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)

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.