Maryland Disability Determination Services: Evaluation, Timeline, and Appeals

Maryland Disability Determination Services (DDS) is the state agency that decides whether you are medically eligible for Social Security disability benefits. It sits inside the Division of Rehabilitation Services at the Maryland State Department of Education, but it follows Social Security Administration rules and is funded entirely by the federal government. DDS reviews both Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims, and it processes more than 50,000 of them each year.¹²

How Your Claim Reaches DDS

You don’t apply to DDS directly. You apply to the Social Security Administration, either online at ssa.gov, by calling 1-800-772-1213, or at one of the SSA field offices located around Maryland in cities including Baltimore, Annapolis, Frederick, Hagerstown, Cumberland, Cambridge, Greenbelt, and Glen Burnie.³⁴

The field office handles the non-medical side first: age, work history, marital status, and work credits for SSDI, or financial need for SSI. SSDI applicants generally need 40 work credits, with 20 earned in the ten years before the disability began, though younger workers can qualify with fewer.⁵ Once SSA confirms you meet those threshold rules, your file is transferred to Maryland DDS for the medical decision.⁶

What Happens Inside DDS

Your case is assigned to a disability examiner. The examiner contacts the doctors, hospitals, and clinics you’ve listed and gathers your treatment history, test results, and diagnoses. For a child’s claim, the examiner may also pull school records, Individualized Education Programs, and statements from teachers or case managers.¹

If the records on file aren’t detailed enough, DDS will pay for a consultative examination. Your own treating doctor is the preferred provider, but DDS can send you to an independent medical source if needed. Providers who conduct these exams must hold a current Maryland license and turn in their report within 14 days, and DDS reviews at least five percent of consultative exam reports for accuracy.⁶⁷

The decision itself is made by a team: the examiner together with a staff physician or psychologist. They weigh the medical evidence alongside your age, education, and work experience. Once decided, the file goes back to the SSA field office, which either calculates your benefit amount and starts payment or sends you a denial notice.¹

The Five-Step Evaluation

Every DDS examiner works through the same five-step process set by federal regulation.⁸

Step 1, current work. If you’re earning above the substantial gainful activity threshold ($1,690 per month in 2026, or $2,830 if blind), you’re generally found not disabled.
Step 2, severity. Your condition has to significantly limit basic work activities and be expected to last at least 12 consecutive months or result in death.
Step 3, medical listings. If your impairment meets or equals a condition in SSA’s Listing of Impairments (the Blue Book), you’re found disabled without further analysis. The listings have a Part A for adults and Part B for children.
Step 4, past work. If you don’t meet a listing, DDS assesses your residual functional capacity and asks whether you could still do work you’ve done before.
Step 5, other work. If past work is out, DDS considers your age, education, and experience to decide whether you could adjust to any other type of work.

Only people who can’t perform any substantial gainful work qualify.⁵

How Social Security Defines Disability

The standard is strict and all-or-nothing. For adults, disability means being unable to engage in substantial gainful work because of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment expected to last at least 12 continuous months or result in death. Partial and short-term disability don’t count. A letter from your doctor saying you “cannot work” isn’t enough on its own; the impairment has to be demonstrated through medical signs, symptoms, and laboratory or test findings.¹⁵

For children under 18 applying for SSI, the test is different. The child must have a medically determinable impairment that causes “marked and severe functional limitations” and that has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 months or result in death.¹

Medical Evidence That Helps Your Claim

When you file, bring a complete list of every doctor, hospital, and clinic that has treated you, with addresses, phone numbers, and dates. Include any medical records you already have on hand. DDS will request records from your providers either way, but giving them the roadmap speeds things up.¹

SSA will only accept medical evidence from what it calls “acceptable medical sources”: licensed physicians, psychologists, optometrists, podiatrists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, advanced practice registered nurses, and physician assistants. A strong medical report includes your history, clinical findings, laboratory results, diagnosis, treatment prescribed, your response to treatment, and a functional statement about what you can still do despite your impairment.⁹

SSA gives particular weight to evidence from treating sources, meaning providers who have an ongoing relationship with you and can describe your condition over time. Non-medical sources such as teachers, social workers, and employers can supplement that with information about how you function day to day.⁹

How Long It Takes

Expect a long wait. A July 2025 report from SSA’s Office of the Inspector General found that Maryland’s average processing time for initial disability claims between fiscal years 2019 and 2023 was 199.9 days, ranking it among the ten slowest states in the country. Maryland’s full-time disability examiner attrition rate during the same period averaged 22.7 percent, above the national average of 19 percent.¹⁰

The problem isn’t just Maryland’s. Nationally, DDS processing times rose 81 percent from fiscal year 2019 to 2023, climbing from 121 days on average to 219, while productivity dropped 21 percent. The Inspector General attributed the slowdown to the loss of experienced examiners, outdated job classifications that make DDS pay uncompetitive, and the growing volume and complexity of electronic medical records.¹⁰

More recent national numbers show some improvement. As of February 2026, SSA reported an average processing time of 193 days for initial disability claims, down from 236 days a year earlier, with the backlog falling from more than one million pending claims to roughly 829,000.¹¹ Maryland DDS has also been affected by a federal hiring freeze that compounds its existing staffing challenges.²

Checking the Status of Your Claim

You can track where your claim stands in several ways. A personal “my Social Security” account at ssa.gov shows your filing date, where the claim currently sits, and any scheduled hearing dates. SSA also offers automated status updates 24 hours a day at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778), and you can walk into a local field office.¹² For questions specifically about the DDS determination, you can call Maryland DDS directly at 1-800-492-4283. The office is at 211 Schilling Circle in Hunt Valley, with a mailing address of PO Box 1810, Cockeysville, MD 21030-1810.¹³

What to Do If You’re Denied

Most initial disability claims are denied. Maryland is not one of the states that participated in SSA’s prototype test eliminating the reconsideration step, so your appeal starts there.¹⁴ There are four levels:

Reconsideration. A new DDS examiner, one who wasn’t involved in your original decision, reviews the claim from scratch.
Hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. If reconsideration is denied, you can request an in-person or video hearing with a judge from SSA’s Office of Hearings Operations.
Appeals Council review. If the judge denies you, you can ask the SSA Appeals Council to review that decision.
Federal court. If the Appeals Council denies review or rules against you, your final option is filing a civil action in a U.S. District Court.

You aren’t required to go through every level, and you can be represented by an attorney or other qualified person at any stage.¹⁵

1
Maryland Division of Rehabilitation Services. Disability Determination Services Brochure
2
Maryland Public Schools. DORS Overview and Update
3
Social Security Administration. Disability Benefits
4
Social Security Administration. Direct Contact Information for SSA Field Offices
5
Social Security Administration. Qualify for Disability Benefits
6
Social Security Administration. Disability Determination Process
7
Maryland Division of Rehabilitation Services. MD DDS CE Provider Newsletter
8
Social Security Administration. 20 CFR § 404.1520 – Evaluation of Disability
9
Social Security Administration. CE Evidence Requirements
10
SSA Office of the Inspector General. Staffing, Productivity, and Processing Times at State Disability Determination Services
11
Social Security Administration. SSA Performance Dashboard
12
Social Security Administration. How Do I Check the Status of My Application
13
Maryland Division of Rehabilitation Services. DDS Resources
14
Federal Register. Modifications to Disability Determination Procedures
15
Social Security Administration. Appeal a Decision We Made