Big Texas money, a brutal Texas wait

Quick read: Texas just created its first education savings account. It launches for the 2026 to 2027 school year, and children with disabilities can get up to $30,000 a year. The state's Medicaid waivers for disabled children have some of the longest waits in the country. Texas does not have a Katie Beckett or TEFRA program.

Texas opens its first education savings account

Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA), individual accounts called EFAs. Created by Senate Bill 2, 89th Legislature (2025). Run by the Texas Comptroller through a Certified Educational Assistance Organization.

• Launch: 2026 to 2027 school year. Applications expected to open early 2026. [TEA]
• Funding: about $1 billion set aside for the first year, enough for up to roughly 90,000 accounts. [EdChoice]
• Eligibility: universal. All Texas K to 12 students eligible to enroll in public school may apply. A child does NOT need to have attended public school first. [EdChoice]
• Award amounts (2026 to 2027): most participants get around $10,500. Students with disabilities can get up to $30,000 per year total (this figure includes the base amount). Homeschooled students are capped at $2,000 per year. [EdChoice, TEA]

How autism qualifies:

• For the higher disability funding (up to $30,000), the child must be evaluated by a school district and have a current IEP, or a new "EFA IEP" written by an ARD committee. Autism is a recognized disability category under IDEA. The extra funding equals the state special education money the district would have received for that child. [TEA]
• Districts must evaluate children who are homeschooled or in private school when a parent requests it. New funding gives districts $1,000 per initial evaluation, including for non-public students. [TEA]
• For lottery enrollment priority (used only if more families apply than there are seats), children with disabilities from households at or below 500% of the federal poverty guidelines are prioritized. For this lottery priority only, the Comptroller has proposed a rule letting a licensed physician's certification, or proof of disability-based supplemental income, also count as "child with a disability." That broader definition does NOT unlock the extra $30,000 funding, which still needs a school evaluation and IEP. [TEA]

Texas runs seven waivers with long interest lists

Texas has seven waivers. Each has its own "interest list" (families call it a waiting list). You do not have to prove eligibility to join a list. Eligibility is checked only when the child reaches the top. [Navigate Life Texas]

The waivers most relevant to autism and developmental disability:

• HCS (Home and Community-based Services): for children with an intellectual disability or a related condition. Join through your Local Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authority (LIDDA).
• CLASS (Community Living Assistance and Support Services): for related conditions (over 200, such as cerebral palsy and spina bifida) that began before age 22.
• TxHmL (Texas Home Living): intellectual disability or related condition, living at home.
• MDCP (Medically Dependent Children Program): medically fragile children age 20 and under.
• DBMD (deaf-blind with multiple disabilities) and YES (youth with serious behavioral needs, under 19) round out the seven.

Waitlists are extreme. Navigate Life Texas states some interest lists have more than a 15-year wait. One parent testimonial describes starting on the CLASS list at number 50,000 and reaching number 8,000 after 9 years. [Navigate Life Texas] Add your child to the lists early. Interest-list intake for CLASS, DBMD, and MDCP is 1-877-438-5658; HCS and TxHmL go through your LIDDA. [Navigate Life Texas]

Texas never adopted Katie Beckett

Texas has NOT adopted the TEFRA / Katie Beckett Medicaid state plan option. It is not among the roughly 18 states plus D.C. that offer it. The closest pathway for a medically fragile child whose family income is too high for regular Medicaid is the MDCP waiver, but that has an interest list and is not a guaranteed entitlement the way Katie Beckett is. [Cross-referenced against the national TEFRA state list; MDCP per Navigate Life Texas]

Early Childhood Intervention starts at birth

Early Childhood Intervention (ECI), run by Texas Health and Human Services, under IDEA Part C. Serves children birth to age 3 who have a developmental delay or a qualifying medical condition that could lead to delay. Autism-related delays qualify. [HHSC]

Texas requires ABA and therapy coverage

Texas Insurance Code Section 1355.015 (2007). Requires state-regulated health plans to cover autism spectrum disorder screening and "generally recognized services," which the law defines to include applied behavior analysis (ABA), speech, occupational, and physical therapy, and medications or nutritional supplements. Coverage can carry the same deductibles, copays, and coinsurance as other benefits in the plan. [NCSL] Note: state mandates do not apply to self-funded employer plans, which are governed by federal ERISA law.

Rural Texas has few developmental pediatricians

Long waits for a developmental evaluation are common statewide, and rural areas of Texas have few developmental pediatricians. UNVERIFIED: no single current statewide wait-time figure was located from a primary source. Families often use ECI (birth to 3) and school district Child Find evaluations as faster entry points than a private diagnostic clinic.