Colorado gives every family one front door for early intervention — a statewide referral line — and then routes you to a county agency. The Denver metro's catch is that those county assignments changed hands in 2023–24, so the agency name a friend gives you may be out of date.

This page maps the current doors by county, the school district contacts, the evaluation pathways, and the funding routes — including the one many families search for and no longer exists (Colorado's autism waiver ended in 2018; ABA now comes through Medicaid directly).

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the Colorado page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Denver metro.

Early intervention under 3: Early Intervention Colorado

Early Intervention Colorado serves children from birth until the third birthday who have a delay or a diagnosed condition. Everyone starts at the same statewide front door — call 833-733-3734, refer online at eicolorado.org, or email GetStartedwithEI@state.co.us; anyone can refer, evaluation is free, and there is no income test. The referral routes to your county's contracted provider: Rocky Mountain Human Services for Denver County (303-247-8423), North Metro Community Services for Adams County including the Adams part of Aurora (since July 2024), Developmental Pathways for Arapahoe, Douglas, and Elbert counties and the rest of Aurora (303-360-6600), and DDRC for Jefferson, Clear Creek, Gilpin, and Summit counties (303-233-3363). At the third birthday, your district's Child Find team takes over.

• Early Intervention Colorado
• Referral phone: 833-733-3734 (statewide referral line)

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

School districts and special education

From age 3, school districts are responsible for finding and evaluating children with suspected disabilities (Child Find), at no cost to families — referrals are accepted from parents, doctors, and community programs. The metro's district lines do not follow city lines: Aurora alone spans three counties and two school districts. Contact your district's Child Find team directly.

• Denver Public Schools — Child Find sits in Exceptional Student Services; the district also runs a special education advisory committee
• Jeffco Public Schools — Child Find intake 303-982-7247; community support line 303-982-6682
• Douglas County School District — free developmental assessments; Child Find office 720-433-0020
• Cherry Creek School District — serves part of Aurora; play-based assessment teams
• Aurora Public Schools — ages 3–5 referral form; questions 303-326-3631
• Adams 12 Five Star Schools — screening then play-based evaluation; contact 720-972-6145
• Boulder Valley School District — northwest metro; contact 720-561-5078

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Denver

These are hospital and university programs with public intake information. Listing here is informational — it is not a recommendation, and it is not medical advice. Public school evaluation is free and does not require any of these.

• Children's Hospital Colorado — Developmental Pediatrics (Anschutz campus, Aurora) — developmental-behavioral evaluation including multidisciplinary autism assessment; the hospital notes autism can be reliably identified as young as age 2, though most children are identified after 4 · 720-777-6630 · no wait figure is published; long waits are documented at the system level, so call intake for current timing
• JFK Partners (CU Anschutz) — Colorado's university center of excellence in developmental disabilities; assessments run through Children's Colorado Developmental Pediatrics (same intake), with autism-specific programs including the Facing Your Fears anxiety group for autistic youth 8–14 and social skills groups · 720-777-6630

How assessment works · What to do while you wait

Disability services and waivers: Case Management Agencies (Colorado's 2023–24 redesign)

Colorado's Medicaid long-term supports run through one Case Management Agency per area — a structure consolidated in the 2023–24 redesign, which also reshuffled which agency serves which county. Current metro assignments: Rocky Mountain Human Services for Denver and Adams counties, Jefferson County Human Services for Jefferson and Clear Creek (303-271-4216), and Developmental Pathways for Arapahoe, Douglas, and Elbert counties and Aurora (303-360-6600). The waiver most families of young autistic children ask about is Children's Extensive Support (CES), for children living at home who meet an institutional level of care and need intervention roughly every two hours during the day; per the state's published guidance, the adult waiver is the only one with an active waiting list. Note the moving parts: the CHCBS medical-needs waiver is merging into the new Children with Complex Health Needs waiver through mid-2026, so older guidance may use outdated names. Families not yet on Health First Colorado apply at co.gov/PEAK.

• Case Management Agencies (Colorado's 2023–24 redesign)
• Phone: 303-360-6600 (Developmental Pathways) · 303-271-4216 (Jefferson County)

Local organizations that help Denver families

• PEAK Parent Center — Colorado's federally designated parent training and information center — free special education help for families, birth through 26, in English and Spanish
• AdvocacyDenver — Denver's Arc affiliate (founded 1954), commonly used for special education advocacy (303-831-7733)
• The Arc of Aurora — serves Aurora residents across all three counties and both school districts (720-213-1420)
• Autism Society of Colorado — statewide information and referral, based in Lakewood
• 2-1-1 Colorado — free statewide referral line — dial 2-1-1; run in the metro by Mile High United Way
• The Arc — Arapahoe, Douglas & Elbert Counties — advocacy for the south metro counties

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.

• Colorado's autism-specific Medicaid waiver ended July 1, 2018, after federal officials directed the state to cover behavioral services through the regular Medicaid benefit instead. ABA now comes through the Pediatric Behavioral Therapies benefit for Health First Colorado members 20 and younger, with provider-submitted prior authorization. (source)
• The 2023–24 case management redesign is publicly documented as disruptive: a February 2024 federal civil-rights complaint alleged improper coverage terminations and service delays, and advocacy reporting documented case-manager-to-family ratios of 80 to 1 against a recommended 65 to 1. Check the state's agency directory if you cannot reach your assigned case manager. (source)
• The agency that runs early intervention in your county is not necessarily the agency that runs Medicaid case management — the contracts changed hands separately (Adams County early intervention moved to North Metro in July 2024 while its case management moved to Rocky Mountain Human Services; Jefferson County's case management moved to the county while DDRC kept early intervention). (source)
• Colorado reporting in April 2026 documented families statewide waiting months or longer for autism evaluations and services, driven by specialist shortages — statewide reporting, not a Denver-specific measurement. Children's Hospital Colorado publishes no wait figure. (source)
• Aurora is split across three counties and two school districts, so which early intervention provider, case management agency, and district serve an Aurora family depends on their address. (source)
• Once you sign consent, Colorado gives the district 60 calendar days to finish the evaluation and decide eligibility — PEAK Parent Center's own guide for families walks through that clock step by step. (source)
• If your child is found eligible, Colorado requires the initial IEP to be written within 90 calendar days of that original consent date, per Douglas County School District's published special-education timeline. (source)
• Colorado dropped both the age limit and the dollar limit from its autism insurance mandate back in 2017; the requirement still doesn't reach self-funded employer plans regulated under federal ERISA law. (source)