Concord is the seat of Cabarrus County, northeast of Charlotte, and its own CDSA and school district sit inside the same statewide public structure every North Carolina family relies on: a county-based agency for early intervention before age 3, a school district Child Find duty from 3 on, and a regional public authority for Medicaid behavioral health and the state's autism waiver.

This page names the specific contacts inside that structure for Cabarrus County — where to call for early intervention, which districts serve the Concord area, a nearby diagnostic center, and the local Medicaid system — with every fact sourced to the organization that publishes it.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the North Carolina page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Concord (Cabarrus County).

Early intervention under 3: North Carolina Infant-Toddler Program (NC ITP), delivered locally by the Concord CDSA

Cabarrus County's Part C early intervention agency is the Concord CDSA, one of the 16 regional Children's Developmental Services Agencies that make up the NC Infant-Toddler Program statewide; it also covers Iredell, Rowan, Stanly, and Union counties. Any parent, physician, allied health professional, or teacher can open a referral — over the phone, by fax or letter, in person, or through the state's NC ITP Referral form — and a diagnosis is not something the CDSA requires up front. Staff then review a child's developmental and medical background and run the assessments used to determine eligibility for a child under 3. No family pays anything for screening, evaluation, or service coordination through the CDSA, whatever their income or insurance situation looks like.

• North Carolina Infant-Toddler Program (NC ITP), delivered locally by the Concord CDSA
• Referral phone: 704-998-5730 (Concord CDSA)

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

School districts and special education

Statewide, Child Find — the duty to locate and evaluate children from birth through 21 who may have a disability — is coordinated by the NC Department of Public Instruction's Exceptional Children Division, with each district running its own evaluation process. Cabarrus County Schools is the primary district covering Concord, describing itself through Project Child Find as identifying children birth through 21 who may need special education. Neighboring Kannapolis, which straddles the Cabarrus-Rowan county line, has its own separate city school district rather than falling under the county system.

• Cabarrus County Schools — covers Concord directly; EC Director Angela Fitzwater, 704-260-5770, angela.fitzwater@cabarrus.k12.nc.us
• Kannapolis City Schools — separate city district bordering Concord to the north; district office 704-938-1131

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Concord

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.

• UNC TEACCH Autism Program — Charlotte Center — diagnostic evaluation, intervention and therapy services, education, and consultation for individuals on the autism spectrum, covering Cabarrus County as part of UNC's statewide TEACCH network; call ahead to confirm the current referral process · 919-445-2365

How assessment works · What to do while you wait

Disability services and waivers: Partners Health Management (Cabarrus County's LME/MCO)

Regional public managed-care organizations called LME/MCOs administer North Carolina's Medicaid-funded behavioral health, substance use, and I/DD services, and Cabarrus County's is Partners Health Management. Partners manages local access to the NC Innovations Waiver — the state's home- and community-based Medicaid waiver for autism and other I/DD — through a Tailored Plan, currently the only NC Medicaid plan type that opens waiver services. Because far more people are eligible than there are funded slots, applicants are placed on a Registry of Unmet Needs rather than enrolled directly; a bill filed in the state Senate in 2025 counted close to 19,000 people on that registry across North Carolina. A family can ask Partners to register a child well before a diagnosis is complete, and can also ask about NC Medicaid's 1915(i) option for interim, similar services that don't affect a family's place in line.

• Partners Health Management (Cabarrus County's LME/MCO)
• Phone: 1-888-235-4673 (Partners Health Management member and recipient services)

Local organizations that help Concord families

• Exceptional Children's Assistance Center (ECAC) — a free, federally funded resource center for North Carolina parents of children with disabilities, serving families from a child's birth through age 26 (704-892-1321, helpline 1-800-962-6817)
• The Arc of North Carolina — Triad Region — based just north in Salisbury; housing, care management, advocacy, and self-directed-services programs serving the region around Concord (704-637-1521)

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.

• A bill filed in the North Carolina Senate in 2025 (S246) reported approximately 19,000 people statewide waiting on the NC Innovations Waiver registry, and noted the list had roughly doubled over the prior decade while the state added only about 2,000 new slots statewide in that same period. (source)
• Once a family submits a written referral to Cabarrus County Schools, the entire evaluation-to-placement process — testing, the eligibility meeting, and an IEP if the child qualifies — has to be finished within 90 calendar days under North Carolina’s own rule. (source)
• The Concord CDSA, which also covers Iredell, Rowan, Stanly, and Union counties, is bound by the same federal standard as every North Carolina Part C agency: assessment and the first IFSP meeting inside 45 days of referral. (source)
• North Carolina's NC Innovations Waiver has kept some registrants waiting ten years or longer, since the number of new funded slots added statewide each year lags far behind new registrations. (source)