From Appeals to Approval
For more than three years, Ms. Brodie fought to secure disability benefits for her 6-year-old son, Cevyn, who was diagnosed with autism at three years old. After repeated denials, she was exhausted and close to giving up.
Then she found legal help in an unexpected place: the hospital.
Thanks to Children’s Law Center’s medical-legal partnership with Children’s National Hospital, Ms. Brodie had an attorney by her side at a scheduled hearing before an administrative law judge.
But after years of disappointment, she still braced herself for more bad news.
“I was nervous,” she recalled. She remembered thinking, “He’s going to say no.”
Instead, she received news she had waited years to hear: Cevyn’s benefits were approved.
Years of Denials
Ms. Brodie first applied for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a federal program providing monthly financial assistance to eligible individuals, including children with disabilities whose families meet income requirements. She needed the benefits to help cover Cevyn’s additional medical bills and therapy costs.
“When he couldn’t speak, he used to bang his head because he didn’t know how to communicate,” Ms. Brodie said. “I didn’t know sign language, so I had to learn it.”
Still, his SSI application was denied. Ms. Brodie believes the evaluator focused on Cevyn's ability to complete puzzles and his interest in math without fully considering the challenges associated with his autism.
She remembers thinking, “Maybe they need to come and sit down and talk to him so they can see what type of child he is.”
The constant denials and lengthy process took a toll on the family. Ms. Brodie was left stretching her income to meet Cevyn’s needs while managing the demands of raising a child with a disability, working a full-time job, and pursuing benefits.
“I almost lost my job,” she recalled. “It was a lot.”
The Help They Needed
After years of trying to navigate the process on her own, Ms. Brodie sought help at Children’s Law Center, a DC Bar Foundation grantee that provides legal assistance to District children and families.
Through Children’s Law Center’s medical-legal partnership with Children’s National Hospital, she connected with attorney Megan Gordon, who represented her through two rounds of appeals.
Ms. Gordon gathered Cevyn’s medical records from providers across the city, obtained a supporting letter from his physician, and prepared a legal brief explaining why he qualified for benefits. She also took over the paperwork and deadlines that had overwhelmed Ms. Brodie.
On the day of the hearing, Ms. Brodie and Ms. Gordon joined by phone from Children’s Law Center’s offices while Cevyn worked on tangram puzzles. They were prepared to present their case, but they never had to. The judge had already reviewed the evidence and approved Cevyn’s benefits without holding a formal hearing.
“Normally, you do have to actually have the hearing and put on your evidence,” Ms. Gordon explained. “In this case, it was just so clear based on the evidence we had collected that [the judge] didn’t even need to have the hearing.” Ms. Gordon remembers the relief, knowing how hard Ms. Brodie had worked for this moment.
A Common Struggle
Ms. Brodie’s experience is not unique. According to Ms. Gordon, parents across the District can spend years navigating complicated appeals, gathering medical evidence, and waiting for decisions, even when their children qualify for benefits.
“It’s a long road, and it’s hard to walk by yourself,” she said.
Increasingly, medical-legal partnerships are helping more parents and caregivers realize they don’t have to. With support from the DC Bar Foundation, Children’s Law Center places attorneys at eight clinics across the city, where they work in partnership with doctors to help families with legal problems affecting children’s health, from housing conditions and special education to public benefits like SSI. By working alongside pediatricians, nurses, and social workers, attorneys can identify legal needs during healthcare visits and help families address problems they might not have realized required legal assistance. The DC Bar Foundation also supports at least four other medical-legal partnerships that help connect District residents with legal assistance.
While Ms. Gordon continues to help her navigate getting the court-ordered back payment also delivered, Ms. Brodie is looking toward the future. With Cevyn having made progress in his communication skills and now speaking verbally, she hopes to move to a home where Cevyn has more space to play outdoors. “Just trying to put him in a house where he can just be free,” she said.
And for other parents facing the same long road, Ms. Broide has a simple message: “Don’t give up.”
