Texas Advocacy

Autism Speaks advocates to protect the rights, services, and supports of people with autism. 

In 2025, we are particularly focused on increasing reimbursement rates for direct support professionals who provide essential support to people with autism and whose workforce is essential to stabilizing the home and community-based services system. We are also advocating for proper implementation of Medicaid coverage of autism care, including a focus on increasing reimbursement rates for applied behavior analysis. These advocacy priorities will help increase access to quality services across Texas.

Because of our federal & state advocacy in Texas,

• In 2024, Texas received funding for 2 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).
• Research institutions in Texas have been awarded over $59 million in autism research funding since FY15, including almost $7 million in FY23 (most recent fiscal year available).
• 2 academic institutions have received funding to train future health professionals 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).
• Funding was secured 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.
• 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.
• Texas has an autism insurance law requiring health plan coverage of relevant services with no age or dollar caps in state-regulated private insurance plans. 
• Applied behavior analysis (ABA) became a covered benefit for Texas children with 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.
• A state program providing $40 million from 2024-2026 to local schools for innovative programming for autistic students was reauthorized.
• Continued advocacy aims to increase wages for direct support professionals, building upon recent gains and in partnership with other disability groups.