Durham anchors one corner of the Research Triangle, and it happens to sit inside two of North Carolina's strongest academic medical systems — Duke and UNC — while still routing families through the same statewide public structure every North Carolina county uses: a county-based early intervention agency 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 connects those public doors to Durham County specifically, and adds the two university-affiliated diagnostic pathways many families ask about first — Duke's autism clinic and UNC's TEACCH center in neighboring Chapel Hill — with every phone number and program name sourced to the page 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 Durham (Durham County).

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

The NC Infant-Toddler Program is North Carolina's name for Part C early intervention, delivered locally by 16 regional Children's Developmental Services Agencies. The Durham CDSA serves Durham County, along with several neighboring counties. A referral can come from a parent, physician, allied health worker, or teacher, submitted by phone, fax, letter, in person, or with the state's NC ITP Referral form — a diagnosis is not required to open the referral. CDSA staff then collect a child's developmental and medical history and complete the evaluations used to decide eligibility for children under 3. Screening, evaluation, and service coordination are free for every family, regardless of income or insurance.

• North Carolina Infant-Toddler Program (NC ITP), delivered locally by the Durham CDSA
• Referral phone: 984-250-1580 (Durham 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 with a suspected disability — is coordinated by the NC Department of Public Instruction's Exceptional Children Division, but the evaluation itself is handled district by district. Durham Public Schools' Exceptional Children's Processes & Procedures manual, along with the state's own 'NC Policies Governing Services for Children with Disabilities,' governs how the district responds once a family requests an evaluation. Families on Durham's western edge, closer to Chapel Hill and Carrboro, may instead fall under a neighboring district's Child Find process.

• Durham Public Schools — publishes an Exceptional Children's Processes & Procedures Manual and links the statewide NC Policies Governing Services for Children with Disabilities
• Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools — covers the neighboring university towns just west of Durham; district office 919-967-8211

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Durham

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.

• Duke Autism Clinic (Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development) — diagnostic and evaluation services, intervention and therapy, and consultation for people on the autism spectrum, from infant and toddler evaluations through adulthood, with access to Duke specialists in neurology and speech, occupational, and physical therapy for established patients · 919-681-7148 · a referral from a Duke Health provider is required for a diagnostic evaluation for children older than 3; children 3 and under do not need one
• UNC TEACCH Autism Program — Chapel Hill Center — diagnostic evaluation, intervention and therapy services, education, and consultation for individuals on the autism spectrum, based in Carrboro and covering Durham County as part of UNC's statewide TEACCH network; call to confirm the current referral process · 919-966-5156

How assessment works · What to do while you wait

Disability services and waivers: Alliance Health (Durham County's LME/MCO)

Medicaid-funded behavioral health and I/DD services in North Carolina are administered regionally by public managed-care organizations called LME/MCOs, and Durham County's is Alliance Health, the same LME/MCO that also covers Wake and Mecklenburg counties. Alliance 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, the only NC Medicaid plan type that currently opens waiver services. Because eligible applicants far outnumber funded slots, the state runs a Registry of Unmet Needs rather than a normal enrollment line; a 2025 NC Senate bill put the statewide count at approximately 19,000 people waiting. A family can ask Alliance to add a child to that registry well before a diagnosis is complete, and can separately ask about NC Medicaid's 1915(i) option for interim, similar supports that don't cost a family its place in line.

• Alliance Health (Durham County's LME/MCO)
• Phone: 1-800-510-9132 (Alliance Health member and recipient services)

Local organizations that help Durham families

• Exceptional Children's Assistance Center (ECAC) — North Carolina's federally designated parent training and information center; free help for families of children with disabilities, birth through 26, statewide (704-892-1321, helpline 1-800-962-6817)
• The Arc of North Carolina — Triangle Region — regional office covering Durham, Orange, Wake, and Moore counties from its Raleigh base; housing, care management, and advocacy support (919-782-4632)
• Miracle League of the Triangle — adaptive baseball for players 5 and up with a diagnosed disability or an IEP/504 plan; Durham's field is at Durham Bulls Miracle League Park (919-238-0333)

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 NC Senate in 2025 (S246) reported roughly 19,000 people statewide waiting on the NC Innovations Waiver registry, and noted the waiting list had about doubled over the prior decade while the state added only around 2,000 new slots in that span. (source)
• Durham Public Schools has to complete the whole path from a written evaluation referral to a signed IEP — testing, the eligibility meeting, and plan development — inside 90 calendar days under North Carolina’s statute, a deadline the state doesn’t allow to be extended. (source)
• The Durham CDSA runs on the same federal Part C clock every North Carolina CDSA does: the developmental assessment and the first IFSP meeting must both happen within 45 days of a family’s referral. (source)
• Families on the NC Innovations Waiver’s statewide registry have reported waits of ten years or more, since North Carolina adds far fewer new funded slots each year than the number of families newly registering. (source)