Texas Advocacy
Autism Speaks advocates to protect the rights, services and supports of people with autism. We work with partners on the federal and state government levels, collaborating with advocates, other organizations and policy leaders to redefine possible for people with autism.
Because of our collective advocacy, we have helped secure federal funding for programs in Texas and advanced policy that improves autism insurance coverage, autism research, lifespan services for people with autism and more.
Because of state advocacy, Texas...
- Enacted an autism insurance law, requiring health plan coverage of relevant services, including applied behavioral analysis (ABA), with no age or dollar caps in state-regulated private insurance plans.
- Ensured that ABA is a covered benefit for Texas children on Medicaid in 2022 after years of collaborative advocacy efforts. We continue to lobby for an increase in state Medicaid rates for autism service providers to give autistic children better access to care. In 2025, Texas passed an 11.5% Medicaid rate increase for the most heavily used ABA procedure code.
- Has a state program providing $40 million from 2024-2026 to local schools for innovative programming for autistic students was reauthorized.
- Reformed special education funding in 2025, shifting from a placement-based funding model to a tiered, service-intensity approach. The state also committed $1.3 billion to targeted special education investments and now requires schools to provide information about healthcare and long-term services and supports to students receiving special education services.
- Requires school emergency planning to include students with disabilities so that individualized accommodations are integrated into safety drills, evacuations and lockdown procedures.
- Continued advocacy aims to increase wages for direct support professionals, building upon recent gains and in partnership with other disability groups. In 2025, DSP wages increased from $10.60 to $13 per hour (a $1 billion investment over the 2026-2027 biennium).
Because of federal advocacy, Texas...
- Research institutions have been awarded over $64.4 million in autism research funding since FY15, including over $5 million in FY24 (most recent fiscal year available).
- Received funding to train future health professionals at two academic institutions through the LEND program to provide better health care services for autistic Texans (at the University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston).
- Received funding to train future developmental behavioral pediatricians at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, helping address the national shortage of DBPs who specialize in care for autistic children.
- Received funding in 2024 for two new sites to track autism prevalence and other important data about the characteristics and demographics of autistic children in Texas (University of Texas at Austin and City of Laredo).
- Law enforcement agencies and other organizations have received 3 grants (totaling nearly $450,000) through Kevin and Avonte’s Law to help prevent deaths and injuries associated with autistic individuals wandering from safety.