Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

September/October, 1998

WHAT’S DATS?
by Anne Graham, SSA

WE ALL KNOW WHAT ALJ, DE, CE, RFC, PRTF, and many more acronyms mean. But what, pray tell, is DATS? If you attended the Albany training conference, you can probably answer that question because there was a presentation on it. For the majority of you who didn’t get there, I’ll let you in on it. DATS translates to the Disability Adjudication Training System, sponsored by the Office of Disability with support from SSA’s Office of Training, and the Office of Hearings and Appeals. A group representing all components in the area of disability adjudication have been meeting quarterly for the last nine months to develop an education and training plan for all disability adjudicators, whether you have an old title like DE or a new one like AO. NADE’s representatives on the committee are Dayle Smith, Maryland DDS, and former Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, and Karen Gunter, FL DDS and former NADE president. In addition, Mike Brennan of the DC DDS is the NCDDD representative along with Jackie Chavis of the NJDDS. Both Mike and Jackie are NADE members as well. The system is divided into three areas: in-service training, continuing education, and pre-employment education. In service training is that training that your employer feels is necessary for you to do your job, e.g., the training on the evaluation of DC claims. Continuing education is that training or education you identify as wanting to enhance or maintain your knowledge and skills. Pre-employment education is college or university based education to prepare someone to enter the world of disability adjudication with the majority of the basic knowledge and skills for this work. This last is the more radical piece of the system and will take effort to make the institutions of higher education realize the market for such an educational program. This includes not only aspiring disability examiners, but attorneys, advocacy groups, private insurance company staff, and others. The research on numbers has yet to be done. So remember the DATS will be involve with all types of training and education. Your professional association is well represented on the group, and Anne Graham, another NADE member and former NADE secretary, has just been assigned a leadership role for the project.