Special-education help for Vermont families.

Vermont delivers IDEA Part C through Children's Integrated Services Early Intervention (CIS-EI), run by the Department for Children and Families. 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, often right in your home. There is no income test and no diagnosis required. This is the single best first call for a baby or toddler.

CIS is delivered through 12 regional teams across Vermont — each region has a CIS coordinator who handles intake. Use the CIS Partners site to find the team serving your area, or call 2-1-1. They come to you.

Vermont'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 before you pay any private advocate.

The Vermont Family Network support line answers questions about evaluations, IEPs, placements, and your rights — free, by phone or email, with help connecting to interpreters when you need them.

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

HireAbility Vermont (the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation) provides free help for students with disabilities ages 14–21 to prepare for work, college, and independent living — Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS): work-based learning, counseling on postsecondary options, workplace-readiness and self-advocacy training. Master's-level VR transition counselors work right inside Vermont high schools. Ask your counselor to join your child's transition IEP meetings.

Vermont DOES offer a Katie Beckett pathway, called Disabled Children's Home Care (DCHC). It opens Medicaid to a child with a significant disability who needs an institutional level of care — and it counts only the child's income and assets, not the parents'. That means therapy, equipment, and services can be covered even at higher family incomes. The qualifying steps take time, so the single most important move is to start the DCHC application TODAY.

For children under 21 on Vermont Medicaid, Children's Personal Care Services (CPCS) pays for hands-on care and is family-directed — you choose who provides it. Children with developmental disabilities can also seek Developmental Disabilities Services (DDS) Children's Services. Eligibility is based on the child's needs, not just family income, and slots are limited — so add your child's name to every interest/waiting list now.

You can ask your school district in writing for a special-education evaluation at any time. In Vermont, the school must convene an Evaluation Planning Team within 15 calendar days of your request (or give written reasons for denying it). Once you sign consent, the evaluation must be completed within 60 calendar days, and if your child is eligible, the IEP must be developed within 30 calendar days of the eligibility decision. Snow days and breaks do NOT pause the clock. Put your request in writing and date it.

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). The Vermont Agency of Education publishes the parents' rights document, and your PTI above explains all of it for free.

The Vermont Agency of Education's Special Education team sets the rules every district must follow (the Vermont Special Education Rules), publishes the official forms and the parents'-rights document, and runs the complaint, mediation, and due-process systems. 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 by telehealth across Vermont — vital for rural families in the Northeast Kingdom and beyond. 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.