Tips on Applying for Disability Benefits for a Child with Down Syndrome

Down syndrome and mosaic Down syndrome can qualify your child medically to receive disability benefits through the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.

 Tip #1: Understand the SSI program

It is important to understand that medically qualifying is only part of the eligibility determination process. There are also financial considerations the SSA reviews when making a decision on your child’s eligibility for SSI. This is because SSI is a need-based program for which applicants must have very limited income and other financial resources to pay for their everyday needs.

When deciding if children qualify for SSI, the SSA looks at the financial resources of the child, including sources like child support. They also factor in a portion of the income of the child’s parents as well as other sources of financial resources the parents may have. You can learn more about the financial rules for SSI here: http://www.ssa.gov/ssi/

 Tip #2: Understand how your child can medically qualify for benefits 

The SSA has set procedures for reviewing the medical records of applicants to determine if they are medically eligible for benefits. Your child’s records will be reviewed in relation to listings in the Blue Book, which is a manual of disabling conditions and the medical evidence needed to prove disability.

For Down syndrome, the Blue Book listing appears in Section 110.06. This listing requires one of the following:

5/7 Be Beautiful Be Yourself Global Down Syndrome Foundation DC Gala

Be Beautiful Be Yourself Global Down Syndrome Foundation DC Gala Funding groundbreaking Alzheimer's disease & Down syndrome research at the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome Renaissance Mayflower Hotel 1127 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036 Wednesday, May 7, 2014 6:00 PM – Cocktail Reception 7:15 PM – Dinner, Fashion Show, Live Musical Performance   Global Down Syndrome Foundation Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Award Recipient The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus Co-Chair 12-term congresswoman representing District of Columbia Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Member of Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure First woman to chair U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Global Down Syndrome Foundation Ambassador 2014 Ambassador Katherine Felicia Norton and inaugural Ambassador Alex Sessions Live musical performance to be announced soon! Honorary Host Committee* The Honorable John Barrow The Honorable Joe Barton The Honorable Michael F. Bennet The Honorable Roy Blunt The Honorable Sherrod Brown The Honorable Michael C Burgess, M.D. The Honorable Richard Burr The Honorable Dave Camp The Honorable Andre Carson The Honorable Robert P. Casey Jr. The Honorable Howard Coble The Honorable Thad Cochran The Honorable Mike Coffman The Honorable Chris Collins The Honorable Gerald Connolly The Honorable Ander Crenshaw The Honorable Charles Dent The Honorable Diana DeGette The Honorable Lloyd Doggett The Honorable Michael Enzi The Honorable Eni Faleomavaega The Honorable Chaka Fattah The Honorable Jeff Fortenberry The Honorable Cory Gardner The Honorable Bob Goodlatte The Honorable Sam Graves The Honorable Tim Griffin The Honorable Tom Harkin The Honorable Jeb Hensarling The Honorable Michael Honda The Honorable Steny Hoyer The Honorable Johnny Isakson The Honorable Lynn Jenkins The Honorable Ron Kind The Honorable Doug Lamborn The Honorable Rick Larsen The Honorable Tom Latham The Honorable Blaine Luetkemeyer The Honorable Carolyn McCarthy The Honorable Patrick McHenry The Honorable Michael Michaud United States Senator Barbara A. Mikulski The Honorable Jim Moran The Honorable Richard Neal The Honorable Ed Perlmutter The Honorable Jared Polis The Honorable Dave Reichert The Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader The Honorable Scott Rigell The Honorable Loretta Sanchez The Honorable John Sarbanes The Honorable Brad Schneider The Honorable Pete Sessions The Honorable Albio Sires The Honorable Adam Smith The Honorable Lamar Smith The Honorable Patrick Tiberi The Honorable Scott Tipton The Honorable Mark Udall The Honorable Fred Upton The Honorable Greg Walden * - List in formation To see photos from the 2013 Be Beautiful Be Yourself Global Down Syndrome Foundation Gala in Washington, DC, go to GlobalDownSyndrome.org Model auditions for the Be Beautiful Be Yourself Global Down Syndrome Foundation DC Gala are Thursday, February 27 - Register now Also be sure to mark your calendars for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation's Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show in Denver - Saturday, October 25, 2014 To learn more about sponsorships, contact Global's Development Team at 303-468-6663 or development@globaldownsyndrome.org

Aimee lends her Punky voice to hit show

by Sam Griffin from Herald.ie:

AN Irish television programme about a girl with Down Syndrome is taking the world by storm with 10 countries now set to air the cartoon.

And the star of Punky is Aimee Richardson (31) who lends her voice to the show's main character and who herself has Down Syndrome.
Aimee says she has a connection with her character and feels a bit like Punky herself.

Documentary describes the events surrounding Ethan Saylor’s death and the actions taken by Gov. O’Malley of Maryland.

by Ed Rhodes from Kickstarter.com:
Ethan Saylor son of Patricia and Ronald, brother to Emma and Adam had a passion for everything good guy.
On January 12th 2013 Ethan and his aide attended a screening of Zero Dark Thirty at the Regal Cinemas in Frederick MD. After the movie was over Ethan was waiting for his aide to pull the car around. Ethan decided he wanted to stay for a second viewing and walked back into the theatre. After Ethan was approached by the theatres management, security was called and asked to remove Ethan from the theatre because he had not bought a ticket for the second show. Three Frederick county sheriffs moonlighting as security guards responded and through their negligent behavior, lack of training and patience Ethan would soon lay dead on the theatre floor.
A grand jury decided the deputies would not be criminally charged. No one thinks they meant to kill Ethan, but what happened can't be changed or fixed. What we can change is how to prevent this from happening again.

Walker focuses on hiring people with disabilities

by Scott Bauer from The Chippewa Herald:
Nobody can fold a box quite like Patrick Young.
Gov. Scott Walker learned that first hand as Young, who has Down syndrome, led a 2012 tour of Tailored Label Products in Menomonee Falls. Young challenged Walker to put together specialized packaging used by the company _ think of it as a complicated pizza box _ as quickly as he could. As Walker fumbled at the flaps, Young adroitly snapped everything into place in seconds.
Walker said meeting Young helped inspire an initiative he unveiled in his State of the State speech last week. The effort, called "A Better Bottom Line," is aimed at getting more Wisconsin companies to hire people with disabilities including autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury and mental illness.
People with disabilities account for about 9 percent of the state's workforce, based on data provided by Disability Rights Wisconsin. But their employment rate is less than one-third that of workers without disabilities, and workers with disabilities on average earn 30 percent less.
Walker has proposed spending $800,000 by mid-2015 to expand an on-the-job training program for workers with disabilities. He hopes to expand the program from seven to 27 companies over the next three years.