Macon and Bibb County share one consolidated government, but the systems a family needs — early intervention referral, school evaluation, Medicaid waivers — still run on the state's county-by-county map. This guide gathers the actual Macon-area doors: the North Central Health District's Children 1st office downtown, Bibb County School District's Program for Exceptional Children, the region's DBHDD contacts, and the closest evaluation and therapy providers we could confirm.

Because Macon sits at the center of a mostly rural public-health and disability-services district, some of the offices a family calls are not physically in Bibb County — the regional DBHDD field office, for instance, is based in Augusta — so this page is explicit about which number reaches a local desk and which reaches a regional one.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the Georgia page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Macon-Bibb County (Middle Georgia).

Early intervention under 3: Babies Can't Wait (Georgia's early intervention program)

Georgia's Part C program, Babies Can't Wait, covers children from birth up to their third birthday, and in the Macon area the referral desk is the North Central Health District's Children 1st office at 201 Second Street, Suite 1100 — reachable by fax at (478) 751-6429, by email at Child.Health-5-2@dph.ga.gov, or through the Macon-Bibb County Health Department's main line, 478-745-0411. A parent, doctor, teacher, or anyone else concerned about a child's development can start the referral, and the screening and eligibility evaluation cost nothing. Ongoing therapy after enrollment uses a sliding fee scale against insurance and Medicaid, though Georgia's published family guide is explicit that a child will not lose services simply because a household cannot pay its share. Around a child's third birthday, responsibility shifts to Bibb County School District, which evaluates under its own, separate eligibility rule.

• Babies Can't Wait (Georgia's early intervention program)
• Referral phone: 478-745-0411 (Macon-Bibb County Health Department) · 1-888-651-8224 (state Babies Can't Wait office)

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

School districts and special education

Georgia law requires every district, including Bibb County's, to run Child Find at no charge for any resident child from birth through age 21 — a category that reaches children being homeschooled or enrolled in private school inside district lines. Requesting an evaluation in writing starts a 60-calendar-day clock once a parent has given written consent, and the district must complete its work inside that window. A school team decides eligibility under Georgia's own autism criteria (State Board Rule 160-4-7-.05), a decision that stands apart from — and does not require — a medical diagnosis.

• Bibb County School District — Program for Exceptional Children; district main line 478-765-8711, department line 478-765-8549
• Jones County Schools — included for families just across the Bibb line — Program for Exceptional Children, (478) 986-3032, runs a Child Find free screening for preschool-age children

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Macon-Bibb County

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.

• Atrium Health Navicent Pediatric Developmental & Behavioral Health / Autism and Developmental Center — Central Georgia's dedicated developmental-behavioral pediatrics clinic, part of the Beverly Knight Olson Children's Hospital campus. The center describes itself as Central Georgia's leader for autism and developmental assessment and intervention, covering diagnosis through treatment, with family support services and pediatric psychology alongside pediatric therapy · 478-633-8100 · no wait figure is published; the center lists direct contact at autism@navicenthealth.org and office hours of Monday-Thursday 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
• Hopebridge — Macon Autism Therapy Center — diagnostic evaluations plus ABA therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and feeding/swallowing therapy, geared toward early intervention for children starting at 15 months and generally serving those under 10 · (478) 219-7626 · no wait figure published; center hours are Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

How assessment works · What to do while you wait

Disability services and waivers: Georgia DBHDD — Region 2 Field Office (Augusta), with River Edge Behavioral Health Center as the Macon-based Community Service Board

Georgia's two Medicaid waivers for developmental disabilities, NOW and COMP, are administered by DBHDD, and Bibb County's applications are formally handled by the Region 2 Field Office in Augusta (706-792-7733 or 866-380-4835) — a region stretching from Barrow County down to Bibb County. Locally, families more often start with River Edge Behavioral Health Center, the Community Service Board headquartered at 175 Emery Highway in Macon (478-803-7600), which also serves Baldwin, Jones, Monroe, Putnam, Twiggs, and Wilkinson counties and runs an intellectual and developmental disabilities program alongside mental-health and crisis services (call or text 988 for crisis). Applications require documentation of the disability, and applicants found eligible who cannot be served immediately go onto Georgia's statewide planning list, so families are encouraged to apply as soon as a disability is documented. Georgia's Katie Beckett (TEFRA) pathway runs on a separate track and can open Medicaid to a child with significant disabilities without counting parental income.

• Georgia DBHDD — Region 2 Field Office (Augusta), with River Edge Behavioral Health Center as the Macon-based Community Service Board
• Phone: (706) 792-7733 (Region 2 Field Office, Augusta) · 478-803-7600 (River Edge Behavioral Health Center, Macon) · 678-248-7449 (Katie Beckett centralized team)

Local organizations that help Macon-Bibb County families

• River Edge Behavioral Health Center — Macon-based Community Service Board — intellectual/developmental disability program, children's mental health services, and the local DD-waiver access point (478-803-7600; crisis line 988)
• Parent to Parent of Georgia — Georgia's federally designated parent training and information center — free family navigation help statewide, birth through 26 (1-800-229-2038)
• Autism Society of Georgia — statewide information and referral, support groups, and workshops across the lifespan (844-404-2742)
• Special Olympics Georgia — Area 7 — covers Bibb, Jones, Monroe, Twiggs and neighboring middle-Georgia counties with unified sports, track and field, bowling, bocce, and other adaptive athletics
• Macon-Bibb County Recreation Department — lists a therapeutic recreation / special population program; Recreation Programmer Natalie Allen, NAllen@maconbibb.us, 478-219-0291

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.

• Bibb County's DBHDD paperwork is processed out of the Region 2 Field Office, which sits in Augusta — nearly 90 miles away — while River Edge Behavioral Health Center, the Community Service Board actually headquartered in Macon, is the more practical first call for DD services and the NOW/COMP application. (source)
• Georgia's autism insurance mandate, Ava's Law, requires state-regulated health plans to cover autism care including ABA, but it caps ABA coverage at $35,000 a year and does not apply to self-funded employer plans, which cover a large share of Georgia workers. (source)
• Georgia's NOW/COMP planning list — the queue for people found eligible for a waiver but not yet funded — stood at roughly 7,900 people statewide as of September 2025, with about 3,000 of them under age 22, according to budget analysis; no county-level breakout is published. (source)
• Babies Can't Wait's eligibility evaluation is free statewide, and Georgia's published family-cost guide commits that a child's services will not be cut off solely because a family cannot afford the sliding-scale fee. (source)
• Atrium Health Navicent's Autism and Developmental Center does not publish a wait-time figure; its own page lists office hours of Monday-Thursday 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m., with autism@navicenthealth.org as a direct contact. (source)
• Bibb County School District has 30 calendar days from an eligibility ruling to convene the IEP meeting — a separate deadline from the 60-day evaluation clock. (source)
• The North Central Health District runs Babies Can't Wait on the federal 45-day standard: a Macon toddler's IFSP meeting has to happen within 45 days of the referral landing with Children 1st. (source)
• Ava's Law's mandate stops at age 21 — a state-regulated plan is not required to keep paying for ABA once a young adult passes that age. (source)