Eowyn,
What a great name. You can earn up to $1010 a month after qualified deductions and get SSDI. You can look at your annual SSA retirment update or go to their site and find out what your disability payment would be. Some states add up to $400 to that amount. This will help you determine if it will meet your financial obligations.
Someone wrote that you must not be able to do any other kind of work which is very true. The statistics for denials are as follows:
Able to do other type of work 30.7%
Able to do usual past work 26.2%
Impairment is not severe1 19.2%
Other 17.3%
Impairment not expected to last six months 6.6%
A lawyer (or representative) probably will not take your case unitl after you have been denied.
You can email me privately and I will give you soe more advice on how to apply. My recommendation is not to apply on line. Your case must be fully documented which takes time. Be patient.
Trudi

Some attorney's will hire clients before denial, so I have to disagree with the info above. They are paid out of backpay though, so most require you to be at various stages...

While The SS rules state you can make up to $1010, the reality is, they often won't approve you, or once you're approved they'll discontinue benefits if you show a consistent history of making over $700 per month.

You might also want to check out working for a homeschooling program that hires crediantialed teachers. Or other non traditional classroom jobs. Perhaps teach art at a junior high school, or adults at the community college level in remidial subjects (fewer classroom hours.) You should pinpoint with your doc what you need for accommodations.

If you can get your school district to accommodate you, that would be ideal...

You can't continue working above the SGA level and be approved. Benefits won't start for 5 months. You might be approved easily at that point, but you might be presented with a whole array of minimum wage jobs a Voc Rehab Counselor says you can manage. Can you work retail, for example? As stated above, the standard is if you're capable of working at ANY job making $1010 per month.

Also if your condition causes you to be taken out of work at various times for periods of times that also counts as "failed work attempts" so there are a lot of variables to applying for SSDI and it would be to your advantage to either get good legal advice. There is no "good" time to file for SSDI, it is all bad when anybody has to file and collect as far as I am concerned. My attorney was very up front with me and he happened to be representing me on my Worker's Compensation Case at the same time, so I lucked out (I guess as far as not having to find a seperate lawyer) He gave me all the information and every scenario possible. Sure enough, everything he said happened, just as he thought it would! I applied online, got denied, he wrote an appeal for a "written fully favorable decision" and that is what we got. So I never had to see a court room or anything, thankfully.

I also did a lot of research myself. I read the SSA website requirements for disability (not that I wanted to be disabled by any means) but to be prepared when filling out my paperwork when I had to file. There are other state sites you can check I am guessing for other types of assistance as well. We have them for New York State. I researched those as well. It is good to read up as much as you can and search out as much as you can because not all government agencies are going to be willing to offer up these other places to you.

Good luck. If you cannot do the work, do not force yourself and suffer the pain, it is so not worth it, we have all hade to learn to give up some things to get better or just to have time to focus on healing ourselves.