavior is a form of communication. If they are behaving in a certain way, are they trying to tell you something or their body is trying to tell us something? We need to remember that we always want to stay calm, right? If you rise in your stress or anxiety or something like that, so will they because they pick up on that. Again, we want to catch it before it gets too far. We want to try those de-escalation strategies. And then when we get to the point where we've done all that we can do and there's nothing more that we can do to help it, we want safety is number one. Safety is number one for that individual, and safety is number one for the individuals that might be in the space with them. So you're going to clear the space, which means you're going to get all the other people that that are in the same space as that individual who might be having a meltdown out of the space. And this is a twofold reason. One, sometimes that behavior is attention getting. Safety purposes in case that person might be throwing something or, you know, yelling or hitting or any of that kind of stuff. So we remove for safety purposes. Once that has been done, you want to clear the space. You want to make room around that individual. So if they're close to a table or chairs or things like that, you might want to just push them off to the side so they're not in the way or in grabbing distance for that individual. Then you're going to have someone else go get the parents or the caregiver because there are things that they can do that we can't do as the church, right? We are not operating in a clinical setting. We do not have certifications. And don't get me wrong, some of your volunteers will have certifications, but it's not the same venue, it's not the same experience. And we're taking on legal concerns. So this is how it ties back into that first question. There are legal concerns when we do some of the things that that training requires. That hands-on, you know, there will there will be some people who will explain that they know how to take an individual down or you know those types of things, and that's what we're going to avoid in the church. And we're going to avoid that with everything that we have because there could be legal issues that would arise. And so the rule of thumb is that if at all possible, we do not put our hands on another individual to push them into a behavior or out of a behavior that they're having. So we want to keep that safe across the board. But in those moments, things can turn really quick. And so we want to be sure that we're being as cautious as we possibly can. And some of those individuals won't have had that experience where someone just gives them space, gives them time, watches them from a little bit of a distance, and puts them in a safe space. And that may be an alt like an alternate or a quick switch in their behavior when they see something different like that, because it's going to catch them off guard. Always remember that you, and this is a legal issue also, to never leave an individual alone, that there should always be a second volunteer of some sort in that. That's protection and across the board as explanations of situations and things like that come about. It's always great to have more than one person, a second set of eyes, and also a second percept perception, right? So that's going to play all the way through. So those do become, yes, behavior things, that's almost its own question, but the behavior question leads into other legal issues if it's not done properly. So we just want to be cautious, careful, make sure that we are honoring that person, giving them as much dignity as possible, protecting ourselves and other volunteers and protecting whether it's kids, church, teens, or other adults, protecting those individuals, not only from the physical of the meltdown, but also the mental experience of watching it happen and seeing those things happen. So, and also, like I said, we want to remove the audience from that experience in case some of that behavior is happening due to attention seeking. So, frequently asked questions. Legal is one of the big ones, especially in formulating a special needs ministry and creating safe spaces for individuals with disabilities. And yes, policies and procedures are probably the least fun part of building a disability ministry, but it's necessary, it's smart, and it allows the gospel to be accessible in a responsible way. We're gonna keep this conversation going. We're gonna make the accessible gospel available to individuals with disabilities in our churches and in our communities so that every person has the opportunity to know Christ, to grow in him, and to serve him with the gifts that he is given. If you want to dive deeper on your own, you can check out the indispensable people blog or my books on Amazon called The Indispensable Kid or Gospel Accessibility and the Indispensable People.
