Kansas City, Missouri grew by annexing land over roughly a century, and its school district boundaries never caught up — so depending on your street address, your child's school district might be Kansas City Public Schools, North Kansas City Schools, Hickman Mills C-1, or one of several others, each with its own Child Find office and phone number.

This page covers the statewide First Steps intake for children under 3, the district contacts you're most likely to need inside the city, and EITAS, Jackson County's tax-funded board that many families discover only after they've already found their way to Medicaid — worth knowing about earlier.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the Missouri page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Kansas City, Missouri (Jackson County).

Early intervention under 3: Missouri First Steps

First Steps is Missouri's statewide early intervention system for children from birth to age 3 with a disability or developmental delay, run by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Families anywhere in the state, including Kansas City, start with the same toll-free System Point of Entry (SPOE) line; a service coordinator then arranges a free developmental screening and, if needed, a full evaluation. Ongoing services are billed on a sliding scale rather than being entirely free, which is a difference from some other states' Part C programs worth knowing going in.

• Missouri First Steps
• Referral phone: 1-866-583-2392

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

School districts and special education

From age 3, Missouri school districts must locate and evaluate children with a suspected disability under Child Find, at no cost. Kansas City's boundaries cross several districts because of how the city annexed land over the decades, so confirm which district actually covers your address before calling.

• Kansas City Public Schools — special education department 816-418-5307; Early Childhood Special Education office (ages 3-5) 816-418-5292
• Hickman Mills C-1 School District — covers part of south Kansas City; District Special Education Coordinator 816-316-7086
• North Kansas City Schools — covers the Northland portion of Kansas City across the Missouri River; Executive Director of Special Education 816-413-3848

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Kansas City

We have not yet verified a hospital or university evaluation program with public intake information in Kansas City. 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: EITAS — Developmental Disability Services of Jackson County (SB 40 Board)

EITAS is Jackson County's SB 40 board, a quasi-governmental agency created after county voters approved a dedicated property tax levy for developmental disability services — a funding structure that exists county-by-county across Missouri rather than as a single statewide program. For families already on Medicaid, EITAS provides Targeted Case Management, sometimes called Support Coordination, to help build and monitor a service plan. Families who don't yet have Medicaid can still reach EITAS's Community Outreach Department for support while that process is underway, which is unusual compared to states where Medicaid enrollment is a prerequisite for any help at all.

• EITAS — Developmental Disability Services of Jackson County (SB 40 Board)

Local organizations that help Kansas City families

We have not yet verified a local parent organization in Kansas City. Statewide help still covers you: the Missouri guide lists the federally funded parent center and the free disability rights organization for the whole state, and both take calls from families anywhere in Missouri.

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.

• Once a Kansas City family signs consent for a special-education evaluation, Missouri's own timeline guidance gives the district 60 days to hold the Eligibility Determination Conference — and, if the team finds a child eligible, another 30 days after that to convene the first IEP meeting. (source)
• First Steps runs on a 45-day clock that starts the day of referral rather than the day paperwork gets signed, and inside that window DESE's contracted team has to finish the evaluation and hold the first IFSP meeting for any Jackson County toddler referred through the System Point of Entry line. (source)
• Missouri's own Department of Mental Health tally lists roughly 1,272 people waiting statewide for a developmental-disability waiver slot, with movement tied to a Priority of Need score rather than a fixed number of months — worth asking EITAS about directly instead of assuming Jackson County carries no line at all. (source)