Tulsa's east side and its southern suburbs sit in different school districts, so a Tulsa family's first call depends on address: Tulsa Public Schools downtown and to the north, Union Public Schools toward south Tulsa and Broken Arrow.

Underneath both is the same statewide structure — SoonerStart for children under 3 and DDS for adult and long-term disability supports. This page gathers the phone numbers and referral pages a search turned up for each.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the Oklahoma page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Tulsa (Tulsa and Union school districts).

Early intervention under 3: SoonerStart (Oklahoma's Part C Early Intervention Program)

SoonerStart doesn't have one lead agency the way many states' Part C programs do — Oklahoma splits the work between its State Department of Education and its State Department of Health. A Tulsa family can start a referral through the Office of Special Education Services at 405-521-3351, and staff will screen the child's development, coordinate an evaluation, and, when a child qualifies, build a family service plan around home and daily routines rather than a clinic setting.

• SoonerStart (Oklahoma's Part C Early Intervention Program)
• Referral phone: 405-521-3351

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

School districts and special education

Tulsa Public Schools and Union Public Schools each carry an independent Child Find duty, meaning every child suspected of having a disability inside district boundaries — whether enrolled, homeschooled, or in private school — is supposed to be identified and offered an evaluation at no cost. A teacher, counselor, or parent can trigger a multidisciplinary evaluation once significant difficulty accessing instruction shows up.

• Tulsa Public Schools — Special Education Services, 918-746-7575
• Union Public Schools — Special Services, 918-357-6125; covers south Tulsa and part of Broken Arrow

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Tulsa

We have not yet verified a hospital or university evaluation program with public intake information in Tulsa. 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: Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities Services (DDS), Oklahoma Human Services

DDS operates statewide out of Oklahoma Human Services rather than through a network of local branch offices, so Tulsa families use the same waiting-list line as the rest of the state: 405-500-1866. The division runs Medicaid's Community Waiver for adults with intellectual disabilities and two age-split In-Home Supports Waivers, and it has told policymakers it cut the typical wait for a slot from a stretch as long as 13 years to roughly a year following a funding increase that took hold around 2022.

• Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities Services (DDS), Oklahoma Human Services
• Phone: 405-500-1866

Local organizations that help Tulsa families

We have not yet verified a local parent organization in Tulsa. Statewide help still covers you: the Oklahoma guide lists the federally funded parent center and the free disability rights organization for the whole state, and both take calls from families anywhere in Oklahoma.

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.

• Tulsa and Union Public Schools both work against Oklahoma's 45-school-day statutory limit for completing an initial evaluation and deciding eligibility — 15 school days shorter than the federal default. (source)
• A SoonerStart referral for a Tulsa toddler carries a 45-day deadline for the evaluation and, if the child qualifies, the initial IFSP meeting. (source)
• Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready's August 2021 bulletin removed the age-9 cutoff and dollar caps that had applied to ABA coverage on state-regulated plans since the original 2016 mandate. (source)