Austin is the seat of Travis County and home to Texas's state government, but for autism services it runs like most of the state: one large urban school district, several large and fast-growing suburban ones, a single comprehensive hospital-based developmental-behavioral pediatrics clinic, and long waits for adult Medicaid waivers. Austin Independent School District (AISD) — the metro's largest — spent three years, from 2023 to February 2026, under Texas Education Agency oversight after the agency found the district had let more than a thousand special education evaluations go overdue. AISD has since resolved that backlog and exited state monitoring, but the episode is a reminder that Child Find deadlines are legal requirements, not suggestions, and that families sometimes need to push for them directly.

The rest of the system runs through the same three doors as the rest of Texas: Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) for children under 3, your school district's Child Find process for ages 3 through 21, and Austin Travis County Integral Care — the area's Local Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authority (LIDDA) — for adult Medicaid waiver services. Every one of those doors is real and staffed, and every one can also mean a wait: ECI referrals in Travis County are split between two contractors by zip code, the region's only comprehensive hospital-based autism diagnostic clinic serves all of Central Texas, and the state's waiver interest lists run into the tens of thousands of names. What follows is who to call first, sourced directly to each agency, district, and clinic.

Statewide programs, numbers, and rights are on the Texas page. This page adds the local entry points that are specific to Austin metro (Travis County).

Early intervention under 3: Texas Early Childhood Intervention (ECI)

ECI serves children from birth to 36 months with developmental delays or qualifying diagnoses. Anyone — a parent, doctor, or caregiver — can make a referral, the initial evaluation is free regardless of income, and by state rule ECI must complete the evaluation and write an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) within 45 calendar days of referral, then start the agreed services within 28 days of your signing it. Ongoing therapy is billed on a sliding scale tied to family size and income, and no child is turned away for inability to pay. In Travis County, ECI is contracted out by zip code to two different providers: Easterseals Lonestar (formerly Easterseals Central Texas) covers a specific set of Austin-area zip codes, and Any Baby Can covers Hays County plus a handful of additional Travis County zip codes. If you aren't sure which one serves your address, use the state's ECI Program Search tool or call the statewide ECI referral line.

• Texas Early Childhood Intervention (ECI)
• Referral phone: 512-615-6898 (Easterseals Lonestar ECI referral) · 877-787-8999 (statewide ECI Office of the Ombudsman, to confirm your local contractor)

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

School districts and special education

Every Texas school district and open-enrollment charter must locate, identify, and evaluate children with a suspected disability from birth through 21 — the Child Find duty under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). You can request an evaluation verbally or in writing from your child's campus; a written request starts a timeline the district must follow, generally 15 school days to respond and 45 school days to complete the evaluation once you give consent. Austin ISD is by far the metro's largest district, but Travis County and its immediate suburbs span at least seven separate districts, each running its own Child Find process.

• Austin ISD — Largest district in the metro; Child Find and evaluations line 512-414-7733 (also reachable as 512-414-SPED). Completed a Texas Education Agency-ordered special-education evaluation overhaul and exited state oversight in February 2026 after reducing a backlog that had reached nearly 1,800 overdue evaluations in January 2023.
• Round Rock ISD — Covers Round Rock and parts of northern Austin and Williamson County; the district's Child Find page has current contact details — we could not independently confirm a phone number for this note.
• Leander ISD — Covers the fast-growing northwest suburbs including Cedar Park and Leander; Child Find contact 512-570-0350, and the district runs monthly public Child Find Connections webinars.
• Pflugerville ISD — Covers Pflugerville and parts of northeast Austin, including a dedicated early-childhood (ages 3-5) evaluation coordinator — see the district's Child Find page for current contact details, which we could not independently confirm for this note.
• Del Valle ISD — Covers southeast Travis County, including the Del Valle and Elroy areas near the airport; special education department at 512-386-3080.
• Eanes ISD — Covers Westlake and West Lake Hills, west of downtown Austin; Child Find contact childfind@eanesisd.net or 512-732-9021.
• Manor ISD — Covers Manor and eastern Travis County, one of the state's fastest-growing districts; special education department at 512-278-4400.

IEP or 504 · If you disagree with the school

Evaluation and diagnosis pathways in Austin

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.

• Dell Children's Medical Center — Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics (Ascension, Mueller) — Comprehensive developmental-behavioral pediatric evaluation, including autism-specific diagnostic and neurodevelopmental assessment, for children up to age 14. Ascension describes this as the only comprehensive DBP clinic in Central Texas. The clinic's patient-facing page recommends starting with your child's pediatrician, and its page for referring providers routes referrals to the phone number below; direct self-referral by families was not confirmed as available on Dell Children's own pages. A third-party provider directory lists Medicaid as accepted, but this was not independently confirmed on Dell Children's own site. · 512-324-0098
• Texas Child Study Center at Dell Children's Medical Center (Dell Children's / UT Austin College of Education) — Multidisciplinary psychiatric and psychological evaluation for autism spectrum disorder and other behavioral, developmental, and mood conditions in children and adolescents, run jointly by Dell Children's Medical Center and the University of Texas at Austin College of Education. A referral is described as needed to schedule an appointment; self-referral was not confirmed either way.

How assessment works · What to do while you wait

Disability services and waivers: Austin Travis County Integral Care (ATCIC) — Travis County's LIDDA

Texas routes long-term intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) services through local authorities called LIDDAs. Austin Travis County Integral Care is Travis County's LIDDA, and its IDD intake staff evaluate adults and children for intellectual and developmental disabilities and help enroll eligible people in services, including the Home and Community-based Services (HCS) and Texas Home Living (TxHmL) Medicaid waivers. As elsewhere in Texas, the CLASS, DBMD, and MDCP waiver interest lists are joined separately through a state line rather than through the local LIDDA.

• Austin Travis County Integral Care (ATCIC) — Travis County's LIDDA
• Phone: 512-472-4357, press 1 then 3 (IDD intake) · 877-438-5658 (state interest list line for CLASS/DBMD/MDCP)

Local organizations that help Austin families

• The Arc of the Capital Area — Austin nonprofit serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across 17 Central Texas counties since 1949; runs the Autism Assets @ Work employment initiative alongside broader day-program, case-management, and employment services.
• Autism Society of Texas — Headquartered in Austin at 5555 N Lamar Blvd, Suite L107; runs the free, Spanish-available Navigating Autism information-and-referral program and connects families to a UT-affiliated law clinic for IEP help.
• SPEDTex — Texas Education Agency-funded statewide special education parent helpline and resource hub — the same statewide resource used in our Houston guide.
• Disability Rights Texas — Federally designated protection-and-advocacy agency for Texans with disabilities, headquartered in Austin at 2222 W Braker Lane; statewide legal advocacy, same organization as in our Houston guide.
• Navigate Life Texas — Texas HHS-affiliated statewide resource directory for families of children with disabilities or special health care needs — same statewide resource used in our Houston guide.
• United Way for Greater Austin — 2-1-1 Navigation Center — Operates the Central Texas 2-1-1 line (877-541-7905), covering Travis and nine surrounding counties; connects families to benefits enrollment and health and human-service navigation, free and available 24/7.
• Any Baby Can — Austin nonprofit offering home-visiting parent education, medical case management, and resource navigation, plus an Autism Services Program with a compiled Autism Resource Guide; also holds the ECI contract for Hays County and select Travis County zip codes.

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.

• Austin ISD spent three years — 2023 to February 2026 — under Texas Education Agency oversight after the agency found the district had let special education evaluations go overdue, a backlog that reached nearly 1,800 cases in January 2023. The district reported reducing that number by about 83% by December 2023 and reaching zero overdue evaluations by its December 2025 deadline before TEA lifted oversight in February 2026. (source)
• As of a May 6, 2026 Texas House Human Services Committee hearing, more than 198,000 people statewide were on Texas HHSC's six IDD/disability Medicaid interest lists, with advocates and officials describing typical waits of 17 to 18 years for the CLASS and HCS waivers. (source)
• State officials told that same May 2026 committee that in the prior two-year state budget cycle, only about 2,500 people were newly enrolled in these Medicaid waiver programs statewide, while roughly 15,000 were denied, declined services, or withdrew from the interest lists. (source)
• Travis County's Early Childhood Intervention referrals are not handled by a single agency: Easterseals Lonestar's ECI program covers a defined list of roughly 20 Austin-area zip codes, while Any Baby Can's ECI program covers Hays County plus a handful of additional Travis County zip codes. Families should confirm their specific contractor through the state's ECI Program Search rather than assuming which one covers their address. (source)
• Dell Children's Medical Center describes its Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics clinic as "the only comprehensive DBP clinic in Central Texas," a regional monopoly on this specific hospital-based evaluation pathway that no published wait-time figure accompanies. (source)
• Once Austin ISD or a neighboring district finishes the full individual evaluation, Texas law gives it 30 calendar days to convene the Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) committee — the state's name for the IEP team — to decide eligibility. (source)
• Travis County families with a state-regulated commercial plan can see ABA reimbursement capped at $36,000 a year once a child turns 10, with no dollar limit at all for a younger child. (source)