Midland and the Permian Basin — Midland, Greenwood, and the surrounding Midland County communities — have real, credentialed help for kids with special needs, anchored by the Midland Children's Rehabilitation Center and the Scottish Rite dyslexia tradition of West Texas, with academic referral centers in Lubbock and Dallas a drive away. Your local districts — Midland ISD and Greenwood ISD — each run special education. Many Permian Basin families are bilingual (Spanish/English), so this page is built in both languages. This is the Permian Basin'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 Texas your free front door is ECI (Early Childhood Intervention, birth–3) and your school district's evaluation and IEP for ages 3+. By law, once you give written consent, the district has 45 school days to complete the evaluation. 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 disability, Texas ECI (run by Health & Human Services) provides free evaluation and early-intervention services — speech, occupational, and physical therapy, plus developmental and family support — delivered by a local contractor in the Permian Basin. The earliest, no-barrier place to start; call 2-1-1 to find your Midland-area ECI program.
Request a full individual evaluation (FIE) in writing from your district — Midland ISD or Greenwood ISD. In Texas the district must complete the evaluation within 45 school days of your written consent, then hold an ARD/IEP meeting to decide eligibility and services. This is the free legal route to an IEP under IDEA.
Texas's federally mandated protection & advocacy agency — free legal information and advocacy when a child's special-education rights are denied. A powerful free resource before you pay anyone.
Galliant's Midland location offers autism diagnostic evaluations — including the ADOS-2 gold-standard observation tool — in person or via telehealth, then ABA therapy. A local diagnostic starting point in the Permian Basin; confirm the evaluating clinician's credentials (licensed psychologist or developmental pediatrician).
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock — about two hours north and the region's academic medical hub, also home to the TTU Burkhart Center for autism — is the referral for complex autism, ADHD, and developmental evaluations beyond what's available locally in Midland. The academic referral for hard cases.
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 Permian Basin, instead of trusting star ratings.
Midland ISD's Special Services department serves students ages 3 to 21 with specialized programs — autism support, behavior, and life-skills — within an inclusion model, and runs early-childhood special education for preschoolers. Greenwood ISD runs its own as well. In the Permian Basin the strongest specialized placements are most often within the public districts; insist on the right program through the ARD/IEP process.
The Scottish Rite Learning Center of West Texas — the region's premier dyslexia program, training therapists in the Take Flight curriculum written by Texas Scottish Rite — serves West Texas, the Panhandle, and Eastern New Mexico, including the Midland area. A trusted regional resource for evidence-based dyslexia therapy and therapist referrals.
The PEN Project — the Partners Resource Network parent training center serving West Texas (ESC Region 18, which includes Midland) — offers free help weighing options and pushing for the right program through the ARD/IEP process. Bilingual support is available; invaluable for Permian Basin families.
Texas law requires districts to screen students for dyslexia (kindergarten and first grade) and provide evidence-based, multisensory, structured-literacy intervention following the state Dyslexia Handbook — typically delivered by a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT). Midland ISD and Greenwood ISD must offer this free — request dyslexia screening and services in writing, and know your rights before paying for private tutoring.
Midland Children's Rehabilitation Center (MCRC), a 501(c)(3) serving the Permian Basin since 1956, provides dyslexia tutoring alongside therapy at no cost to families. A remarkable free, local option for structured-literacy reading help in Midland.
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.
Action Behavior Centers' Midland clinic provides BCBA-led applied behavior analysis for children with autism from 18 months to 13 years, with no-cost autism assessments (ADOS-2) on site — a credentialed local autism provider. Ask about BHCOE accreditation and your insurance coverage.
Speech, Language & Behavior provides pediatric speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, and ABA for children ages 0–18 under one roof in Midland — a credentialed local clinic. Confirm CCC-SLP for the speech therapist and OTR/L for the occupational therapist.
MCRC delivers occupational, physical, and speech therapy — plus aquatic and equine programs — for children with neurological, orthopedic, and developmental needs, at no cost to families regardless of ability to pay. A deep, coordinated, free local option in Midland.
The BHCOE directory lists accredited ABA providers across the Permian Basin, ASHA ProFind lists CCC-SLP speech therapists, and AOTA lists OTR/L occupational therapists — searchable by zip so families in Midland, Greenwood, or Odessa find the nearest credentialed clinician.
Midland Health (Midland Memorial Hospital) provides pediatric care in Midland — a strong local medical starting point for developmental concerns and referrals, with Texas Tech in Lubbock and Texas Scottish Rite in Dallas as the academic referrals for complex autism, ADHD, and developmental diagnoses.
For a formal developmental-behavioral evaluation beyond what's available in Midland, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock is the region's academic referral — board-certified specialists for autism, ADHD, and complex developmental diagnoses.
The American Academy of Pediatrics' directory helps you find board-certified developmental-behavioral pediatricians serving West Texas — 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 West Texas — the field's real professional standard.
The PEN Project, part of Partners Resource Network (Texas's federally funded Parent Training and Information Center for West Texas), offers free help understanding your rights, evaluations, and the ARD/IEP process, with bilingual support. A respected free resource before hiring a private advocate.
Texas's protection & advocacy agency offers free legal information and advocacy for special-education rights — a no-cost first stop before hiring a private advocate or attorney.
MCRC has never charged families for services — occupational, physical, and speech therapy plus dyslexia tutoring and aquatic/equine programs, regardless of ability to pay. The single most generous free local resource for Permian Basin children with developmental needs.
For children birth to 3, Texas ECI provides developmental evaluations and early-intervention therapies on a sliding fee (no family is turned away for inability to pay) — the earliest, low-barrier place to start in the Permian Basin. Call 2-1-1 for your local ECI program.
The Scottish Rite Learning Center of West Texas, a charitable program of the Lubbock Scottish Rite, supports evidence-based dyslexia therapy and therapist training across West Texas including Midland — a low/no-cost path to Take Flight structured-literacy help.
The PEN Project offers free help understanding evaluations, IEPs, and your rights, with bilingual support — a no-cost first call for any Permian Basin family navigating special education.
Federally funded and free — they help Texas families understand their rights, the IEP/504 process, evaluations, and meetings. A great first call.
Texas's protection & advocacy agency — free legal-rights information and help if your child's rights are being denied.
A short message — your child, your Midland 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 Midland providers from the vetted directory above.
A clear written plan, plus a vetted Midland 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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