Opinion ID: 166715
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: General Regulatory Background

Text: A child is considered disabled if she has “a medically determinable physical or mental impairment or combination of impairments that causes marked and severe functional limitations, and that can be expected to cause death or that has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 -3- months.” 20 C.F.R. § 416.906. A child’s disability claim is evaluated in a three-step process. Briggs ex rel. Briggs v. Massanari, 248 F.3d 1235, 1237 (10th Cir. 2001). The parties do not dispute that E.S.D. is not working and has severe impairments, thus satisfying the first two steps, see id. At step three of the process, the agency considers whether the child has an impairment that “meets, medically equals, or functionally equals the listings.” 20 C.F.R. § 416.924(a). If she does and the duration requirement is met, the agency will find the child disabled. Id. The parties focus on one specific listing, § 112.05(E) of 20 C.F.R., Part 404, Subpart P, Appendix 1, Part B (“listing 112.05(E)” or “§ 112.05(E)”). To meet listing 112.05(E), a child between the ages of three and eighteen must have a “valid verbal, performance, or full scale IQ of 60 through 70.” § 112.05(E). In addition, the child must have a marked limitation or difficulty in one of three functional areas described in another listing. See § 112.05(E)(2). Those areas are (i) social functioning, (ii) personal functioning, and (iii) concentration, persistence, or pace. 20 C.F.R., Part 404, Subpt. P, App. 1, Part B, § 112.02(B)(2)(b)-(d). In the context of the listings, a limitation is “marked” if “several activities or functions are impaired, or even when only one is impaired, as long as the degree of limitation is such as to interfere seriously with the ability -4- to function (based upon age-appropriate expectations) independently, appropriately, effectively, and on a sustained basis.” Id., § 112.00(C). Functional equivalence 1 is determined by analyzing six domains: 2 “(i) Acquiring and using information; (ii) Attending and completing tasks; (iii) Interacting and relating with others; (iv) Moving about and manipulating objects; (v) Caring for yourself; and . . . (vi) Health and physical well-being.” 20 C.F.R. § 416.926a(b)(1). If the child is extremely limited in one domain, or markedly limited in two domains, the impairment is functionally equivalent to the relevant listing, id. § 416.926a(a), and the child is disabled, id. § 416.924(a). As used in the functional equivalency determination, a limitation is marked if the “impairment(s) interferes seriously with [the] ability to independently initiate, sustain, or complete activities.” Id. § 416.926a(e)(2)(i). A limitation is extreme if the “impairment(s) interferes very seriously with [the] ability to independently initiate, sustain, or complete activities.” Id. § 416.926a(e)(3)(i). Day-to-day functioning may be seriously or very seriously limited when an impairment either “limits only one activity or when the interactive and cumulative effects of [the] impairment(s) limit several activities.” Id. §§ 416.926a(e)(2)(i), 416.926a(e)(3)(i). 1 We note that medical equivalence is not at issue in this case. 2 “Domains” are “broad areas of functioning intended to capture all of what a child can or cannot do.” 20 C.F.R. § 416.926a(b)(1). -5- Here, the ALJ found that E.S.D.’s impairment did not meet any listing. He also found that it was not functionally equal to any listing because she was markedly limited in only one domain, acquiring and using information, less than markedly limited in two other domains, attending to and completing tasks and interacting and relating to others, and not limited in the other three domains.