Autism in Los Angeles: Regional Centers, LAUSD, Therapy

Ask a Los Angeles parent which regional center serves them and you will often get a shrug, because the answer follows no boundary anyone uses day to day. The Department of Developmental Services says so itself: catchment areas “conform to county boundaries or groups of counties, except in Los Angeles County, which is by health districts and not by county.” Seven agencies divide the county, and your health district decides which one takes your call. StarzMeet lists 165 providers in Los Angeles at the time of writing — 26 under speech therapy, 24 under ABA therapy, 14 psychologists and psychiatrists, 11 special education schools, nine occupational therapy practices and nine social skills programs. Below: which door to knock on, and the listings we checked one at a time.

Step one is finding your regional center

Almost everything public a California child under three receives — assessment, service coordination, an Individualized Family Service Plan — is arranged by a regional center, and the same agency handles longer-term developmental disability services after that. One group is routed differently: under Government Code section 95014(b)(2), local educational agencies rather than regional centers serve infants and toddlers with “solely a visual, hearing, or severe orthopedic impairment, or any combination of those impairments.” For everyone else, DDS states that “anyone can make a referral, including parents, medical care providers, neighbors, family members, foster parents, and day care providers” and that “there is no cost for evaluation, assessment and service coordination.” You do not need a diagnosis, and you should not wait for one. The statewide Early Start BabyLine is 800-515-BABY (800-515-2229).

These are the seven, with areas and numbers as the DDS regional center listing publishes them.

Health districts are public health administrative areas, not ZIP codes and not city council districts, so do not try to reason your way to an answer. DDS runs an Early Childhood & Transition Resource Lookup Toolkit that does it for you: “Just add your zip code, address, or city, and you can locate contact details, addresses, and websites for” regional centers, family resource centers, school districts, Head Start programs and Family Empowerment Centers. What follows the referral — the 45-calendar-day deadline for the first plan, the eligibility tests at three and five, appeal windows, how ABA gets funded — is state law, and is set out in StarzMeet’s California autism guide.

A county phone line for the questions in between

Waiting for an appointment is where families lose time, and the county runs something for exactly that gap. Help Me Grow LA is “a program of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health” whose Family Partners are “all who have experience raising children with special needs” and who help by “connecting families to local resources and services, assisting with paperwork for complex health care needs, and sharing personal experiences from their own child’s developmental journey.” They work across all eight of the county’s Service Planning Areas. Three answers from its own FAQ are worth having before you dial 833-903-3972: there is “no cost to access any of HMG LA’s resources”; “there are no eligibility requirements”; and “immigration status is not a requirement to receive access from Help Me Grow LA.”

For mental health rather than development, the county’s separate 24/7 line is 800-854-7771, which the Department of Mental Health describes as “the primary entry point for behavioral health resources”, covering service referrals, crisis assessments and field deployments.

Where a Los Angeles evaluation happens

University clinics are one route, and UCLA publishes its programs plainly. The Child and Adult Neurodevelopmental (CAN) Clinic works with “children, adolescents, and adults with neurodevelopmental conditions and social development impairments related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), developmental delays, and genetic conditions,” and lists comprehensive diagnostic evaluations, consultations, psychiatric and neurological evaluation and cognitive behavior therapy, on 310-794-4008 or CANClinic@mednet.ucla.edu. The same Center for Autism Research and Treatment page lists KidsConnect, “a short-term integrated day treatment program” for children 2–6, and the PEERS social skills program.

Private psychologists and neuropsychologists are the second route. Whichever you use, ask in writing who performs the assessment, how long the report takes and what it costs — and check the clinician on the California Department of Consumer Affairs license search before paying a deposit.

The school track, and the district question

School services run on a separate clock, and starting both at once is the whole trick. Los Angeles Unified’s Community Advisory Committee briefing, The Pre-Referral and Special Education Process in LAUSD (October 2024), gives the district’s version:

• Child Find covers “children and youth, ages birth to 22 living in LAUSD boundaries,” and the district sends an annual notice to schools, community agencies, hospitals and private schools.
• A parent, guardian, teacher, other school staff member or community member may request an assessment, and “the request should be made in writing and provided to the school principal.”
• The school’s problem-solving team, the Student Support and Progress Team, “is not a required step to a referral for special education services,” and “a special education referral can be initiated at any time if a disability is indicated.”
• The family is then given an assessment plan “within fifteen (15) days, not counting school vacations in excess of five (5) days,” has “at least fifteen (15) days” to consent in writing, and the school has “sixty (60) days, not counting school vacations greater than five (5) days, from the receipt of the signed Assessment Plan to complete the assessment and hold an IEP meeting.”

Date the letter, keep a copy, send it by email as well as on paper. One caution first: a Los Angeles postal address does not automatically mean Los Angeles Unified. The Los Angeles County Office of Education states that “Los Angeles County is home to 80 public school districts that serve 1.3 million elementary through high school students,” and the DDS lookup toolkit above will name the one covering your address. The district’s own pages sit at lausd.org/sped.

Free help with the paperwork

Two publicly grant-funded networks exist for this. The California Department of Education’s list of parent organizations names Team of Advocates for Special Kids (TASK) as the Parent Training and Information Center covering Los Angeles County, in Alhambra on 626-300-1043. The same page divides the county into ten catchment areas served by six Family Empowerment Centers, among them Family Focus Resource and Empowerment Center in Northridge (818-677-5575), the McClaney Family Resource Center at South Central Los Angeles Regional Center (213-744-8882) and Westside Family Resource Center in Culver City (310-258-4063).

Verified Los Angeles providers

Every listing below was opened on StarzMeet to confirm it describes the named service, for children, in Los Angeles. Providers are grouped by what their listing says they do, which is not always the category they are filed under. No ranking is implied. Listing details come from providers and public information; confirm availability, fees and insurance directly with each provider.

Assessment and diagnostic practices

• The Children’s Neuropsychology Center — Neuropsychological and neurodevelopmental evaluations from babies through young adults, including autism testing and school readiness evaluations.
• Los Angeles Center for Integrated Assessment — A small assessment practice offering neurodiversity-affirming evaluations for children, adolescents and young adults, plus consultation for families tested elsewhere within the last three years.
• Dr. Nicole Michaeli, Ph.D. | My Child Assessment — Psychoeducational and neurodevelopmental assessments by a licensed clinical psychologist, including support for IEPs and testing accommodations; the listing says the practice focuses on assessment rather than ongoing therapy.

ABA therapy

• Autism Behavior Intervention — ABA at home, at the child’s school, in the center or in combination, with program design and supervision, parent training and social skills groups.
• Community Autism Services/Star of CA — Center-based and in-home ABA at its West Los Angeles location for children from 18 months to six years, with diagnostic evaluations and parent-mediated early start services for under-threes.
• MeBe Los Angeles — In-home ABA across greater Los Angeles, with an early intervention and school readiness program for children aged one to five and parent training in each session.
• Center for Applied Behavior Analysis (CABA) — ABA across home, school, center and community settings for all ages, including social skills and what the listing calls specialized therapeutic services for “extreme problem behavior.”

Speech and language therapy

• Pediatric Therapy Playhouse — Play-based pediatric speech therapy in West Los Angeles, describing neurodiversity-affirming work with autistic children using a total communication approach.
• Wonder Talk Speech Therapy — Speech-language evaluation, therapy, social skills and parent coaching in clinic, at home, at school or online, in English, Korean and Spanish.
• OnWords Therapy – Pediatric Speech Therapists — Pediatric assessments and therapy covering articulation, language delay, stuttering and autism, with early intervention services listed.

Occupational therapy and multi-service clinics

• Thrive! Occupational Therapy, Inc. — Individual and group pediatric OT covering sensory integration, feeding therapy, executive function coaching and community integration, from infancy to young adulthood.
• OT Studios, Inc — Occupational, physical and speech therapy plus social skills groups for infants through school age, offered in home, in school, in clinic and by tele-therapy.
• Therapy West Inc. – Premier Pediatric Therapy — Occupational, physical and speech therapy, behavioral training and early intervention for ages 1.5 to 18, with home, school and community consultation; the listing says it accepts Self-Determination funds.

Schools and classroom-based programs

• Carousel School — A non-public school for grades K through high school, stating it is certified by the California State Department of Education and builds each program from the student’s IEP, with speech, occupational and physical therapy and counseling on site.
• Willowcrest School — A small elementary school for neurodivergent children in early education, with one-to-one speech, occupational, behavioral and music therapy and ratios from 1:1 to 3:1.
• AACA — The Academy for Advancement of Children with Autism, a school-setting program combining academics and clinical services, describing work on sensory input, social skills, transitions and communication using positive reinforcement.

Social skills, groups and family support

• Kids Like Me — After-school enrichment, spring and summer camps and social skills groups for ages 6 to 17, with art, music and coding classes.
• Social Skills Training Academy — Age-banded social skills groups for ages 3 to 17, from early preschool through high school, plus one-to-one coaching from age seven; its listing describes general social skills work rather than an autism-specific focus.
• Early Childhood Development Associates — Developmental and behavioral assessments for young children, with parent-and-me groups, preschool prep groups, school and sleep consultations and home visits.
• Fiesta Educativa Inc — Parent education and free special education workshops, including a 16-hour autism parent training program, working with Latino and Chinese parents in English, Spanish and Chinese.

Browse every Los Angeles listing, or start from a category: speech therapy, ABA therapy, occupational therapy and diagnostic and assessment.

Questions Los Angeles parents ask

I still cannot work out which regional center is mine. What now?

Use the DDS Early Childhood & Transition Resource Lookup Toolkit, which returns your regional center, family resource center and school district from a ZIP code, address or city. If you would rather speak to someone, the Early Start BabyLine on 800-515-2229 can point you to the right agency.

We have no diagnosis. Is it too early to ask for anything?

No. DDS says anyone can make an Early Start referral, including a parent, and that evaluation, assessment and service coordination carry no cost. On the school side, LAUSD’s Child Find duty covers children “ages birth to 22 living in LAUSD boundaries,” and a parent may request an assessment in writing with no diagnosis in hand. Both systems assess first and decide eligibility afterwards.

The school wants to try classroom interventions before assessing. Do we have to agree?

The district’s own briefing says the Student Support and Progress Team “is not a required step to a referral for special education services,” and that a referral “can be initiated at any time if a disability is indicated.” You can accept the interventions and still put your written assessment request in the same day; the 15-day clock for an assessment plan runs from the request.

Who can help us through this for free?

Help Me Grow LA on 833-903-3972 for navigation and paperwork — its FAQ says there is no cost, no eligibility requirement and no immigration-status question. Beyond that, TASK, the Parent Training and Information Center for Los Angeles County, on 626-300-1043, and the Family Empowerment Center for your catchment area; both are publicly grant-funded networks listed by the California Department of Education, so ask each what it can do for you at no charge.

Sources

• California DDS – regional center listing, how catchment areas are set, What is Early Start? and the Early Childhood & Transition Resource Lookup Toolkit; Government Code §95014
• Los Angeles County Department of Public Health – Help Me Grow LA and its frequently asked questions
• Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health – Help Line
• UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment – clinical services and the CAN Clinic
• Los Angeles Unified – The Pre-Referral and Special Education Process in LAUSD, Community Advisory Committee, October 2024
• Los Angeles County Office of Education – County districts and schools
• California Department of Education – California parent organizations; Department of Consumer Affairs license search
• StarzMeet – Autism in California: Regional Centers, IEPs and ABA

Banner: AI-generated illustration; the people shown are not real and are not the providers listed.