An adult Social Security disability claim is decided mainly on medical evidence that determines what limitations as person has to fulltime employment, but a child claim can rely upon educational records as well as medical records.
Especially when behavioral or learning issues are part of a disability claim, school records are extremely important when a child applies for Supplement Security Income (SSI). In addition to progress reports and grades, information from teachers who know the student can be the difference between a successful SSI claim and an unsuccessful SSI claim. One document Social Security offers as evidence in a child case is the teacher questionnaire. This provides a claimant’s teacher to provide details of any issues the child has in the classroom, behavioral issues or obstacles to learning. Below is a description of the teacher questionnaire that a teacher may be asked to complete for a child SSI claim.
To decide whether a child qualifies for disability benefits, we use information from both medical and non-medical sources. Medical sources include doctors and other health care professionals; non-medical sources include teachers and other people who spend time with the child. Information from sources who know the child well is important, because a child’s level of functioning at school, at home, or in the community may affect his or her eligibility. The information you provide about the child’s day-to-day functioning in school will help us to determine the effects of the child’s impairment. It will also help us to compare this child’s functioning to that of other children the same age who do not have impairments. We need this information from you even if you have taught (or did teach) the child for only a short time. Your information is not the only information we will be considering when we decide if the child qualifies for disability benefits, but it is very important to us.
