Some disabilities are obvious; some are not.\u00a0 Some disabilities interfere with performance at school or at work or with interpersonal relationships.<\/p>\n
For purposes of special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, a child with a disability is a child who has been evaluated as having a specific disability and who, by reason of that disability, needs special education and related services. See 34 C.F.R. \u00a7 300.8.<\/p>\n
For purposes of Social Security Income, a child under age 18 may be considered \u201cdisabled\u201d if the person has a medically determinable physical or mental impairment (including an emotional or learning problem) that:<\/p>\n
\u2022 results in marked and severe functional limitations; and
\n\u2022 can be expected to result in death; or
\n\u2022 has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months. See www.ssa.gov\/disability.<\/p>\n
For purposes of Social Security Retirement or Supplemental Security Income, the Social Security Administration pays only for total disability. No benefits are payable for partial disability or for short-term disability. For an adult, the disability must result in the \u201cinability to do any substantial gainful activity\u201d and<\/p>\n
\u2022 can be expected to result in death; or
\n\u2022 has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months. See www.ssa.gov\/disability.<\/p>\n
For purposes of vocational rehabilitation services, an \u201cindividual with a disability\u201d means an individual who \u201c(i) has a physical or mental impairment which for such individual constitutes or results in a substantial impediment to employment; and (ii) can benefit in terms of an employment outcome from vocational rehabilitation services\u2026\u201d 29 U.S.C. \u00a7 705(9); Program Services Policy and Procedures Manual for Vocational Rehabilitation Programs, Section 10.<\/p>\n
So, while there are different definitions of \u201cdisability\u201d depending upon the services or benefits one needs, it is important to remember that DISABILITY DOES NOT MEAN WITHOUT ABILITY.<\/p>\n
If you have a disability and need assistance in obtaining benefits or services as a result of that disability, contact NMPASI at (670) 235-7273; (670) 235-7274; (670) 235-7275 (fax); (670) 235-7278 (tty); or online at www.nmpasi.org. NMPASI may be able to assist through one of its programs, such as Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI), Protection & Advocacy for Development Disabilities (PADD); Protection & Advocacy for Individual Rights (PAIR); Protection & Advocacy for Traumatic Brain Injury (PAAT); Client Assistance Program (CAP); or Protection & Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security (PABSS).<\/p>\n
Jeanne Rayphand is legal counsel of the Northern Marianas Protection & Advocacy Systems, Inc. This column is an unsolicited and unpaid contribution by the author.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some disabilities are obvious; some are not.\u00a0 Some disabilities interfere with performance at school or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[37,1953,1502,1954],"class_list":["post-191604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-education-2","tag-idea","tag-nmpasi","tag-social-security-income"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}