{"id":465508,"date":"2026-10-14T05:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T05:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/465508\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T05:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T05:50:14","slug":"texas-health-officials-propose-eliminating-childrens-autism-therapy-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/465508\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas health officials propose eliminating children\u2019s autism therapy program"},"content":{"rendered":"

The program helps families access ABA therapy through local organizations. Advocates worry cuts could make affordable autism care harder to access.<\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Texas health officials are proposing $0 in funding for the Children\u2019s Autism Program in the 2028\u201329 budget, raising concerns among advocates that families could have fewer options for affordable autism therapy.<\/p>\n

The program helps families access applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy through local community organizations. Advocates said the therapy can help children with autism develop communication and social skills, build independence and learn emotional regulation.<\/p>\n


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At Spark Learning, staff told KVUE ABA therapy can also give families tools to support their children in everyday life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the services we are giving the child and the families the resources to be able to go and do things that a lot of us take for granted,\u201d said Hannah Hirchata, Spark Learning preschool program director.<\/p>\n

But Hirchata worries eliminating the program\u2019s funding would make therapy harder to access.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely going to limit the accessibility 100%,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) submitted its budget request for the 2028\u201329 biennium.<\/p>\n

State documents<\/a> show about $13 million went toward the Children\u2019s Autism Program over the previous two-year budget period. However, the agency\u2019s latest request lists $0 for the program in fiscal years 2028 and 2029.<\/p>\n

Jacquie Benestante, executive director of the Autism Society of Texas, said the proposed elimination came as a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times they underfund programs, so we are used to that. But we were really shocked that it was $0,\u201d Benestante said.<\/p>\n

She said the program helps fill a gap for families who may not have Medicaid or whose private insurance does not cover ABA therapy,<\/p>\n

“It’s really devastating to lose this and to have affordable and accessible ABA is huge,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Benestante said an abrupt loss of funding could disrupt care for children who rely on the services and the consistency they provide.<\/p>\n

The proposal comes as state leaders have directed nearly all state agencies to reduce their baseline funding requests by 3% ahead of the next legislative session. The legislature will determine HHSC\u2019s budget and any changes to the program during the upcoming session.<\/p>\n

In response to questions about the proposed reduction, HHSC pointed to its budget reduction summary, which states the agency \u201cfocused reductions on the lowest direct service impact to clients and minimizing impacts to federal funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to KVUE, HHSC said in part:
\u201cThe Children\u2019s Autism Program (CAP) is a payor of last resort and implements cost sharing for families participating in services based on a sliding scale and the availability of insurance coverage. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, 655 children received services in the program, of those nearly 89% had some type of coverage, including federal\/state funded coverage (68% of the 655 children receive coverage via Medicaid and CHIP as well).\u00a0Children will continue to receive CAP services through the end of August 2027 with current funding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The program helps families access ABA therapy through local organizations. Advocates worry cuts could make affordable autism care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-465508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}