Special-education help for Alabama families.

Alabama's Early Intervention System (AEIS), a division of the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, gives free developmental evaluation and services — speech, occupational, physical, and developmental therapy — to any child birth to 3 with a delay or qualifying condition, anywhere in the state, delivered in your home through your child's Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). There is no income test to qualify and no diagnosis required. This is the single best first call for a baby or toddler.

AEIS is delivered by local early-intervention programs across Alabama. Call the toll-free Child Find line at 1-800-543-3098 or request a referral online at NeverTooEarlyAL.org to be connected with the program serving your county. They come to you.

Alabama's federally funded Parent Training and Information Center gives free, one-to-one help understanding your rights, the evaluation, and the IEP/504 process — staffed by trained parent specialists, many of whom have raised children with disabilities themselves. They explain meetings, paperwork, and dispute options in plain language. Call before you pay any private advocate.

The Special Education Services office at the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) answers parent questions about evaluations, IEPs, placements, and your rights — and publishes parent guides like "Mastering the Maze" that walk you through the whole process for free.

ADAP is Alabama's federally mandated protection & advocacy agency, based at the University of Alabama. It provides free legal information and advocacy when a child's special-education rights are being denied — including help with disputes, discipline, and restraint/seclusion. A powerful no-cost resource before you hire a lawyer.

The Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services (ADRS) provides free help for students with disabilities to prepare for work, college, and independent living through Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) — job-exploration counseling, work-based learning, self-advocacy, and workplace-readiness training. Every public high school in Alabama has an assigned VR counselor; ask yours to join your child's transition IEP meetings (usually starting around age 14–16).

Alabama's 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services waivers — the Intellectual Disabilities (ID) Waiver and the Living at Home (LAH) Waiver, run by the Alabama Department of Mental Health — can pay for therapies, respite, and supports for a child with significant disabilities based on the child's needs, not just family income. Slots are limited and the waiting lists are long, so the single most important move is to get your child's name on every interest/waiting list TODAY. Call the waiver Call Center at 1-800-361-4491 to start.

Unlike some states, Alabama does NOT offer a Katie Beckett/TEFRA Medicaid option that ignores parent income through a state-plan pathway. In Alabama, the route to Medicaid for a child with significant disabilities at higher family incomes is the HCBS waiver above — which is exactly why getting on the waiting/interest list as early as possible matters so much. If your child is already on Medicaid or ALL Kids (CHIP), medically necessary therapies (speech, OT, ABA) are covered now; ask your child's doctor for the referral.

You can ask your school district in writing for a full special-education evaluation at any time. Once you sign consent, Alabama districts must complete the evaluation within 60 calendar days (this clock runs through breaks and summer), then determine eligibility within 30 calendar days, and hold the IEP meeting within 30 calendar days of that. Put the request in writing and date it — the clock starts then. You have the right to interpretation in your language, to bring anyone to the meeting, and to disagree.

Under IDEA you have the right to a free, appropriate public education (FAPE), to a full evaluation at no cost, to be an equal member of the IEP team, to an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) if you disagree, and to dispute-resolution through ALSDE (mediation, state complaint, or due process). Alabama's Procedural Safeguards notice spells it all out, and your PTI above explains it for free.

The Special Education Services division at the Alabama State Department of Education (alabamaachieves.org) sets the rules every district must follow under Alabama Administrative Code 290-8-9, runs the mediation, state-complaint, and due-process systems, and publishes the Alabama Dyslexia Resource Guide (Alabama law requires dyslexia screening and structured-literacy intervention). Start here to know what the state requires of your school.

Use the ZIP finder to pull the nearest evaluators, therapists, and special-education schools to your address, plus your metro's full directory — and these statewide free programs are always shown, no matter how rural your town.

Several reputable practices provide autism/ADHD evaluation and speech/OT/ABA by telehealth across Alabama — vital for rural families in the Black Belt and Wiregrass. Nationally, COPAA (advocates/attorneys), the Academy of Orton-Gillingham (dyslexia), ABPP (board-certified evaluators), BHCOE (ABA), and Bookshare (free accessible books) round out your options.