Practice Tips and Practical Considerations for Handling Child Cases – NOSSCR 2026 Fall National Conference – Track II (Presented by National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives)

The Case Turns on Functional Equivalence and Its Six Domains

Childhood Supplemental Security Income claims run on their own framework: a four-step childhood disability evaluation. Within it, functional equivalence does the heavy lifting. This session treats the claim as one continuous case, built from intake and finished at hearing.

The stakes sit in the framework itself. Argue the claim without functional equivalence, and its strongest theory goes unstated. Organize the evidence around the six domains of functioning, and the record answers the questions the evaluation asks. Treat intake as paperwork alone, and the hearing inherits the gaps.

Attendees walk out with the four-step evaluation applied step by step and functional equivalence arguments mapped to the six domains. Practice tips cover every stage, from intake through hearing. The value is practitioner judgment on live claim handling, not a doctrine walk-through.

Eligible for up to 1 CLE Credit Hour

This session was originally submitted for CLE as a live, in-person presentation and a live webcast for the 2026 Fall National Conference and may be eligible for self-study credit. Each state handles self-study credit differently; for questions, please consult your State Bar Association.

Recorded Wednesday, October 14, 2026.

Key topics to be discussed:

• Childhood SSI Intake
  What to capture at intake so the claim is positioned for everything that follows.
• Four-Step Evaluation
  How the four-step childhood disability evaluation structures the claim from the outset.
• Functional Equivalence
  Why functional equivalence carries the emphasis, and how to build the claim's theory around it.
• The Six Domains
  How to map a child's functioning onto the six domains that drive the equivalence analysis.
• The Hearing
  How to carry the developed claim into the hearing, with practical considerations for presenting it.
• Practice Tips
  Where practical judgment changes outcomes at each stage, from intake through hearing.

This course is co-sponsored with myLawCLE.

Date / Time: October 14, 2026

• 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Eastern
• 10:00 am – 11:00 am Central
• 9:00 am – 10:00 am Mountain
• 8:00 am – 9:00 am Pacific

Closed-captioning available