Few daycare options for Autistic kids in central Florida


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ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — The last time Jessika Barrera’s three-year-old son, Alex, went to daycare was in mid-October.

Since then, Barrera has been searching for childcare, a process that can be challenging for many – and even more so for the parents of children like Alex, who has been diagnosed with autism.


What You Need To Know

  • 1 in 44 children in the United States is autistic, according to the CDC
  • UCF-CARD can offer services for families and connects them with resources when available
  • Processing time for initial disability insurance claims has increased by 191 percent in Florida since 2019
  • In FL, there is also a shortage of behavioral therapy providers

“I pull up the Google Maps and I start calling, one by one. I go through my list and ask, you know, ‘do you have autistic children? How many kids are there in the class?’” said Barrera. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in 44 children in the United States has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The Americans with Disabilities Act requires most daycares to admit children regardless of disability status, but that does not mean all daycare centers are able–or willing–to meet the needs of neurodivergent children. Barrera described one daycare that turned Alex away after just one day. She suspected that Alex, who thrives on consistency and routine, needed a few more days to get used to the new setting.

“He’s such a loving, goofy, fun kid,” said Barrera. “So it’s hard to see that after one day, a daycare be like, ‘sorry, it’s too challenging.’” Alex’s Voluntary Pre-K teacher, Liz Woodruff said she has seen countless parents struggle to find childcare. 

“I probably have had over ten students come to me with crying parents, because their child was getting kicked out of daycare, based off of their behaviors,” said Woodruff. “And their behaviors are due to their disability.” The Florida Department of Children and Families requires staff at childcare facilities to complete a five-hour course of training in “developmentally appropriate practices,” plus a five hour course in working with children of a particular developmental age. In lieu of those training hours, facilities have the option to provide staff members with a 10 hour training in “special needs appropriate practices.”

Woodruff, who has been working with children with disabilities for fifteen years, said she thinks childcare providers do not all have sufficient training and experience working with disabled children. 

“There has not been one single child that I received from a daycare,” said Woodruff, “that I saw, or experienced, the same behaviors and problems [as the daycare].” 

Besides the lack of childcare options, parents seeking social services and therapy for their children often deal with long wait lists. 

Terri Daly, director of the University of Central Florida’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (UCF-CARD), said she frequently hears from families desperate for services. 

“We get calls all the time from parents who are either looking for a second opinion, or an evaluation for speech therapy, behavior therapy, and they feel like the doors are just shut, and they just have to keep waiting,” said Daly. For families struggling to find services, UCF-CARD offers training for families and connects them with resources when available.

The most widely available service that Medicaid covers for autism is a form of therapy called Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). Prescribed by a physician, ABA, which involves one-on-one behavioral “training” is a controversial form of therapy in the autism community. Barrera, who has enrolled her son Alex in ABA in the past, said she was dismayed to learn instructors in one program had attempted to teach Alex the word “more”–using food as a reward. 

“Food is a need in life,” Barrera wrote in an email to Spectrum News. “If my child is hungry and indicates he wants his pepperonis, I refuse to have you withhold his pepperoni until he says a word.”

Later, Barrera enrolled Alex in an ABA center she said was a better match, but her son’s classroom eventually shut down because of understaffing. 

Searching for childcare services is a time-intensive process. 

“Every waitlist I’ve ever been on, I promise you, I don’t hear back,” said Barrera. “So it’s kinda like something you have to follow up on and be on top of it.” With Alex at home most days, Barrera, who works from home part time, says she spends much of her time juggling tasks. She has applied for disability insurance for Alex, to supplement income lost to the search for daycare–but her initial appointment was in February and she has not heard back since. According to a December report in the Washington Post, the processing time for initial disability claims has increased by 191 percent in Florida since 2019. 

“That’s just another waiting game, too,” said Barrera. 

In the last few years, Barrera has connected with other families online who are facing some of the same barriers to assistance as hers. “I know autism awareness is a thing now, and they have a month for it and everything,” said Barrera. “But I just feel like Florida can do a little more.”


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