Sacramento City Unified is the main school district inside city limits, but the northern part of the city — including Del Paso Heights — sits inside Twin Rivers Unified's boundary instead. This page covers both districts' evaluation processes, the regional center serving the whole county, and where funding for evaluation and therapy actually comes from, with a source for every fact.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the California page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Sacramento (Sacramento County).

Early intervention under 3: California Early Start

Sacramento-area children from birth to 36 months may qualify for Early Start, California's early intervention program, if they have a developmental delay of at least 25 percent in one area, an established risk condition with a known cause, or a documented combination of biomedical risk factors. A parent, relative, doctor, or child care provider is free to make the referral, at no cost for evaluation, assessment, or service coordination. Alta California Regional Center coordinates most local Early Start services, while some cases route instead to a local education agency depending on the delay type. State policy calls for a service coordinator to be assigned, the evaluation completed, and a written family service plan produced within 45 days of referral, and eligibility is reassessed under the separate, stricter Lanterman Act standard once a child turns 3.

• California Early Start
• Referral phone: 800-515-BABY (800-515-2229) — statewide Early Start Babyline

New to early intervention? Read the plain-language guide first.

School districts and special education

Locating, identifying, and evaluating students with a suspected disability, at no cost and from birth through age 21, is a duty every California district owes under its Child Find obligation (Education Code 56043). Districts must respond to a written referral with a proposed assessment plan inside 15 calendar days, parents have at least 15 days after that to decide on consent, and from the date of that signature the district has 60 calendar days to finish testing and convene an IEP for an eligible child. Autism is its own state eligibility category, defined around a significant impact on communication and social interaction that typically shows up before age three.

• Sacramento City Unified School District — publishes a four-step Child Find process (identification, screening, eligibility, IEP); SELPA@scusd.edu, (916) 643-9163
• Twin Rivers Unified School District — covers northern Sacramento neighborhoods including Del Paso Heights, plus North Highlands and Rio Linda

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Sacramento

We have not yet verified a hospital or university evaluation program with public intake information in Sacramento. That is a gap in our research, not a sign there is nothing here — and it does not stand between you and an evaluation. The school district evaluation above is free, and early intervention under 3 does not need a private diagnosis first.

How assessment works · What to do while you wait

Disability services and waivers: Alta California Regional Center

Alta California Regional Center is the Sacramento area's gateway into California's Lanterman Act system of 21 regional centers, which coordinate lifelong developmental-disability and Medicaid waiver services statewide. For a child 3 or older, eligibility requires one of five qualifying diagnoses — intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, or a closely related condition — plus a 'substantial disability,' meaning significant limits in at least three of seven major life activities. State law fixes initial intake at 15 working days from a request, with an eligibility decision due within 120 days, or 60 days where a delay would risk a child's health, safety, or development.

• Alta California Regional Center
• Phone: 916-978-6400

Local organizations that help Sacramento families

• WarmLine Family Resource Center — founded and staffed by parents of children with developmental delays or disabilities; offers Early Start and special education support and a Community Navigator Program; (916) 455-9500, Spanish line (916) 922-1490

Documented waits and access notes

Wait times change. Each note below links to the public source it came from — confirm current status directly with the program.

• California's DDS estimates 602 Sacramento County 8-year-olds were autistic and Lanterman-eligible in 2025, a 2.84 percent share of the county's roughly 21,212 children that age — above the 2.60 percent statewide average. (source)
• Alta California Regional Center's FY 2024-2025 caseload included 16,711 autistic clients out of 31,225 total, a 54 percent share — matching the statewide share and among the larger regional-center caseloads in California by raw count. (source)
• Sacramento's SB 946-covered families are not subject to an age cutoff or an annual spending ceiling under the state mandate, which pegs covered ABA to medical necessity instead of to a fixed yearly figure. (source)