HS 375 - Introduction to Disability and Lifetime Planning
HS 375 tests whether you can define disability under the three statutory definitions that matter, place a family at the correct life stage, and connect a functional limitation to the planning tools that follow. Questions rarely ask for a diagnosis; they ask what a given limitation means for benefits, education, and decision-making authority.
Three definitions, three purposes
- ADA (as amended, 2008): a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having one. Broad and remedial - it is not a benefits test.
- IDEA: one of 13 enumerated categories (autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability, other health impairment, and others) that adversely affects educational performance and requires special education. It entitles the child to a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.
- SSA: for adults, inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of a medically determinable impairment expected to last 12 months or result in death; for children under 18, marked and severe functional limitations. This is the gateway to SSI and SSDI.
Section 504 sits between ADA and IDEA: an impairment limiting a major life activity, with accommodations but no IEP and no federal special education entitlement.
The life-stage frame
Planning is sequenced, not episodic: early intervention (IDEA Part C, birth to three), school-age (IEP or 504), transition (IEP transition services by age 16), adult benefits, and later-life survivorship planning. The age-18 hinge is the most tested point: SSI is redetermined under adult rules, parental income and resources stop being deemed, and decision-making authority (guardianship, supported decision-making, powers of attorney) must be addressed.
Worked example
A 16-year-old with autism has an IEP, and the family income is too high for child SSI. The parents ask when to apply. Reasoning: child SSI requires a disability determination plus deeming of parental income, so the family may not qualify now; at 18 the deeming stops and adult functional criteria apply. The action items are transition planning and an SSI application filed close to the 18th birthday, not asset transfers.
Traps
- Treating an IEP as lifetime proof of disability for SSA purposes.
- Confusing FAPE (education) with Medicaid home- and community-based waiver services.
- Assuming a child's diagnosis automatically qualifies a parent for any benefit.
- Ignoring the adult redetermination and losing benefits at 18.