Hialeah is part of Miami-Dade County, so it shares the county's school district, hospitals, and disability-services office with the rest of Miami — but it also has something most Florida cities on this list don't: an autism-specific nonprofit campus headquartered right in the city, running everything from early intervention to a tuition-free charter school.

This page lists that Hialeah-based option alongside the countywide systems every Miami-Dade family can use, with a phone number or URL behind each one.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the Florida page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Miami metro (Miami-Dade County).

Early intervention under 3: Florida Early Steps

Early Steps is Florida's early intervention program for children from birth to 36 months, provided at no cost to families. A referral can come from anyone who knows the child — a parent, relative, pediatrician, or child care provider — and no diagnosis is needed to start. After the referral, the child is screened or evaluated for eligibility, and an eligible family works with a service coordinator to write an Individualized Family Support Plan. Hialeah families can also ask directly at South Florida Autism Center, which runs its own early-intervention and daycare programming for young autistic children.

• Florida Early Steps
• Referral phone: 1-800-218-0001

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

School districts and special education

Every Florida district owes resident children with disabilities a free evaluation under the Child Find rule, from birth through age 21, and the district has 60 school days after written parental consent to complete it. Hialeah families attend Miami-Dade County Public Schools by default, but families of children with an autism diagnosis have a second, tuition-free option in the South Florida Autism Charter School, which is itself a public school and must follow the same evaluation and IEP rules.

• Miami-Dade County Public Schools — Division of Exceptional Student Education, 1450 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami
• South Florida Autism Charter School — tuition-free K-8-plus public charter for autistic students; Hialeah campus at 3751 W. 108th Street, (305) 823-2700, with a second Hialeah campus at 18305 NW 75th Place, (305) 820-2200

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Hialeah

We have not yet verified a hospital or university evaluation program with public intake information in Hialeah. 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: Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) — Southern Region

APD determines eligibility for Florida's long-term developmental-disability services and runs the iBudget Medicaid waiver, which pays for home and community-based supports. Hialeah is served by the Southern Region office in downtown Miami, which covers all of Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. Once a child is found eligible, their name is placed on the iBudget waitlist by application date rather than by how urgent the need is, so families are encouraged to apply as soon as a delay is suspected rather than waiting for a finished diagnosis. A crisis-enrollment path exists separately for households in homelessness or safety emergencies.

• Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) — Southern Region
• Phone: (305) 349-1478

Local organizations that help Hialeah families

• South Florida Autism Center — Hialeah-based nonprofit running early intervention, pre-K, before/after-school care, ABA-based camp programming, and adult (22+) day and vocational services; free community workshops on Saturdays; (305) 823-2700
• Friends of South Florida Autism — the Hialeah-based nonprofit's fundraising and community-support arm, at the same 3751 W. 108th Street campus
• UM-NSU CARD — the regional Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, offering free diagnostic support, training, and referrals across Miami-Dade County; (305) 284-6563
• Parent to Parent of Miami — free peer support and advocacy for Miami-Dade families of children and adults with disabilities; (305) 271-9797
• The Arc of South Florida — after-school and summer programs plus adult and case-management services across Miami-Dade County

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.

• A University of South Florida research project tracking Florida's iBudget Medicaid waiver waitlist found more than 22,000 people waiting as of January 2023, broken down by priority category, with many having waited over a decade for services. (source)
• A 2025 report to the Florida House Human Services Committee put the statewide iBudget waitlist above 21,000 people, with an average wait of about 8.5 years for home-support services. (source)
• As of June 24, 2026, Florida law enforcement can issue a Florida Spectrum Alert — a public notification built specifically for a missing child under 18 reasonably believed to have autism spectrum disorder and to be in danger of serious harm — through FDLE's text/email subscription system, highway signs, and social media. (source)
• Florida reports meeting the federal Part C standard for Early Steps statewide — evaluation and initial family plan completed within 45 days of referral — which covers Hialeah families as much as anywhere else. (source)
• After Miami-Dade County Public Schools determines a Hialeah child eligible for exceptional student education, Florida rule gives the district 30 calendar days to convene the IEP meeting. (source)