The article is analyzing the problem of establishing new theoretical approaches to understanding the family role in upbringing and developing children with disabilities in the society of economic polarization, awakened by the collapse of the USSR and the following market transformation. It shows that economic and social order, established in the post-soviet countries, accelerated economic stratification and socio-cultural inequality, becoming a source of poverty in families with children with disabilities. Inequality of life chances, “double poverty”, reproduction of poverty risks are specific manifestations of economic differences in these families. Theories of human and family resources become powerful instruments of knowledge and understanding of  changes taking place. The use of these theories in the areas traditional for these sciences, such as special pedagogy and psychology, significantly extends the analysis of the “new conditions” of family fostering, providing the way of  “growing into civilization” for children with disabilities.

The article anticipates a number of publications analyzing various aspects of family resources in low-income families with children/teens with disabilities, carried out in the framework of the research project.