New Orleans families reach Louisiana's Part C program, EarlySteps, through the Region 1 System Point of Entry that Easterseals Louisiana operates for Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines parishes, while longer-term disability supports run through the state's Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities and the Metropolitan Human Services District, Orleans Parish's local governing entity.

School evaluation looks different here than almost anywhere else in the country: NOLA Public Schools directly runs only one school and delegates the rest to independent charter operators, so a written evaluation request usually goes to your child's individual school rather than a central district office — this page explains where that request lands and who backs it up.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the Louisiana page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to New Orleans (Orleans Parish).

Early intervention under 3: Louisiana EarlySteps — Region 1 (Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines)

EarlySteps is Louisiana's Part C early intervention system for children from birth to three, run by the Louisiana Department of Health through ten regional System Points of Entry (SPOEs) around the state. In Region 1, covering Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines parishes, Easterseals Louisiana holds the SPOE contract and coordinates referrals, eligibility, and the Individualized Family Service Plan. A parent, pediatrician, or child care provider can call directly, and a diagnosis is not required to start — only a concern about how a young child is developing, moving, or communicating. The statewide toll-free referral line, 1-866-327-5978, will also route a New Orleans family to the Region 1 office.

• Louisiana EarlySteps — Region 1 (Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines)
• Referral phone: 504-595-3408

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

School districts and special education

New Orleans is nearly unique among U.S. cities in how its public schools are governed: NOLA Public Schools (the Orleans Parish School Board) directly runs only one school and authorizes independent operators to run the rest as charters, yet the school board still holds the parish's Child Find duty and runs centralized enrollment for every publicly funded seat, charter or otherwise. In practice, a written evaluation request typically goes first to a child's own school, since each charter operates its own special education office day to day; OPSB's Child Search Office specifically locates and evaluates children ages 3-5 who aren't yet enrolled anywhere, and OPSB's special education office holds the model documents on child find, enrollment, and family rights that every Orleans Parish charter agreed to follow after a decade-long federal consent judgment ended.

• NOLA Public Schools (Orleans Parish School Board) — Child Search Office (separate page) locates and evaluates unenrolled children ages 3-5; for an enrolled child, start with their own charter's special education office
• Jefferson Parish Schools — Pupil Appraisal Department, 504-349-8663, serving Metairie, Kenner, Gretna, and the rest of Jefferson Parish across the line from Orleans

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in New Orleans

We have not yet verified a hospital or university evaluation program with public intake information in New Orleans. 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: Louisiana OCDD (Office of Intellectual & Developmental Disability Supports) — Metropolitan Human Services District

Louisiana's Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities serves as the state's single point of entry into long-term developmental disability services, including Medicaid's home and community-based waivers. Orleans Parish's Local Governing Entity — the arm of the system that actually processes applications regionally — is the Metropolitan Human Services District. A family can start with OCDD's statewide toll-free number; the process runs through an eligibility determination before a support coordinator helps build a plan, including an application to the Children's Choice Waiver or the New Opportunities Waiver where appropriate.

• Louisiana OCDD (Office of Intellectual & Developmental Disability Supports) — Metropolitan Human Services District
• Phone: 1-866-783-5553

Local organizations that help New Orleans families

• Families Helping Families of Greater New Orleans — regional family resource center covering early intervention and developmental disability navigation for the New Orleans area

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.

• The Orleans Parish School Board runs centralized enrollment for every publicly funded school seat in the parish, even at charter schools it does not directly govern. (source)
• A federal court has upheld a New Orleans charter school's denial of enrollment to a disabled student, a live legal question families should know about when weighing which school to request. (source)
• New Orleans families get the same statutory clock as the rest of Louisiana: 60 business days from signed consent to a finished initial evaluation, whichever school actually enrolled the child under centralized enrollment. (source)
• A referral to EarlySteps' System Point of Entry starts a 45-calendar-day countdown to the first IFSP meeting, and the agency aims to have eligibility itself settled around day 35 of that window. (source)
• Louisiana's Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities scores New Opportunities Waiver applicants by urgency rather than filing date, so a family judged critical can expect roughly a one-to-two-year wait instead of the old multi-year queue. (source)
• Under Louisiana's mandate, ABA coverage through a state-regulated plan ends at age 21 and tops out at $36,000 in a year, though large-employer self-funded coverage falls outside that rule entirely. (source)