The Autism Waiver Program is a MassHealth program that funds services for autistic children under 10, and your family directs how it's used. You work with an Autism Support Broker at Community Autism Resources (CAR) who helps you find providers, manage the budget and sort out the paperwork — but the decisions are yours. By the end, most families know how to work with schools, doctors and state agencies, and that doesn't expire when the program does. It's a statewide program run by different organizations in different regions, and CAR runs the Southeast.

All of these have to be true: your child has an official autism diagnosis; your child is under 10, with eligibility running from birth through the day before the tenth birthday; your child has MassHealth Standard specifically, not another MassHealth plan, premium assistance or private insurance (MassHealth Standard has its own income limit, at or below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines); and your child meets the program's clinical level of need. We ask about MassHealth Standard first because it's the one requirement with no flexibility — it isn't fair to walk you through everything the program can do before you find out it was never open to you. If you don't have MassHealth Standard: Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is often covered by private insurance, and our Family Support team can help you find providers.

In stages, and being drawn isn't the same as being found eligible. After the open interest period closes, names are drawn. If yours comes up, your form is checked against the criteria, and an Autism Clinical Manager meets with you and completes two standard assessments, the Vineland and the CCA. The program psychologists review them, and if your child is found eligible, you get a letter. There's no set timeline for that letter. After it arrives, the Clinical Manager meets with you again to go through the program and sign onboarding documents, and then your broker joins to build the plan of care with you.

You don't apply. You fill out an interest form during the open interest period, which DDS calls the Open Request period, and names are drawn from everyone who did. There's no application and no waiting list. The period runs for about two weeks in mid-to-late October, once a year, and DDS posts the exact dates in September. You have to fill out a new form each year, since nothing carries over. Spots open only when a child ages out, stops meeting the criteria, or a family chooses to leave.

Your family runs it. You're matched with an Autism Support Broker at CAR who helps you find providers, manage the budget and keep billing on track, and who's your first call when something comes up. You meet monthly, and your full team meets every three months. Your broker can come to an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting with you but can't advocate on your behalf there. The budget has two phases: intensive, for up to three years from when you start, up to $30,000 a year; then supplemental, until the day before the tenth birthday, up to $12,000 a year. The step-down is designed, not a cut: the earliest families went from full funding straight to the end, and they needed a bridge. Services usually start at home and move into the community once that's going well.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) takes the largest share, through an agency or an independent provider. The budget also covers community integration, goods and services, assistive technology, adaptive aids, respite, family training, vehicle modifications, homemaker services and home-delivered meals, each with its own cap. Swim lessons come up often, because water safety is a common worry, and so does help with cleaning. There's no published list of approved items, on purpose: what's right for one child isn't right for another. Your broker works that out with you.

Yes. ABA is the largest piece of the budget, not all of it. The limit usually isn't the category; it's whether the thing fits your child's plan and whether there's room left in that part of the budget. That's the conversation to have with your broker.

Yes, though rarely because of the item itself. Requests get declined — when something doesn't fit your child's plan, when that part of the budget is spent, or when there's a better route to it. There's no published list of exclusions, and no official one to publish. You'll work it out with your broker when you plan the budget.

If you move out of state, the program ends; it's a Massachusetts program. If you move within Massachusetts, you're reassigned to the organization that runs it in your new region — CAR covers the Southeast.