Private Pay Autism Assessment
My 3-year-old is suspected by the preschool and the school district speech therapist to be on the spectrum. The major medical institutions are so backed up they have closed their wait lists and have had them closed for close to a year now. Has anyone (within the past year) done a private pay assessment for Autism Spectrum Disorder? Where did you go? How much did it cost? Were you happy with the service provided?
Nov 1, 2023
Parent Replies
I believe the school district is required to both pay for and find an assessor. At 4 years old my kids were suspected by the preschool and BUSD did the assessment.
Try contacting DREDF ( Disability Rights Education Defense Fund) to see if they can help you with identifying the forms and process for requesting assessment from the district.
We’ve private paid for a neuropsych assessment ( where autism is one of the things they look at ) and they ran about 7k.
Autistic adult here: we've had assessments done in the last 3-4 months for both our kids (ages 4 and 7) through Cortica in Marin. They are mainly a therapy center, which we weren't/aren't looking for (reasons for that belong in a different longer post, but I'm happy to discuss off-list if you want to contact me). We found everyone we worked with to be respectful, not pushy, and totally reasonable for a one- or two-time interaction. Covered by insurance, cost us less than $100 for each kid. They are a little booked out for appointments but it's like 6 weeks-2 months, not months and months and months.