The Jackson metro — Jackson, Ridgeland, Madison, Clinton, Brandon, Pearl, and the rest of Hinds, Madison, and Rankin counties — has real, credentialed help for kids with special needs, anchored by the University of Mississippi Medical Center's Children's of Mississippi and its Center for Advancement of Youth (CAY), the state's marquee multidisciplinary autism and developmental clinic, right here in Jackson. Your local districts — Jackson Public Schools, Madison County Schools, and Rankin County Schools — each run special education. This is the metro's own yellow pages of the best, most relevant help — named experts and clinics where we can verify them, ranked by real credentials (ABPP, BHCOE, Orton-Gillingham/CALT, COPAA, CCC-SLP, OTR-L, board-certification), never by reviews or who pays. In Mississippi your free front door is First Steps Early Intervention (birth–3) and your school district's evaluation and IEP for ages 3+; the law gives the district 60 days from your written consent to complete that evaluation. Ask too about the Mississippi Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship, which can fund evidence-based dyslexia therapy. Start there, then the best evaluators, schools, reading specialists, therapists, doctors, and advocates near you. Then, if you want it, an expert reads your child's records and builds your plan.
We don't rank by star ratings — they're noisy and easy to game. Every group below earns its place by credentials: board certification, school accreditation, professional licensure, and standing in the field's real professional bodies. The honest bar, not the loudest reviews.
For children birth to 3 with a developmental delay or a diagnosed condition likely to cause delay, Mississippi's First Steps program (Mississippi State Department of Health) provides free evaluation, a service coordinator, and early-intervention services — speech, occupational, and physical therapy and developmental support — under Part C of IDEA. The earliest, no-barrier place to start; call 1-800-451-3903.
Request a special-education evaluation in writing from your district — Jackson Public Schools, Madison County Schools, or Rankin County Schools. In Mississippi the district must complete the initial evaluation within 60 days of your written consent, then hold an eligibility/IEP meeting. This is the free legal route to an IEP under IDEA.
Mississippi's federally mandated protection & advocacy agency, based in downtown Jackson — free legal information and advocacy when a child's special-education rights are denied. A powerful free resource before you pay anyone.
The Center for Advancement of Youth (CAY) at the University of Mississippi Medical Center — Children's of Mississippi, the state's only academic children's hospital — is Mississippi's marquee multidisciplinary diagnostic home. Its team of developmental-behavioral pediatricians, pediatric psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, and geneticists evaluates autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, dyslexia, and developmental delay. Referral-based (ask your pediatrician). The academic referral for complex cases.
Canopy Children's Solutions, a long-standing statewide children's nonprofit headquartered in Jackson, provides psychological evaluation and autism diagnostic services alongside its therapy programs — a credentialed local option that accepts Medicaid and major insurance.
The American Board of Professional Psychology's directory lists clinicians who passed board certification in clinical neuropsychology — the credential to verify in any private evaluator across the Jackson metro, instead of trusting star ratings.
Magnolia Speech School, an MDE special-purpose nonpublic school now in Madison, has served children with speech, language, and hearing disorders for over six decades. Its Language Disorders department works with children who have apraxia, auditory processing disorder, autism, and dyslexia — a credentialed, specialized placement in the Jackson metro.
Jackson Public Schools, Madison County Schools, and Rankin County Schools each run specialized special-education programs — autism support, resource, and self-contained classrooms — within their schools. For many families the strongest specialized placement is within the public district; insist on the right program through the IEP process, and use the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) for your rights.
The Mississippi Parent Training and Information Center (MSPTI), based in Jackson, offers free help weighing options and pushing for the right program through the IEP process — for children birth to 26. Invaluable when you are unsure whether the district program or a specialized school fits best.
Mississippi law requires districts to screen students for dyslexia in spring of kindergarten and fall of first grade and provide evidence-based, multisensory structured-literacy intervention. The Mississippi Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship can fund evidence-based dyslexia therapy for eligible students. Request screening and services in writing from Jackson, Madison County, or Rankin County schools, and know your rights before paying for private tutoring.
The Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators lists accredited O-G practitioners, and Mississippi licenses Certified Academic Language Therapists (CALTs) — searchable near Jackson, Madison, Ridgeland, and Brandon. CALT and accredited O-G are the gold-standard credentials for a private dyslexia therapist, instead of trusting ads. Insist on evidence-based methods (Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, Take Flight, Barton) only.
A huge audiobook/highlighting library — free for students with a qualifying reading disability, so your child keeps up with grade-level books while they learn to decode.
Canopy Children's Solutions, a statewide children's nonprofit in Jackson, runs an Early Intervention Autism Clinic for children diagnosed with autism (roughly 18 months to 8 years) with board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) leading applied behavior analysis. It accepts Medicaid, BCBS, UnitedHealthcare, and TRICARE — a credentialed, mission-driven local ABA option. Ask about BHCOE accreditation.
Beyond its day school, Magnolia Speech School provides credentialed CCC-SLP speech-language therapy for children with apraxia, language disorders, autism, and hearing loss — a deep, specialized speech resource in the Jackson metro for over sixty years.
The BHCOE directory lists accredited ABA providers across the metro, ASHA ProFind lists CCC-SLP speech therapists, and AOTA lists OTR/L occupational therapists — searchable by zip so families in Jackson, Madison, Ridgeland, Brandon, or Pearl find the nearest credentialed clinician.
Through the Center for Advancement of Youth, UMMC's Children's of Mississippi has board-certified developmental-behavioral pediatricians, child psychiatrists, and pediatric neurologists — the state's deepest bench for formal autism, ADHD, and developmental diagnoses. The academic referral when a complex diagnosis is needed.
Canopy Children's Solutions provides outpatient behavioral health and developmental services in Jackson — a credentialed nonprofit complement to UMMC for evaluation, therapy, and ongoing behavioral support, accepting Medicaid and major insurance.
The American Academy of Pediatrics' directory helps you find board-certified developmental-behavioral pediatricians serving the Jackson metro — the credential to verify for a formal autism or ADHD diagnosis.
The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates' directory lists active, vetted special-education advocates and attorneys serving the Jackson metro — the field's real professional standard.
The Mississippi Parent Training and Information Center (MSPTI), a project of the Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities based in Jackson, is the state's federally funded PTI — free help understanding your rights, evaluations, and the IEP process for children birth to 26. A respected statewide free resource before hiring a private advocate.
Mississippi's protection & advocacy agency in Jackson offers free legal information and advocacy for special-education rights — a no-cost first stop before hiring a private advocate or attorney.
The Central Mississippi Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic at Jackson State University serves children with speech, language, cognitive, swallowing, and hearing disorders in Jackson and surrounding counties at a modest fee, with licensed CCC-SLP supervisors training graduate clinicians — a high-quality, low-cost option in the metro.
For children birth to 3, Mississippi's First Steps program provides free developmental evaluation and early-intervention therapies — the earliest, no-barrier place to start anywhere in the Jackson metro. Call 1-800-451-3903.
The Mississippi Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship can fund evidence-based dyslexia therapy for eligible students with a diagnosis — a major low/no-cost path to Orton-Gillingham/CALT services. Check eligibility through the Mississippi Department of Education.
MSPTI offers free help understanding evaluations, IEPs, and your rights for children birth to 26 — a no-cost first call for any Jackson-area family navigating special education.
Federally funded and free — they help Mississippi families understand their rights, the IEP/504 process, evaluations, and meetings. A great first call.
Mississippi's protection & advocacy agency — free legal-rights information and help if your child's rights are being denied.
A short message — your child, your Jackson district, and what you're facing. We set up a secure way to share the IEP.
We review the records against your rights and match your child to the right Jackson providers from the vetted directory above.
A clear written plan, plus a vetted Jackson advocate, found and recommended for you, for the in-person help.
Free first reply with honest next steps. No pressure, no surprises — just an expert in your corner.
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