Your child can get benefits if he or she is your biological child, adopted child or dependent stepchild. To get benefits, a child must have:

• A parent(s) who is disabled or retired and entitled to Social Security benefits; or
• A parent who died after having worked long enough in a job where he or she paid Social Security taxes.

The child also must be:

• Unmarried;
• Younger than 18;
• 18-19 years old and a full-time student (no higher than grade 12); or 18 or older and disabled. (The disability must have started before age 22.)