Pinellas County — St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo, Pinellas Park, Dunedin, Seminole, Tarpon Springs — is the bay's other side, and it has its own deep bench: Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital is right here in St. Petersburg, the dePaul and Saint Paul's dyslexia programs are in Clearwater, and Family Network on Disabilities is headquartered in Clearwater. This is a true yellow pages of the best, most relevant help for a child with special needs across Pinellas — named experts and therapists, not just directories. It's ranked by real credentials (ABPP, BHCOE, Orton-Gillingham, COPAA, CCC-SLP, board-certification) — never by reviews or who pays. Start with the free Florida options, 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, Florida's Early Steps provides free developmental evaluation and early-intervention services. In Pinellas it's run as West Central Early Steps at Johns Hopkins All Children's — the earliest, no-barrier place to start, right here in St. Pete.
Florida'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.
Florida's federally funded Parent Training and Information Center is headquartered in Clearwater — free help with your rights, the IEP/504 process, evaluations, and meetings, for west-coast Florida families. A great first call, and it's local.
Right in St. Petersburg, the Neuropsychology Program at Johns Hopkins All Children's — where Jennifer Katzenstein, PhD, ABPP-CN co-directs the Center for Behavioral Health — provides comprehensive evaluation of learning disabilities, ADHD, and autism. Pinellas families don't need to cross the bay for top-tier assessment.
The Rothman Center for Neuropsychiatry at Johns Hopkins All Children's (St. Petersburg) evaluates and treats children with neurodevelopmental and behavioral conditions — autism, ADHD, OCD, and anxiety — alongside the hospital's neuropsychology team.
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 (in Clearwater, Largo, or Dunedin), instead of trusting star ratings.
The dePaul School (Clearwater) is a Pinellas school for students with dyslexia, K–8, using the Orton-Gillingham approach — intensive, research-based structured literacy for about 100 students who haven't thrived with other methods. Pinellas's flagship dyslexia school.
Saint Paul's School's Cadence Program (Clearwater) is the Tampa Bay area's first school-within-a-school for students with dyslexia and language-based learning differences (grades 2–7) — an integrated structured-literacy approach with teachers trained through the Orton-Gillingham Academy.
FND (Clearwater) can help you compare additional Pinellas school options for dyslexia, autism, and learning differences at no cost — and explain Florida scholarship programs (like the Family Empowerment Scholarship for students with disabilities).
The Academy's directory lists accredited Orton-Gillingham practitioners across Pinellas — searchable by area so you can find one near St. Petersburg, Clearwater, or Largo. The gold-standard credential for a private dyslexia tutor.
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.
A BHCOE-accredited autism therapy center in Pinellas Park offering ABA alongside occupational, feeding, and speech therapy — interdisciplinary, accredited for clinical quality rather than chosen by ad spend.
A BHCOE-accredited ABA provider with a Clearwater (Pinellas) clinic — individualized, data-driven applied behavior analysis for children on the autism spectrum, verified for clinical quality.
Speech Therapy of Pinellas is owned and operated by Kalie Irwin, a nationally certified and state-licensed speech-language pathologist (CCC-SLP) experienced with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delays, and cerebral palsy — a named Pinellas standout for speech and language.
The BHCOE directory lists accredited ABA providers across Pinellas, ASHA ProFind lists CCC-SLP speech therapists, and AOTA lists OTR/L occupational therapists — searchable by zip so families in Largo, Dunedin, or Tarpon Springs find the nearest.
Developmental-behavioral pediatricians at Johns Hopkins All Children's (St. Petersburg) evaluate and treat autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, and other developmental and learning disorders — including a dedicated Autism Program — right in Pinellas.
The American Academy of Pediatrics' directory helps you find board-certified developmental-behavioral pediatricians across Pinellas — 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 Pinellas County — the field's real professional standard.
Headquartered right in Clearwater, FND's trained parent specialists help you prepare for and understand IEP meetings at no cost — a respected, local free alternative to hiring a private advocate first.
Bay Area Legal Services provides free civil legal help to income-eligible families across Pinellas — a no-cost route to legal assistance, including some education and benefits matters.
FND offers free workshops and one-on-one parent support across Pinellas from its Clearwater home — a rich free resource for families learning their rights, alongside clinical services.
University speech-language clinics (such as USF, across the bay) offer low-cost evaluation and therapy by supervised graduate clinicians. ASHA's directory helps you locate the nearest accredited program serving Pinellas.
For children birth to 3, West Central Early Steps (at Johns Hopkins All Children's) provides free developmental evaluations and early-intervention therapies — the earliest, no-barrier place to start in Pinellas.
Federally funded and free — they help Florida families understand their rights, the IEP/504 process, evaluations, and meetings. A great first call.
Florida's protection & advocacy agency — free legal-rights information and help if your child's rights are being denied.
A short message — your child, your St. Petersburg 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 St. Petersburg providers from the vetted directory above.
A clear written plan, plus a vetted St. Petersburg 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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