• Parent Saturday Workshop Texas/ September

National PASS Network Training Calendar

date for next PSW is being planned for end of September          

Parents Saturday Workshop

9:00 am- 4:30 pm  • catered lunch provided

Workshop: - Accessing Social Security Disability Benefits to Provide Opportunities for Self-Support for
                        People with Disabilities
Location: The Arc of Texas, Training Center
                     8001 Centre Park Drive, Suite 100
                    Austin, Texas 78754                                                   

Course Description:

This comprehensive advocacy training course is a must for parents of children with lifelong disabilities of any age. Many parents never get the full picture of the federal disability supports under the Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs that are available for their children with monthly cash support and medical coverage under Medicaid or Medicare. These supports provide many positive opportunities for children and young adults with disabilities, but these opportunities are available only if parents know how to access the programs.

Some Advocacy topics we will cover in the Parents Saturday Workshop

• What are the eligibility requirements for both the SSDI and SSI programs
• Understanding Social Security’s statutory definition of disability
• How to accurately calculate monthly SSI eligibility
• How to self-fund school transition services with SSI work incentives even if your public school does not develop an adequate transition plan for your child
• How benefits eligibility change as your child ages
• How to preserve Medicaid eligibility when your child grows older
• Understanding SSA’s legal disability determination process
• Why many of the 75% of people who apply for disability benefits are incorrectly denied benefits in Texas
• How creating a Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS) can fund transition and rehabilitation programs
• How to preserve your child's Medicaid when you retire and s/he loses SSI eligibility
• What is 1619 A&B and how this little known work incentive allows earnings of more than $27,775 without losing Medicaid eligibility in Texas
• How to deal with the SSA government representatives in positive ways
• Why SSA incorrectly pays 2/3 of the SSI rate to many Texas families
• How to document your adult child's share of household expenses to receive 30% more in SSI
• What are subsidies and impairment-related work expenses and why you should report them to SSA
• What is an “unsuccessful work attempt” and how this provision protects from the premature loss of disability benefits
• What are DAC benefits for your dependent or surviving children who is disabled
• What is deemed income and how is it used to calculate a child’s SSI eligibility 
• How to calculate a child’s SSI eligibility based on parent’s income. 
• Learn to use work incentives for your non-disabled children to calculate SSI eligibility for your disabled child
• Managing resources to insure against loss of SSI
• Why Medicaid in Texas may pay your private insurance costs
• What is the Pickle Amendment and how its use protects children and adult benefits and Medicaid from loss
• What is the student earned income exclusion, why its worth $6,240 year in student earnings •
• Individual Social Security disability  benefit questions/ issues/ needs
• and much,much more.

Your tuition investment of $75.00 brings you our day-long, jam-packed disability benefit advocacy course on accessing and maintaining disability benefits for your children with lifelong disabilities (from school to aged), a comprehensive course manual that will serve as an ongoing resource guide, plenty of accessible parking and boxed lunch. You will spend the day networking and learning with other families from across Texas and the country who are struggling with the same issues of income, health care and long-term support for their children with disabilities.

It is the National PASS Network’s advocacy policy that participants may repeat the Parent Saturday Workshop as many times as they need. Take your time to learn.  There are never any additional training costs for you to repeat this course.  To us it’s all about building your base of knowledge first.  What we know from our 25 years of advocacy experience is that if we do a good job of making you an expert family consumer, then you will be our advocacy partners for a long time  Our long-term goal is to  be working with you with a variety of other NPN training activities and case assistance services to enhance your knowledge after you get the basic.  NPN’s life-planning approach to understanding disability benefits is to help you with the skills that will help you approach disability benefits as an ongoing endeavor that changes as your child's age and needs change. Whether that need is how to fund transition in high school or to plan for long-term care in later life, we know you will be working with NPN for a long time if we do you right. We are here.  Check out and subscribe to NPN’s website for advocacy information and updated news on Social Security disability benefits changes. 

            
Please register in advance so we can plan for a successful workshop.

Make your tuition check payable to National PASS Network. Send it to us at National PASS Network, PO Box 1176, Austin Texas  78767. Send along with your relevant contact information: your mail address, phone # and email address.   Once we get your tuition and contact info, we will confirm your registration. That’s it. No forms.
No hassle.

•  Seats are limited. 

• Registration is BEFORE the day of the workshop.  No registrations at door on day of workshop.

• Tuition Cost: $ 75 per-participant; $140 for both parents
                            $ 95 per -participant if you wait until until the last week of registration

Refunds:              If you do not attend the workshop after registering, you forfeit your tuition payment. 

                               There are no other discounts. No substitutions.

Contact for additional info or questions : Daniel Scarborough
                                                                           Phone: 512.444.3603    email: dscarborough@passNetwork.org

Your course leader is Daniel Scarborough

Mr. Scarborough is a longtime national advocate on Social Security disability benefit and long-term care support issues for adults and children with lifelong disabilities.  He is the former Director of the National Aging Family Caregiver Support Project with The Arc of the United States and the US Administration on Aging (AoA) where he directed national outreach advocacy training on aging and caregiver support issues for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities around the country.  The award-winning National Aging Family Caregiver Support Project worked to enhance the capacity of state agencies in 36 states, aging and disability provider organizations to plan, coordinate, and provide supportive services older parents and grandparents of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Mr. Scarborough’s professional background in Social Security disability benefits advocacy and long-term-care programs is extensive and varied. Since 1983, he has coordinated over 850 workshops on accessing  and maintaining  eligibility for disability benefits (SSDI, SSI Medicare and Medicaid) for parent advocacy organizations, public schools, state agencies, rehabilitation programs and aging programs around the United States. He is the President of the National PASS Network, a national consumer educational  and advocacy organization on Social Security disability benefits he founded in 1990. Mr. Scarborough was the former Director of the Texas PASS Network with The University of Texas at Austin, Center for Disability Studies, where he created developed and directed a five-year statewide outreach program on accessing Social Security work incentive programs.  In 1988/ 90, Mr. Scarborough directed the National PASS Project with The Arc of the United States and the Social Security Administration and published the first public materials that standardized consumer and professional training on accessing the Social Security disability benefit programs for people with developmental, cognitive and mental disability and their families.  The project successfully pioneered the funding of supported employment supports and work-to-school transition services for people with disabilities through the Social Security work incentive provisions.

Mr. Scarborough’s training programs have assisted thousands of individuals, advocacy organizations and state agencies to access the Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and work incentive programs to fund vocational opportunities for students and adults with disabilities.  His easy-to-understand, non-technical presentation style emphasizes a person-first, consumer empowerment approach to understanding and accessing the complicated Social Security disability benefit and long-term care programs for adults and children.  Mr. Scarborough uses actual, real-life case examples from more than 25 years of working with the Social Security disability benefit and work incentive programs

Mr. Scarborough holds a Master of Science in Hospital Administration with undergraduate degrees in Public Administration, Business and Health Care Administration.  He is a Chartered Lifetime Assistance Planner for Persons with Disabilities (ChLAP).   He is an active and highly respected community advocate for people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities, mental illness and blindness.  Mr. Scarborough is known nationally for his work with severely disabled children and adults with lifelong disabilities and their access to Social Security disability benefits and health supports under Medicare and Medicaid.

Please pass this information along to your email lists and friends

If your organization or parent advocacy group would like to host an ongoing Parent Saturday Workshop in your community, we would like to hear from you. Learn how easily such a workshop can be organized.  Write  dscarborough@passnetwork.org .  Preference is given to organizations and parent groups or public schools that want to develop an ongoing program in your community.

copyright, 2008
Daniel Scarborough