Special-education help for Arkansas families.

First Connections is Arkansas's IDEA Part C early-intervention program, run by the Department of Human Services (Division of Developmental Disabilities Services). It 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. No income test, no diagnosis required. This is the single best first call for a baby or toddler.

You don't need a doctor to refer your child — call the First Connections Child Find line yourself, or refer online. They schedule a free evaluation and, if your child qualifies, build an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). The earlier you call, the more your child gains.

Arkansas's federally funded Parent Training and Information Center gives free, one-to-one help understanding your rights, the evaluation, and the IEP/504 process. Trained parent specialists — many of whom have raised children with disabilities themselves — walk you through meetings and paperwork. Call them before you pay any private advocate.

Arkansas's federally mandated protection & advocacy agency provides free legal-rights information and advocacy when a child's special-education rights are being denied — including help with disputes, restraint/seclusion, discipline, and abuse/neglect. A powerful no-cost resource before you ever think about hiring a lawyer.

Arkansas Rehabilitation Services (under the Division of Workforce Services) provides free help for students with disabilities — often starting around age 14 — to prepare for work, college, and independent living. Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) include job exploration, work-based learning, workplace-readiness training, and self-advocacy instruction, with 19 field offices serving all 75 counties. Ask your VR transition counselor to join your child's transition IEP meetings.

Arkansas DOES offer a TEFRA (Katie Beckett) Medicaid pathway. It waives the rule that counts parents' income, so a child who needs an institutional level of care can get Medicaid based on the child's own income and resources — even when the family earns too much for regular Medicaid. Families above 150% of the federal poverty level may owe a sliding-scale premium. Apply at your local DHS county office or through the Access Arkansas portal; DHS decides within 45 days (up to 90 if disability still must be determined).

The DDS Community and Employment Supports (CES) waiver and the PASSE program can pay for therapies, respite, and home-and-community-based services for a child with significant disabilities, based on the child's needs rather than just family income. The CES waiver waitlist is long, so the single most important move is to get your child's name on the list TODAY. Contact your local DHS/DDS office to apply.

You can ask your school district in writing for a full special-education evaluation at any time. Once you sign consent, Arkansas districts must complete the evaluation within 60 days; then the eligibility decision (Evaluation/Programming Conference) is made within 30 days, and if your child qualifies the IEP team meets within 30 days of that. Put the request in writing and date it — the clock starts then. You have the right to everything 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 (mediation/due process/state complaint). Your PTI above explains all of it for free.

The Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Special Education Unit sets the rules every district must follow, runs the state-complaint, mediation, and due-process systems, and supports Arkansas's dyslexia law — which requires schools to screen for dyslexia and provide structured-literacy intervention. Start here to know exactly 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 area'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 Arkansas — vital for rural Delta and Ozark families. 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.