Gaithersburg has no school district or health department of its own — as a city inside Montgomery County, its families are folded entirely into county-run and county-wide systems, from early intervention through the disability-waiver office, so "Gaithersburg's Child Find office" and "Montgomery County's Child Find office" are simply the same thing.

This guide collects the phone numbers, referral steps, and web pages those countywide Montgomery County systems publish, along with the region's Children's National evaluation pathway, a Rockville-based nonpublic autism school, and the DDA regional office that handles a Gaithersburg family's waiver paperwork.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the Maryland page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Gaithersburg (Montgomery County).

Early intervention under 3: Montgomery County Infants and Toddlers Program

Montgomery County, not any individual city inside it, runs the birth-to-3 early intervention system that covers Gaithersburg, operating out of the county's Department of Health and Human Services at 1401 Rockville Pike. A referral can be opened by calling 240-777-3997 or emailing IFSP@montgomerycountymd.gov, and interpreters are available so language isn't a barrier to getting started. Maryland's Part C eligibility rules apply the same way here as everywhere in the state — a 25% delay in a developmental area, an atypical developmental pattern, or a diagnosed condition with a high probability of causing delay all qualify a child, and none of the three requires an autism diagnosis already in hand. Coverage runs through 34 and a half months of age, after which a child transitions into Montgomery County Public Schools' preschool special-education system rather than staying with the county health department.

• Montgomery County Infants and Toddlers Program
• Referral phone: 240-777-3997

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

School districts and special education

Montgomery County Public Schools is a single countywide system, so Gaithersburg doesn't get its own school district the way some larger Maryland cities do — every family in the county, Gaithersburg included, goes through the same central Child Find office, based at 4511 Bestor Drive in Rockville. That office runs free developmental screenings from age 3 until kindergarten, handles evaluation requests for children already enrolled in a district school, and also serves as the entry point for a family moving into the county with a child already identified with a disability elsewhere. A family whose child needs a more intensive, autism-specific day placement than a home school provides has Ivymount School as a nearby option — a nonpublic special-education school in Rockville that enrolls students from age 4 through 21, most of them funded through their home school system.

• Montgomery County Public Schools — Child Find intake 301-947-6080, ChildFind@mcpsmd.org; general MCPS line 240-740-3000
• Ivymount School — nonpublic day school in Rockville, ages 4-21, serving autistic and other neurodiverse students; admissions 301-469-0223 ext. 116, lgladstone@ivymount.org; most students are funded through their local school system

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Gaithersburg

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 National — Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders — the largest multidisciplinary pediatric autism program in the Washington, D.C. region, staffed by psychologists, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, developmental pediatricians, and speech-language pathologists; currently prioritizing new evaluations where autism is suspected but unconfirmed and support for high-schoolers transitioning to adulthood · 1-888-884-2327 (appointments) · 301-765-5430 (information)
• Proud Moments ABA — Gaithersburg — center-based ABA therapy for children with autism at a Perry Parkway location, using a six-step intake that starts with a phone consultation and a BCBA-led assessment · 301-301-4850 · the provider's own page states it is currently accepting new clients with no waitlist

How assessment works · What to do while you wait

Disability services and waivers: Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) — Southern Maryland Regional Office

DDA funds long-term residential, day, employment, and in-home disability supports statewide, and it groups Montgomery County — Gaithersburg included — under its Southern Maryland Regional Office alongside Prince George's, Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary's counties, a wider footprint than the office's name alone suggests. That office is now the entry point for a single combined waiver rather than the three that used to exist: Maryland retired the separate Community Pathways, Family Supports, and Community Supports waivers on October 6, 2025 and folded them into one program, still called the Community Pathways Waiver. A Gaithersburg family applies through DDA's own eligibility process, which runs independently of both the county's early intervention program and MCPS's special-education system.

• Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) — Southern Maryland Regional Office
• Phone: 301-362-5100 (Southern Maryland Regional Office) · 888-207-2479 (toll-free)

Local organizations that help Gaithersburg families

• Pathfinders for Autism — statewide helpline 443-330-5341; provider directory and family recreational events
• Autism Society of Maryland — 410-290-3466; Family Navigator program for newly diagnosed families and a sensory-friendly business directory
• Miracle League of Montgomery County — adaptive baseball at the Washington Nationals Miracle Field in nearby Germantown, with fee waivers available; email MLMCBB@GMAIL.COM

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.

• MCPS, like every Maryland district, has to reach an eligibility decision within 60 calendar days of a family's signed consent, then hold an IEP meeting within a further 30 days for a Gaithersburg child found eligible. (source)
• The Montgomery County Infants and Toddlers Program answers to a 45-day state deadline, running from the date of referral, to finish evaluating a child and hold the first IFSP meeting — a Gaithersburg family shouldn't expect that clock to reset just because paperwork takes a while to sign and return. (source)
• DDA's most recent public accounting to state lawmakers put the statewide waiver waiting list at roughly 4,000 people as of late 2022, tracked under the legislature's End the Wait Act; the Southern Maryland Regional Office is where a Gaithersburg family can ask about a specific application's place in that count. (source)