Special-education help for Kentucky families.

KEIS — long known as First Steps and run by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (Department for Public Health) — 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 Kentucky, delivered where your child lives and plays. There is no income test to qualify and no diagnosis required. This is the single best first call for a baby or toddler.

First Steps is delivered through regional Points of Entry (POE) across Kentucky — use the CHFS First Steps directory to find the POE serving your county, or call 2-1-1. Anyone — a parent, doctor, or daycare — can make a referral, and the team comes to you.

KY-SPIN (Special Parent Involvement Network) is Kentucky's federally funded Parent Training and Information Center. It gives free, one-to-one help understanding your rights, the evaluation, and the ARC/IEP process — staffed largely by parents of children with disabilities who have lived it themselves. Call KY-SPIN before you pay any private advocate; much of what families need they provide for free.

Beyond one-to-one support, KY-SPIN runs free workshops and publishes plain-language guides on evaluations, IEPs, transition, and dispute resolution — a fast way to learn the system before your next school meeting.

Kentucky Protection & Advocacy is the Commonwealth's federally mandated protection-and-advocacy agency. It provides free legal information and advocacy when a child's special-education rights are being denied — including help with disputes, restraint and seclusion, discipline, and access to services. A powerful no-cost resource to call before you hire a lawyer.

The Kentucky Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) provides free help for students with disabilities (Pre-Employment Transition Services serve students ages 14–21) to prepare for work, college, and independent living — job-exploration counseling, work-based learning, workplace-readiness training, post-secondary counseling, and self-advocacy instruction. Ask your OVR counselor to join your child's transition ARC/IEP meetings.

Kentucky's 1915(c) home- and community-based Medicaid waivers — the Michelle P. Waiver (MPW) and Supports for Community Living (SCL) — can pay for therapies, respite, and supports for a child with an intellectual or developmental disability, with eligibility based on the child's needs rather than only family income. The waiting lists run years long, so the single most important move is to get your child's name on the list TODAY. Call the Division of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (502-564-7702) or 2-1-1 to start.

Unlike some states, Kentucky does not run a separate Katie Beckett/TEFRA program. The waiver pathway above (Michelle P. and SCL) is how Kentucky children with significant disabilities reach Medicaid-funded services regardless of parents' income — which is exactly why getting on every waiting list now matters so much. Ask the Division of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities which list fits your child.

You can ask your Kentucky school district in writing for a special-education evaluation at any time. Once you sign consent, under 707 KAR 1:320 the district must complete the evaluation and determine eligibility within 60 school days (school days — weekends and breaks don't count), and then hold the ARC meeting to write the IEP within 30 days of that eligibility decision. Put the request in writing and date it — the clock starts then. You have the right to materials 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 ARC (Kentucky's IEP team), to an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) if you disagree, and to dispute resolution (mediation, state complaint, or due process). Your PTI — KY-SPIN — explains all of it for free.

The Kentucky Department of Education's special-education office sets the rules every district must follow (707 KAR Chapter 1), runs the state complaint and due-process systems, and publishes guidance on evaluation, eligibility, and IEPs. Kentucky law also requires districts to identify and serve students with characteristics of dyslexia. Start here to know exactly what the Commonwealth 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 Kentucky town.

Several reputable practices provide autism/ADHD evaluation and speech/OT/ABA by telehealth across Kentucky — vital for families in Appalachia and other rural areas. 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.