Nashua's Area Agency is Gateways Community Services, not the Manchester-based agency some directories list for the wider region — Gateways specifically holds the state contract for Nashua and the surrounding Hillsborough County towns of Amherst, Brookline, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, Mason, Merrimack, Milford, Mont Vernon, and Wilton.

Gateways runs Early Support and Services for children under 3 and stays involved as the Area Agency for longer-term developmental-disability services, while Nashua School District's special-education office handles evaluation once a child turns 3. Below are the phone numbers and URLs behind each, with sources.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the New Hampshire page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Nashua (Hillsborough County).

Early intervention under 3: Early Support and Services (ESS) — Area Agency of Greater Nashua

Gateways Community Services is New Hampshire's designated Area Agency of Greater Nashua and runs Early Support and Services, the local branch of the state's Family Centered Early Supports and Services program, for children from birth to age 3. A call to the ESS intake line starts with an initial home visit from an ESS Intake Coordinator, who explains the program, gathers background, and helps a family sign the consent forms needed to begin a developmental evaluation. Therapy disciplines available through Gateways include physical, occupational, speech, and developmental therapy alongside parent coaching.

• Early Support and Services (ESS) — Area Agency of Greater Nashua
• Referral phone: 603-459-2775

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

School districts and special education

Federal and New Hampshire Child Find law obligate Nashua School District to identify, locate, and evaluate resident children with a suspected disability from birth through 21, and the district maintains a dedicated special-education section of its website covering the referral and IEP process. A second, statewide contact — the New Hampshire Department of Education's special-education office — publishes the parent rights and complaint procedures that back up a Nashua family's own request.

• Nashua School District — special-education office publishes a contacts page and a New Hampshire special-education process guide for families

Other places to ask — not a substitute for the district

An evaluation request has to go to the school district itself; only the district can start the legal timeline. These are for asking questions about the process, or for when the district has not responded.

• New Hampshire DOE — Bureau of Special Education — state office overseeing every NH district's special-education compliance, including Nashua's

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Nashua

We have not yet verified a hospital or university evaluation program with public intake information in Nashua. 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: Gateways Community Services — Area Agency of Greater Nashua

Gateways Community Services has held the state Area Agency designation for Greater Nashua since 1981, coordinating developmental-disability services for close to 3,400 people across Nashua and ten neighboring towns. Beyond the birth-to-3 program, Gateways delivers adult service coordination and a dedicated Autism Center, and helps families apply for New Hampshire's Medicaid home- and community-based waiver once a developmental-disability eligibility determination is on file.

• Gateways Community Services — Area Agency of Greater Nashua
• Phone: 603-882-6333

Local organizations that help Nashua families

• Gateways Autism Center — part of Gateways Community Services; focused specifically on services for people with an autism-spectrum diagnosis
• Autism Society of New Hampshire — 603-679-2424; statewide affiliate, based in nearby Concord

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.

• New Hampshire's procedural safeguards handbook holds Nashua School District to 60 calendar days from signed consent to a finished evaluation and eligibility meeting, after an earlier 15-business-day window for the meeting that decides whether an evaluation happens at all. (source)
• Gateways' Early Support and Services program answers to the same statewide FCESS deadline as every New Hampshire Area Agency: a signed IFSP within 45 days of the referral date. (source)
• Fellow Area Agency Community Bridges' public FAQ states that New Hampshire's In-Home Supports Waiver for children with developmental disabilities has no current statewide waitlist, while cautioning that a future waitlist depends on state budget appropriations. (source)
• RSA 417-E:2 caps New Hampshire's ABA mandate at $36,000 a year for a covered person under 12 and $27,000 a year between ages 12 and 21, with coverage running out at 21 altogether. (source)