Warner Robins sits entirely inside Houston County, so unlike sprawling metro areas, most families here deal with a single public school system and a single county health department — though the city's location next to Robins Air Force Base means a meaningful share of families are also working through a parallel military support system on base.

This is a light guide: it verifies the entry points that hold up everywhere in Georgia — early intervention, school evaluation, the state's Medicaid waivers — and adds the Warner Robins-specific providers, base program, and school-district contacts this research could independently confirm. Where a local fact could not be pinned to a real source, it was left out rather than guessed.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the Georgia page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Warner Robins area (Houston County).

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

Babies Can't Wait covers children from birth to their third birthday, and in Houston County a referral starts with a call to the county health department rather than a hospital or specialist. No doctor's order is required and anyone — a parent, daycare worker, or grandparent — can make the call; the eligibility evaluation itself carries no charge. Once a child qualifies, ongoing therapy is billed on a sliding scale against insurance or Medicaid, and Georgia's own parent guide promises that inability to pay will not cut a family off from services. As the third birthday approaches, a transition meeting hands the file to the school district, which applies its own, separate eligibility rules.

• Babies Can't Wait (Georgia's early intervention program)
• Referral phone: 1-888-651-8224 (state Babies Can't Wait office) · (478) 218-2000 (Houston County Health Department)

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

School districts and special education

Georgia law requires every district — including Houston County Schools and Peach County Schools — to run a year-round Child Find process that looks for children who may need special education services, whether they attend public school, private school, or are homeschooled within district lines, and the search costs families nothing. Getting the process started is on the parent: send a written request for evaluation, and once you've given written consent the district has 60 calendar days on the clock to finish it. A team decides eligibility under Georgia's own autism criteria (State Board Rule 160-4-7-.05), a separate question from whatever diagnosis a doctor may already have given.

• Houston County School District — Child Find office (478) 218-4618 ext. 1023, Program Specialist Daphne Whetsel; covers Warner Robins, Perry, Centerville, and Kathleen
• Peach County School District — covers Byron and Fort Valley, just outside Warner Robins to the north along I-75; families near the county line sometimes fall in this district instead

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Warner Robins

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.

• Surpass Behavioral Health – Warner Robins — clinic, in-home, and in-school ABA therapy from its Warner Robins location, plus a free STAT autism screening that can flag whether a fuller diagnostic evaluation is worth pursuing; intake starts with an online form followed by a benefits check and a BCBA assessment · (478) 225-3880 (clinic) · (888) 227-7212 (intake) · no wait time is published; the provider states it is in-network with most major insurers
• GoalPoint Behavior Group — ABA and speech-language therapy at its Warner Robins location, with caregiver training and telehealth caregiver-training options; registration begins with a call to the intake line · (478) 225-2179 (Warner Robins) · (678) 904-7053 (intake) · not published
• SenseAbilities Pediatric Therapy — speech-language, occupational, and feeding therapy plus hippotherapy for children from birth to 21, at a Warner Robins clinic; a patient portal handles intake paperwork ahead of a first appointment · 478-333-6363 · not published
• MGA Behavioral Health — autism diagnostic evaluation for children as young as two, plus post-diagnosis therapy for anxiety, social skills, and repetitive behaviors, from its Warner Robins office · (478) 929-0294 · not published
• Atrium Health Navicent — Autism and Developmental Center (Macon) — central Georgia's hospital-based autism and developmental assessment center, roughly a 25-minute drive from Warner Robins; families who suspect a developmental disorder are told to call directly, and the center pairs diagnosis with developmental-behavioral pediatrics and therapy referral · 478-633-8100 · not published; email intake also available at autism@navicenthealth.org

How assessment works · What to do while you wait

Disability services and waivers: Georgia DBHDD (Region 6 Field Office, Columbus)

Houston County falls inside DBHDD Region 6, whose field office in Columbus processes NOW and COMP waiver applications for a 30-county swath of central and southwest Georgia. A family applies through the Individual IDD Connects portal on the Georgia Collaborative ASO website with proof of the child's disability attached — DBHDD's own materials warn that a mailed paper application only slows things down, since staff have to retype it into that same portal. Region 6 then checks the file for completeness and a DBHDD psychologist decides pre-eligibility, and the agency does not publish how long either review takes. Because the waivers can't serve everyone who qualifies right away, most newly eligible people land on a statewide planning list first — so the practical advice from advocates is to apply as soon as a disability is documented, not to wait for a crisis. Georgia's Katie Beckett (TEFRA) pathway runs on a separate track and can open Medicaid to a child with a significant disability without counting household income.

• Georgia DBHDD (Region 6 Field Office, Columbus)
• Phone: (706) 565-7835 (Region 6, Columbus) · 678-248-7449 (Katie Beckett centralized team)

Local organizations that help Warner Robins families

• Waves Autism Center — Warner Robins nonprofit running social and life-skills groups, a GVRA vocational program, and summer day camps for autistic children and young adults (478-733-2597)
• Central Georgia Autism — Macon-based volunteer-run nonprofit serving families across middle Georgia with parent support meetups, scholarships, and family events
• Special Olympics Georgia — Area 8 — covers Houston County through its Houston County Schools and Houston Outreach programs; area contact 770-414-9390
• SJ InclusivePlay — Byron-based group just outside Warner Robins offering inclusive social events and parent support (478-366-8114)
• Parent to Parent of Georgia — the state's federally designated parent training and information center; free help finding local services statewide, birth through 26 (1-800-229-2038)
• Autism Society of Georgia — statewide information and referral line plus support groups across the lifespan (844-404-2742)

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.

• Houston County Schools runs an adapted-athletics program, the Sharks, fielding wheelchair handball, basketball, and football teams through the Georgia High School Association's adapted-sports division — the team won back-to-back state wheelchair basketball titles in 2015 and 2016. (source)
• Warner Robins High School's student-run Partners Club pairs general-education students with peers who have physical or intellectual disabilities for Special Olympics sports training and social activities, and it is open to any WRHS student who wants to join. (source)
• A small seasonal operation called Splash Class WR runs a special-needs swim option alongside its regular beginner classes at pools across the Warner Robins, Byron, and Perry area each summer. (source)
• Robins Air Force Base's Exceptional Family Member Program–Family Support office coordinates one-on-one consultations, family needs assessments, and early-intervention or special-education information for military families with a member who has ongoing medical or educational needs; enrollment is mandatory for active-duty members with a qualifying family member. (source)
• Georgia's autism insurance mandate (Ava's Law) requires state-regulated health plans to cover autism services such as ABA, but it lets insurers cap ABA coverage at $35,000 a year and does not reach self-funded employer plans, which cover a large share of Georgia workers. (source)
• Georgia's NOW/COMP waiver planning list is a persistent statewide bottleneck: budget analysts put it at roughly 7,900 people as of September 2025, about 3,000 of them under 22, with no separate Houston County figure published. (source)
• Houston County Schools has 30 calendar days after ruling a child eligible to hold the IEP meeting, separate from its 60-day evaluation deadline. (source)
• Babies Can't Wait referrals routed through the Houston County Health Department follow the same federal 45-day rule as the rest of Georgia's Part C system: an IFSP meeting within 45 days of referral. (source)
• Ava's Law's requirement that state-regulated Georgia plans cover autism care stops at age 21, apart from its separate $35,000 yearly ABA cap. (source)