Wilmington is the seat of New Hanover County on North Carolina's southern coast, and its own UNC TEACCH regional center means families here have a local diagnostic option alongside the same statewide public structure every North Carolina county uses: 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 long-waitlisted autism waiver.

This page lists the specific contacts inside that structure for New Hanover County — the CDSA that handles early referrals, the districts serving the Wilmington area, the TEACCH center based in the city, 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 Wilmington (New Hanover County).

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

The NC Infant-Toddler Program carries out North Carolina's Part C early intervention duties locally through 16 regional Children's Developmental Services Agencies; New Hanover County's is the Wilmington office of the CDSA of the Cape Fear, also covering Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, and Pender counties. A referral can be opened by a parent, physician, allied health worker, or educator — by phone, fax, letter, or in person, or with the state's NC ITP Referral form — and a diagnosis isn't needed beforehand. CDSA staff gather a child's developmental and medical background and complete the evaluations that determine whether a child under 3 qualifies. Screening, evaluation, and service coordination don't cost a family anything, no matter their income or what insurance they carry.

• North Carolina Infant-Toddler Program (NC ITP), delivered locally by the CDSA of the Cape Fear (Wilmington)
• Referral phone: 910-945-6021 (CDSA of the Cape Fear, Wilmington office)

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

School districts and special education

The NC Department of Public Instruction's Exceptional Children Division coordinates Child Find statewide — locating and evaluating children from birth through 21 who may have a disability — while each district manages its own referral and evaluation process. New Hanover County Schools is the primary district covering Wilmington, and its Special Education & Related Services division publishes a Procedural Safeguards handbook describing families' rights. Families just north, in Brunswick County's fast-growing beach towns, fall under a different district's Child Find process instead.

• New Hanover County Schools — Special Education & Related Services division; district office 910-254-4200
• Brunswick County Schools — covers the coastal towns just south and west of Wilmington; district office 910-406-5100

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Wilmington

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 — Wilmington Center — diagnostic evaluation, intervention and therapy services, education, and consultation for individuals on the autism spectrum, described as offering services across the lifespan; part of UNC's statewide TEACCH network with a dedicated Wilmington office · 919-445-0680

How assessment works · What to do while you wait

Disability services and waivers: Trillium Health Resources (New Hanover County's LME/MCO)

North Carolina delivers Medicaid-funded behavioral health, substance use, and I/DD services through regional public managed-care organizations called LME/MCOs, and New Hanover County's is Trillium Health Resources. Trillium 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 gives access to waiver services. Because eligible applicants far exceed available slots, the state keeps a Registry of Unmet Needs instead of a normal enrollment line; a bill filed in the NC Senate in 2025 counted about 19,000 people on that registry statewide. Families can ask Trillium to add a child's name to the registry well before a diagnosis is finalized, and can separately ask about NC Medicaid's 1915(i) option for interim, comparable services that won't cost a family its place in line.

• Trillium Health Resources (New Hanover County's LME/MCO)
• Phone: 1-877-685-2415 (Trillium Health Resources member and recipient services)

Local organizations that help Wilmington families

• Exceptional Children's Assistance Center (ECAC) — free, statewide special-education and disability guidance for North Carolina families with a child from birth to 26, through the state's federally designated parent center (704-892-1321, helpline 1-800-962-6817)
• The Arc of North Carolina — East Region — headquartered in Wilmington, covering New Hanover County and eastern North Carolina; housing, advocacy, and self-directed-services support (910-791-9022)

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 2025 North Carolina Senate bill (S246) put the statewide NC Innovations Waiver waiting registry at roughly 19,000 people, and stated the list had about doubled over the prior decade while only around 2,000 new slots were added statewide over that same period. (source)
• New Hanover County Schools has only 90 calendar days under North Carolina law to move a child from a written referral through evaluation, an eligibility meeting, and a signed IEP. (source)
• The Wilmington office of the CDSA of the Cape Fear works on the same federal 45-day standard as every North Carolina Part C agency, completing assessment and the first IFSP meeting within 45 days of referral. (source)
• Some coastal North Carolina families have waited ten years or more on the NC Innovations Waiver's registry, since the state adds new funded slots far slower than new names join the statewide list. (source)