Local resources in Columbus
Ordered by review count, then name. Providers cannot pay to be listed, ranked, or edited.
20 resources in Columbus
1. ACEing Autism — Columbus
A volunteer-run tennis programme for autistic children, held at Olympic Indoor Tennis.
Ages 5 to 18
2. April ABA — Columbus
In-home ABA in Columbus with no published waitlist, aimed at communication and social skills. Confirm ages and funding directly, as this page does not list them.
Ages Ages not published in the sources we saw — ask when you callWait No waitlist
3. Autism Learning Partners — Columbus
A sensory-friendly ABA therapy centre in Columbus with over three decades of history under earlier names.
Ages Early intervention through school-age
4. Autism Society of Central Ohio
The regional Autism Society affiliate running support groups across a twelve-county area centred on Franklin County.
Ages All ages
5. Bierman Autism Centers — Columbus
Centre-based ABA in Columbus bundled with speech, occupational therapy and diagnostics, which spares a family three separate waiting lists. The age range stops at 9, unlike providers that continue into the teens.
Ages Ages 18 months to 9
6. Clever Bee Academy — Columbus
Clever Bee's Columbus site takes children from six weeks old through age 12, combining ABA with speech and occupational therapy and trauma support in one programme.
Ages 6 weeks to 12 years
7. Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities
The county board that families apply through for developmental-disability services, including autism.
Ages All ages
8. Franklin County Help Me Grow / Early Intervention
The county's front door for children under three with a disability or suspected developmental delay.
Ages Birth to 3
9. Heartland ABA — Columbus
At-home ABA in Columbus for a wide age range, from toddlers through young adults. No address, hours or funding details are published on this page.
Ages Ages 18 months to 21
10. Hines Little Smiles
Relaxed, personalised paediatric dental care for autistic and anxious children.
Ages Children
11. Hopebridge — Dublin and Westerville
Two suburban centres, north-west and north-east, so most of the metro is within a reasonable drive of one or the other.
Ages 15 months to 10 years
12. Nationwide Children's Hospital — Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders
The hospital's multidisciplinary autism programme covering behavioural intervention, therapy and family support.
Ages Children and young adults, roughly 2 to 22
13. Nationwide Children's Hospital — Child Development Center
The hospital's interdisciplinary clinic for initial autism diagnostic evaluations, based in Westerville.
Ages Children
14. OCALI — Family and Community Outreach Center
Ohio's statewide autism and low-incidence disability centre, offering free parent guides and a lending library.
Ages All ages
15. Ohio Autism Insurance Coalition — Find Providers
Not a provider but the coalition's own list. Ohio has far more ABA companies than any directory can carry, and this group's specific concern is what insurance will actually pay for.
Ages Ages not published in the sources we saw — ask when you call
16. OSU Nisonger Center — Transition Clinic
Ohio State's university centre offering autism diagnostic evaluations for adolescents and young adults.
Ages Adolescents and young adults
17. RallyCap Sports — Ohio State University
A student-run adaptive sports club pairing autistic and other-disabled players with volunteer partners each season.
Ages Children and young adults
18. Smiles 4 Life — Columbus
A Columbus general dentist for children offering desensitisation visits for autistic patients.
Ages Children
19. Special Strong — Columbus
A Columbus fitness gym built as a sensory-friendly space for autistic clients and other additional needs.
Ages All ages
20. The Childhood League Center — PLAY Project
A Columbus early-intervention preschool that runs the first licensed PLAY Project autism programme in the country.
Ages Birth to 5
The short answer for Columbus
- Under 3: call Ohio Early Intervention at 1-800-755-4769 or refer online — any adult can start the referral, and a diagnosis isn't required before services begin.
- 3 and up: put your evaluation request to your school district in writing. The statewide rule is 30 days to respond and 60 days to finish after consent, though Columbus City Schools' own materials describe a 90-day span — ask your specific district which clock applies.
- Wanting an autism diagnosis: Nationwide Children's Hospital runs two entry points — the Child Development Center (614-355-8080) for general developmental screening, and the Autism Care Network (614-355-8315) for the full diagnostic assessment.
- Long-term Medicaid support (the Individual Options or Level One waivers) runs through the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities (614-475-6440). Since 2018, Ohio sorts applicants by need — Immediate Need or Current Need — instead of by application date.
- Free statewide resources: OCALI's lending library ships assistive technology and books anywhere in Ohio, and the state's Office for Exceptional Children (877-644-6338) helps with special-education rights questions.
Columbus sits inside Franklin County, and the systems an autistic child in Ohio touches all have a local front door here: the statewide Ohio Early Intervention referral line for children under 3, a trio of Franklin County school districts with published Child Find contacts, Nationwide Children's Hospital's two-track autism evaluation program, and the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities as the gateway to Medicaid waiver support.
None of these doors are secret, but they sit behind different agencies with different phone numbers and different timelines — and Ohio swapped its date-ordered waiver waiting list for a needs-based one in 2018, which still surprises families who remember the old rules. This page lists every door we could verify, with the source it came from and the date we checked it, so you can start several of them in parallel.
Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the Ohio page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Columbus metro (Franklin County).
Early intervention under 3: Ohio Early Intervention (statewide Help Me Grow referral system)
Ohio Early Intervention serves children from birth to 3 with developmental delays or disabilities, administered by the state's Department of Children and Youth. Anyone — a parent, grandparent, doctor, or child care provider — can make the referral, and no diagnosis is required first. Call the statewide intake line or refer online, and a coordinator connects your family to your county's local delivery program; in Franklin County that coordination runs alongside the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Evaluation and the resulting family service plan are free.
- Ohio Early Intervention (statewide Help Me Grow referral system)
- Referral phone: 1-800-755-4769
New to early intervention? Read the plain-language guide first.
School districts and special education
Every Ohio public school district and charter must locate and evaluate children with suspected disabilities from birth through 21 — Child Find — at no cost to families, under the state's special education operating standards (Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 3301-51). Start with a written request to your child's school; a district then has 30 calendar days to either secure your consent or explain in writing why it won't evaluate, and 60 days from consent to finish. Columbus City Schools' own family materials describe a 90-day span for its review-to-evaluation process, so ask your district which timeline applies to your family.
- Columbus City Schools — (614) 365-5220; partners with the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities and the county's Help Me Grow program on early identification
- Dublin City Schools — 614-764-5913; a downloadable Child Find brochure walks families through the process
- Hilliard City Schools — 614-921-7000; special education led by a district-level director plus building coordinators
Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Columbus
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.
- Nationwide Children's Hospital — Child Development Center — the hospital's general developmental-screening entry point; an interdisciplinary team of developmental pediatricians, psychologists, neurologists, and speech-language pathologists reviews concerns (often starting with the M-CHAT toddler screening tool) before referring families into the hospital's dedicated autism diagnostic pathway · 614-355-8080
- Nationwide Children's Hospital — Autism Care Network — the hospital's full autism diagnostic pathway inside its Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders: a one-hour diagnostic interview, a three-appointment Interdisciplinary Diagnostic Assessment that includes the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), psychological testing, and a feedback session to review results and care-coordination options · 614-355-8315
Disability services and waivers: Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities (FCBDD)
FCBDD is Franklin County's front door for developmental-disability eligibility determination and for Medicaid waiver access — chiefly the Individual Options and Level One waivers that fund long-term home- and community-based support. Ohio retired its old date-ordered waiver waiting list in September 2018 in favor of a needs-based system: county boards now sort applicants into an 'Immediate Need' category (a real risk of substantial harm within 30 days without services) or a 'Current Need' category (an unmet need expected within twelve months), and only Current Need cases that can't first be connected to non-waiver services join the waiting list.
- Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities (FCBDD)
- Phone: (614) 475-6440 · 24-hour emergency line (614) 464-2743
Local organizations that help Columbus families
- OCALI (Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence) — a state-supported autism resource center headquartered in Columbus, run as a project of the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio; its free lending library ships books, assistive technology, and assessment tools anywhere in Ohio
- Easterseals Central & Southeast Ohio — disability services across 38 Ohio counties from a Hilliard base; call 614-228-5523 for early-childhood, therapy, and family-support referrals
- ACEing Autism — Columbus — a Saturday tennis clinic for autistic kids ages 5–18 at Olympic Indoor Tennis, with scholarships available; email columbus-oh@aceingautism.org
- Ohio Department of Education & Workforce — Office for Exceptional Children — the state's special-education rights office — 614-466-2650 or toll-free 877-644-6338 — with parent guides and dispute-resolution help
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.
- Ohio retired its date-ordered Medicaid waiver waiting list on September 1, 2018 in favor of a needs-based assessment: county boards now place applicants into 'Immediate Need' or 'Current Need' categories rather than ranking strictly by application date. (source)
- Columbus City Schools' own family-facing page describes a 90-day span from a flagged concern to a completed evaluation, longer than the 60-calendar-day-from-consent standard in Ohio's statewide special education rules — worth confirming directly with any specific district. (source)
- Ohio Early Intervention, the program Franklin County families reach through the statewide intake line, must complete the evaluation and hold the first IFSP meeting within 45 calendar days of referral under the federal Part C rule. (source)
- Columbus City Schools' own 90-day figure lines up with a real statewide backstop: Ohio caps every district's evaluation at 90 calendar days from referral even where the 60-day-from-consent clock would allow longer. (source)
- National coverage of Ohio's county-board waiver waitlists has cited waits of roughly two to ten years for programs like the ones FCBDD administers in Franklin County. (source)
- Ohio's fully-funded-plan autism mandate covers people up to age 21 and permits ABA coverage to be capped at 20 hours weekly. (source)
Paying for support in Columbus
Ohio's autism insurance mandate (Ohio Revised Code 3923.84) requires most fully-insured health plans to cover screening, diagnosis, and treatment of autism spectrum disorder — though self-funded employer plans and ACA marketplace plans sit outside it. For ongoing support beyond what insurance covers, the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities is the local gateway to Ohio's Individual Options and Level One Medicaid waivers, which have been assessed by need rather than a first-come waiting list since 2018.
Nothing here is a recommendation — we list what exists, note what a provider says about itself, and let parents tell you the rest.
Common questions from Columbus parents
Sources
- [1]Ohio Early Intervention (statewide referral system). Open source
- [2]Ohio Administrative Code 3301-51-06 — evaluation timelines. Open source
- [3]Ohio Department of Education & Workforce — Special Education / Office for Exceptional Children. Open source
- [4]Ohio Legal Help — special education rights and evaluation process. Open source
- [5]Ohio Revised Code 3923.84 — coverage for autism spectrum disorder. Open source
- [6]Disability Rights Ohio — DD Medicaid waiver waiting lists. Open source
- [7]CareSource — Ohio Medicaid ABA administrative policy statement. Open source
- [8]Columbus City Schools — Suspected Disability / Child Find. Open source
- [9]Dublin City Schools — Child Find. Open source
- [10]Hilliard City Schools — Child Find. Open source
- [11]Nationwide Children's Hospital — Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, early screening and diagnosis. Open source
- [12]Nationwide Children's Hospital — Autism Care Network developmental assessment. Open source
- [13]CAP4Kids Columbus — Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Open source
- [14]CAP4Kids Columbus — new autism diagnosis resources. Open source
- [15]CAP4Kids Columbus — recreation resources for autistic kids. Open source
- [16]OCALI — Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence. Open source
- [17]Easterseals Central & Southeast Ohio. Open source
- [18]ACEing Autism — Columbus, OH program. Open source
Last checked 2026-08-11. Programs and links change — confirm with the agency before relying on any detail. This page is information, not legal or medical advice.