OPWDD Services in NYC: Eligibility, How to Apply

OPWDD in one minute

No time to read it all? The short answers

Stands for: Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, a New York State agency
Who qualifies: A developmental disability that began before 22 and is a substantial handicap
First call: OPWDD Infoline 866-946-9733. Ask for your borough’s Front Door
Income test: None for eligibility. Most services need Medicaid
Young children: Provisional eligibility from birth through age 7
Free evaluations: Early Intervention under 3 (call 311), the school district, or a clinic on OPWDD’s list
Assessments: CANS through age 17, every year. CAS from 18, every two years
Life Plan: Finalized within 90 days of enrolling with the CCO
School ends: The day before the 22nd birthday without a diploma, per NYSED guidance (2025)
Care managers: In NYC: Advance Care Alliance, Care Design NY or Tri-County Care
Paying a parent: Not through self-direction. Other relatives, under five conditions
If denied: Third-step review, and a fair hearing if Medicaid services were requested
Home health aide: A separate Medicaid service through a CHHA, ordered by a doctor

Last updated October 29, 2026.

The basics

What is OPWDD, and why does everyone send you there?

OPWDD stands for the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities. It is a New York State agency, not a federal one. It coordinates services for New Yorkers with developmental disabilities, runs some of them itself, and funds most of them through a network of about 450 nonprofit provider agencies.

Most of what families call “OPWDD services” is Medicaid-funded long-term care delivered under OPWDD’s Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) waiver. OPWDD also funds smaller state programs such as Family Support Services. Five Developmental Disabilities Regional Offices (DDROs) oversee the provider agencies. New York City is Region 4, which covers all five boroughs.

Two things OPWDD does not handle, and families often mix them up. School services stay with the school district. Ordinary Medicaid home care, such as personal care or a home health aide from a certified agency, is a separate Medicaid benefit run by the Department of Health. We explain how that fits alongside OPWDD below.

Eligibility

Will your child qualify for OPWDD services? Who does and who does not

A person qualifies if they have a developmental disability as New York’s Mental Hygiene Law defines it. All four of these have to be true:

The disability is attributable to intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, neurological impairment, familial dysautonomia, Prader-Willi syndrome or autism, or to a condition closely related to intellectual disability.
It began before age 22.
It has continued, or is expected to continue, indefinitely.
It is a substantial handicap to the person’s ability to function in everyday life.

Mental illness on its own, such as bipolar disorder or depression, does not count, and neither does a loss of hearing, sight or physical ability. ADHD is not one of the conditions named in the law. A person with ADHD can still qualify if they also have a qualifying condition, such as autism or an intellectual disability.

Does family income matter?

Not for eligibility. The legal test is about the disability, not money. Income comes in one step later: OPWDD notes that most supports and services also need Medicaid, and the HCBS waiver requires Medicaid enrollment. For a child who lives at home, the parents’ income can be disregarded when the child enrolls in the waiver. OPWDD calls this a waiver of parental deeming.

Young children: provisional eligibility

Children from birth through age 7 can be found provisionally eligible. By the 8th birthday the child has to meet the full criteria, and the records are reviewed again.

Residency

OPWDD serves people who live in New York State, or who intend to live here when services are delivered.

How to apply

How to apply for OPWDD without getting lost at the Front Door

Everything goes through the Front Door, OPWDD’s intake. Families cannot send documents to OPWDD themselves: a Care Coordination Organization collects them and submits the packet.

1

Call the Front Door

Call the OPWDD Infoline at 866-946-9733. Say which borough you live in and ask to be transferred to your local Front Door office.

2

Get connected to a Care Coordination Organization

The Front Door connects you with a CCO. In New York City that is one of three: Advance Care Alliance, Care Design NY or Tri-County Care. The CCO gathers your documents and sends them to OPWDD.

3

Eligibility review and Notice of Decision

The regional office reviews the packet in up to three steps. OPWDD’s target for the first decision is 30 days from a complete packet. You receive the result in writing, as a Notice of Decision.

4

Medicaid and waiver enrollment

Most OPWDD services are paid by Medicaid. The care manager helps with the Medicaid application and with enrolling in the HCBS waiver.

5

Needs assessments: CANS, CAS, LCED

Children through age 17 get the CANS (Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths), every year. People 18 and older get the CAS (Coordinated Assessment System), every two years. Both are done by a certified assessor, not by the care manager, and feed the plan. For the waiver, the regional office also completes the LCED (Level of Care Eligibility Determination), renewed within 365 days. The care manager may still fill in the older DDP-2, which OPWDD is phasing out.

6

Life Plan, then services

The care manager writes a Life Plan with you, finalized within 90 days of enrolling with the CCO and reviewed at least twice a year. Services are authorized from the plan. They begin once a provider has staff to deliver them, and that wait is often the longest part.

OPWDD’s own 5-minute introduction, from its Front Door video series. The same videos exist in other languages, including Russian, Spanish, Chinese and ASL.

A mother sorting evaluation reports into a folder for an OPWDD eligibility packet while her young autistic son, wearing ear defenders, lines up toy cars at the same table — Most of the waiting happens here, before OPWDD ever sees the packet.

Documents the care manager will ask for

A psychological report with an IQ test, including full scale, index, part and subtest scores.
A standardized adaptive behavior assessment with an interpretive report. It must be the comprehensive version, not an abbreviated or domain-level one. The Vineland is accepted at the comprehensive level only.
For autism, a comprehensive evaluation for the diagnosis, using structured autism-specific measures based on a licensed clinician’s observation. The ADOS-2 is a common example.
A general medical report from the past 12 months.
A social evaluation from the past 12 months, and a social or developmental history showing that the disability began before 22.

An autism diagnosis does not replace the IQ and adaptive tests: in most cases OPWDD asks for both. Watch the test edition too. A test given more than 12 months after a newer edition was published is not accepted. If the person has an IEP or a 504 plan, include it with every psychoeducational report it mentions. OPWDD publishes the full list as its Application Checklist.

Evaluations

Where to get the evaluations OPWDD asks for in NYC without paying privately

Three routes cost the family little or nothing: Early Intervention for children under 3, the school district for school-age children, and clinics on OPWDD’s own lists, which take Medicaid and other insurance. If a packet is incomplete, the regional office can also recommend where to get more testing or arrange it.

Under 3: Early Intervention

New York City’s Early Intervention Program evaluates for free, and its services cost families nothing. Call 311 and ask for Early Intervention.

OPWDD may accept the Early Intervention evaluation if it includes standardized test scores.

School age: the school district

Send a written referral: to the principal at a public school, or to the district’s Committee on Special Education for private, religious and charter schools (preschool: the CPSE). The evaluation is free, and NYC schools have 60 calendar days after your consent to finish it.

A school psychologist may decide a full IQ test is not needed. If you plan to apply to OPWDD, ask in writing for cognitive and adaptive testing.

Any age: clinics OPWDD lists

OPWDD keeps a directory of eligibility assessment providers and of Article 16 clinics, with the insurance each accepts.

NYC Health + Hospitals also runs developmental-behavioral pediatrics at Gotham Health St. Nicholas in Harlem and Morrisania in the Bronx: 1-844-692-4692.

Borough	Clinic listed by OPWDD	Phone
Brooklyn	HASC Diagnostic & Treatment Center, 1221 East 14th St	718-535-1972
Brooklyn	Kings County Hospital, Developmental Evaluation Clinic (NYC Health + Hospitals), 451 Clarkson Ave	718-245-2739
Brooklyn	Interfaith Medical Center, 1545 Atlantic Ave	718-613-4486
Queens	The Shield Institute, 144-61 Roosevelt Ave, Flushing	718-939-8700 ext. 1311
Queens	Bernard M. Fineson DDSO (state-operated), 80-45 Winchester Blvd, Queens Village	718-217-4242
Manhattan	YAI Center for Specialty Therapy, 227 East 41st St	212-272-6182
Manhattan	AHRC New York City, 83 Maiden Lane	212-780-4491
Bronx	Rose F. Kennedy Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (Montefiore), 1225 Morris Park Ave	718-839-7333
Bronx	Morrisania Diagnostic & Treatment Center (NYC Health + Hospitals), 1225 Gerard Ave	718-960-2991
Staten Island	Richmond University Medical Center, Elizabeth W. Pouch Center, 657 Castleton Ave	718-448-9775
Staten Island	Institute for Basic Research, George A. Jervis Clinic (OPWDD), 1050 Forest Hill Rd	718-494-5126

Taken from OPWDD’s directories on October 29, 2026. OPWDD says the list is not exhaustive, and some clinics see only people who are already eligible. Call first and ask three things: do you evaluate for OPWDD eligibility, how long is the wait, and do you take our insurance. ProLife Home Care has no connection to these clinics.

Services

What will OPWDD actually pay for?

Once a person is eligible and enrolled, the Life Plan can include the services below. Each one is delivered by an OPWDD-authorized provider, most of them nonprofit agencies.

Service	What it is	Usually for
Respite	Trained staff take over for a few hours so the family caregiver gets a break.	Families caring at home
Community Habilitation	One-to-one staff who teach daily living and community skills, at home or out in the neighborhood.	Children and adults
Day Habilitation	A structured day program that builds skills. Also offered “without walls”, out in the community.	Adults, often after school ends
Prevocational and Pathway to Employment	Preparation for work: routines, skills, job exploration.	Adults
Supported Employment (SEMP)	A job coach and ongoing support in a paid job.	Adults
IRA (group home)	An Individualized Residential Alternative: a supervised home shared with a few others.	Adults
Family Care	Living in the home of a certified Family Care provider.	Mostly adults
OPWDD Housing Subsidy	Help with rent for someone living in their own apartment or with roommates. The person pays at least 30% of net income; the subsidy covers the rest up to a county limit. Formerly called ISS.	Adults 18+
Self-direction	A budget the person or family manages to hire staff and buy approved supports.	Children and adults
Family Support Services	State-funded help for families caring for a relative at home.	Families
Environmental modifications	Changes to the home that make it safer and accessible.	Children and adults
NYSTART	Help preventing and handling a crisis.	Children and adults

Being eligible and having a staffed service are two different milestones. OPWDD’s own 2026 listening sessions recorded families waiting months or years for providers, and a July 2026 audit by the State Comptroller found providers turning people away because of staffing shortages. Ask the care manager early which services have openings, and keep a written record of what is in the Life Plan and what has actually started.

The gap

Approved, but still waiting for staff? What a family can do now

Keep the OPWDD process moving, and at the same time use help that does not depend on an OPWDD provider finding staff. For many families that means a home health aide through Medicaid, the school’s or Early Intervention’s own services, and Family Support Services.

Keep a written record. Note what the Life Plan lists, what has actually started, and the date you last asked. Ask the care manager regularly which providers have openings.
Ask the doctor about a home health aide. If the person has Medicaid, a home health aide from a Certified Home Health Agency is a separate Medicaid benefit, ordered by a physician, for children and adults. It does not wait for an OPWDD provider. How it works alongside OPWDD. If Medicaid is not in place yet, an aide can be paid privately in the meantime.
Look at CDPAP. Medicaid’s consumer-directed program lets the person hire their own aide, including many relatives. The rules on which relatives can be paid are below.
Use what school and Early Intervention owe you. Education and related services stay the school district’s job, and Early Intervention serves children under 3, whatever stage the OPWDD application is at.
Ask about Family Support Services. OPWDD funds them to help families who care for a relative with a developmental disability at home. Ask the care manager or the Infoline.
In a crisis, ask the care manager about NYSTART, OPWDD’s crisis service. To report suspected abuse or neglect, call the Justice Center at 1-855-373-2122.

Children and adults

Autism and OPWDD: what changes when your child becomes an adult

Autism is one of the qualifying conditions named in the law, so many OPWDD families are families of autistic children. For a child living at home, the services families ask about most are respite, community habilitation and self-direction.

OPWDD runs alongside school, not instead of it: the school district keeps responsibility for education. Eligibility carries into adulthood. What changes when school ends is the setting, and day habilitation, prevocational services and supported employment usually fill the weekday. When school ends covers the timing.

Turning 18 brings its own Medicaid and guardianship decisions. Our guide to Medicaid and care transitions at 18 walks through them, and how a child’s disability affects Medicaid limits covers the asset side.

Leaving school

School ends at 21 or 22. What happens the next Monday?

A student with an IEP who has not earned a diploma can stay in school until the day before their 22nd birthday, according to State Education Department guidance from October 2025. Adult services do not start on their own: the family has to ask OPWDD for them, and OPWDD advises starting at least three years before school ends.

The guidance followed a federal court decision. State law and some city pages still say 21, so confirm the last school date with the school in writing.

The hardest part of the plan is the first ordinary weekday after school.

Three years before the last school year

If the student is not yet eligible, call the Front Door at 866-946-9733. Eligibility takes time, and the testing has to be current.
Sign the school’s Consent to Release Information form so the school can share records with OPWDD.
Ask the care manager to put adult day options into the Life Plan well before the last year.
NYC Public Schools runs a Transition and College Access Center in every borough for students with IEPs and their families: nyctcacs@schools.nyc.gov.

What adult services look like

OPWDD’s employment track includes Pathway to Employment, a year-long program for people leaving high school, prevocational services, the Employment Training Program, which helps find a paid internship that may lead to a regular job, and supported employment in a regular job. For people for whom work is not the goal, day habilitation and community habilitation fill the week. Separately, the state’s vocational rehabilitation agency, ACCES-VR, offers pre-employment transition services to students with disabilities aged 14 to 22. It is not an entitlement program.

Benefits at 18

At 18, Social Security re-evaluates SSI under the adult disability rules, and parents’ income stops counting the month after the 18th birthday. Medicaid and guardianship decisions come at the same time: see our guide to Medicaid and care transitions at 18.

Self-direction

Want to choose your own staff? How OPWDD self-direction works

Self-direction gives the person, or the family, a budget called a Personal Resource Account, and lets them hire their own staff and choose approved supports. Two roles make it work. A support broker helps build and manage the plan. A fiscal intermediary (FI), a certified nonprofit, runs payroll and pays the bills.

In OPWDD’s 2025 self-direction assessment, finding, hiring and keeping staff came up as the biggest challenge, and a harder one for families who do not speak English. Families also describe paying some costs up front and waiting for reimbursement.

Who can be paid as self-hired staff?

OPWDD’s Self-Direction Guidance (March 2022, page 33, still the current version) lets a relative be paid only if all five conditions are met:

They are at least 18.
They are not the person’s parent, legal guardian, spouse or adult child, including sons- and daughters-in-law.
The service is not something a family member would ordinarily do.
The service is necessary and authorized in the plan.
They do not live in the same home as the person.

So a grandmother or an aunt who lives elsewhere can often be hired, and a parent cannot. A parent may act as an unpaid support broker, but cannot be paid as the broker for their own child.

Care coordination

Who is supposed to guide you through it? The CCO and the care manager

Every person in OPWDD services has a care manager who works for a Care Coordination Organization (CCO). The care manager gathers the eligibility documents, helps with Medicaid and waiver enrollment, writes the Life Plan with the family, and finds providers for each service in it.

All five boroughs are served by the same three CCOs: Advance Care Alliance (833-692-2269), Care Design NY (518-235-1888) and Tri-County Care (844-504-8400). You choose one. If the relationship is not working, raise it with the CCO directly.

How do OPWDD group homes and housing work?

OPWDD’s residential options are IRAs (Individualized Residential Alternatives, which families call group homes), Family Care, and the OPWDD Housing Subsidy for people living in their own apartment. A residential placement is requested through the care manager and depends on openings. Families describe long waits, especially for people with complex medical needs.

Paid family caregivers

Can a parent get paid to care for a child with a developmental disability?

Not through OPWDD self-direction. Parents, legal guardians, spouses and adult children are excluded as paid staff. Many websites suggest otherwise, but the rule is in OPWDD’s own guidance.

CDPAP, New York’s Medicaid consumer-directed program, has a different rule. The parent of a consumer under 21 cannot be the paid aide, and neither can a spouse or the designated representative. The parent of an adult child aged 21 or older can be. Since April 1, 2025, CDPAP runs through one statewide fiscal intermediary, Public Partnerships LLC (PPL).

For anyone 21 or older assessed after September 1, 2025, personal care and CDPAP also require needing at least limited help with physical maneuvering for more than two daily activities. With a dementia or Alzheimer’s diagnosis, the threshold is supervision with more than one. Our guides cover CDPAP eligibility and other ways family caregivers get paid in New York.

Where ProLife Home Care comes in

Need help at home before OPWDD services start? How a home health aide fits in

Often, yes, but not from OPWDD. A home health aide from a Certified Home Health Agency (CHHA) is a separate Medicaid benefit. Medicaid covers home health aide services when a physician prescribes them, with the aide supervised by a registered nurse from the CHHA.

This matters for OPWDD families for a specific reason. People enrolled in the OPWDD HCBS waiver are excluded from Managed Long Term Care and exempt from mainstream Medicaid managed care. The MLTC plans most New York City families use to get an aide are closed to them, so home health care usually runs through a CHHA under a doctor’s order.

CHHA or LHCSA: what is the difference?

Both are licensed by the New York State Department of Health. A CHHA provides part-time, intermittent health care and support to people who need intermediate or skilled care, under a doctor’s order and a plan of care that is reviewed at least every 60 days. A LHCSA (Licensed Home Care Services Agency) employs aides and nurses and can provide them to a CHHA under contract. ProLife Home Care is a LHCSA, NY DOH License #2572L001. On CHHA cases, our aides work under the CHHA’s plan of care and nurse supervision.

What we do

Home health aides on CHHA cases, for children and for adults, including people eligible for OPWDD.
All five boroughs: Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.
You can call us directly. We explain what the doctor’s order needs to say and help connect the case with a CHHA.
Aides who speak Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian, Chinese, Georgian, Bengali, Korean, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Urdu, Polish, and French.
Private pay while Medicaid or the CHHA case is still pending: the same aides, from $32 an hour, usually starting within days. Getting Medicaid itself takes 45 to 90 days. Private home care.

What we do not do

We are not an OPWDD provider. We do not deliver respite, community habilitation or day habilitation.
We are not a fiscal intermediary or support broker for self-direction.
We cannot get a parent paid through OPWDD.
We do not take medically complex cases, such as a tracheostomy, tube feeding through a G-tube, or seizures that need a nurse close by. For those, ask the doctor and the CHHA about private duty nursing.
An aide does not replace the services in the Life Plan. Tell the care manager about the aide so the plan reflects it.

A good aide knows where to stop helping.

Anna Klyauzova, RN, MSN, MPA

Director of Patient Services · Co-founder

15 years in clinical nursing9 years in home careMS, Nursing AdministrationMPA

Anna leads clinical work at ProLife Home Care and reviews every case before an aide is assigned. For a child or adult with a developmental disability, the match matters as much as the hours: the same language, a calm routine, and an aide who lets the person do what they can do themselves.

She has nursed since 2011, at Jacobi Medical Center and then at Mount Sinai, where she ran an operating room team before co-founding ProLife Home Care in 2017. Her profile is public on LinkedIn, and the agency licence is public on NYS Health Profiles.

Denials and appeals

OPWDD said no. What can you do now?

A denial is not the end. After the second-step decision, OPWDD lists three options: meet with regional office staff to talk it through, request a third-step review, or request a Medicaid fair hearing if Medicaid-funded services were requested. If you ask for a fair hearing, the third-step review happens automatically, before the hearing date.

If Medicaid-funded services were not requested in the application, the regional office’s decision is final. Make sure the care manager includes them. A fair hearing generally has to be requested within 60 days of the notice date, but some notices allow 90: the exact deadline is printed on your notice.

Before appealing, check the packet against the document list above. Missing adaptive testing, an outdated test edition, or nothing showing that the disability began before 22 are easier to fix than to argue.

Phone numbers

Calls going nowhere? Who to call for OPWDD in Brooklyn, Queens and the rest of NYC

Families start with the OPWDD Infoline, 866-946-9733: tell the operator your borough and ask for the Front Door. OPWDD’s contact page also lists numbers for its New York City regional offices, under provider inquiries:

Borough	OPWDD Region 4 office
Brooklyn	718-642-6112
Queens	718-217-5890
Manhattan	646-766-3466
Bronx	718-430-0885
Staten Island	718-983-5233

Numbers as listed on opwdd.ny.gov/contact-us, checked October 2026. OPWDD lists them for provider inquiries, and borough intake numbers posted on other websites are often out of date, so a family applying for the first time should use the Infoline.

Free help from public agencies

OPWDD Information Line: 866-946-9733, info@opwdd.ny.gov. Front Door, Family Support Services and general questions.
Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs: 1-855-373-2122 to report suspected abuse or neglect, 1-800-624-4143 for questions. It also runs an Individual and Family Support Unit.
Disability Rights New York, which OPWDD’s family resources page names as New York State’s protection and advocacy system.
NYC Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities: call 311 or 212-639-9675. The city’s link between its agencies and the disability community.
NYC Public Schools Transition and College Access Centers, one in each borough, for students with IEPs and their families: nyctcacs@schools.nyc.gov.

Questions families ask

OPWDD questions, answered briefly

Does ADHD qualify for OPWDD services?

ADHD on its own is not one of the conditions named in New York's legal definition of a developmental disability. Those are intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, neurological impairment, familial dysautonomia, Prader-Willi syndrome and autism, plus conditions closely related to intellectual disability. A person with ADHD can still qualify if they also have one of those conditions and meet the other criteria.

Does family income affect OPWDD eligibility?

No. The eligibility test looks at the disability, not at money. Income matters one step later: most OPWDD services are paid by Medicaid, and the HCBS waiver requires Medicaid enrollment. For a child living at home, the parents' income can be disregarded when the child enrolls in the waiver.

Does the diagnosis have to be made before age 22?

The disability has to have begun before 22. The paperwork has to show that, usually through a social or developmental history or older school and medical records. Adults who were never formally evaluated as children can still apply.

How long does OPWDD approval take?

OPWDD aims to issue the first-step decision within 30 days of a complete packet. In practice, gathering current testing often takes longer than the review itself. After approval, the start of each service depends on a provider having staff, which can add months.

Where can I get a free evaluation for OPWDD in NYC?

For a child under 3, Early Intervention evaluates for free: call 311 and ask for Early Intervention. For a school-age child, a written referral to the school district starts an evaluation at no cost to the family. Adults and children can also use the clinics in OPWDD's directory of eligibility assessment providers, which lists the insurance each one accepts, often including Medicaid. Ask in advance whether the evaluation includes full IQ and adaptive testing, because OPWDD needs both.

Does OPWDD pay for rent in NYC?

Partly, through the OPWDD Housing Subsidy. It is for OPWDD-eligible adults 18 and older who live in their own apartment or with roommates and have a lease or deed. The person pays at least 30 percent of net income toward rent, and the subsidy covers the rest up to a county limit. A provider agency or fiscal intermediary pays it to the landlord or reimburses the person. It depends on available funding. Ask the care manager or the OPWDD Infoline.

What does OPWDD pay for adults?

Employment supports such as Pathway to Employment, prevocational services and supported employment; day habilitation and community habilitation; housing through group homes (IRAs), Family Care and the Housing Subsidy; self-direction; respite; and home and vehicle modifications. Each service is authorized in the Life Plan and delivered by an OPWDD-authorized provider.

Until what age can a student with an IEP stay in school in New York?

In October 2025 the State Education Department told districts to keep serving students who have not earned a diploma until the day before their 22nd birthday, following a federal court decision. Some state and city pages still say 21, so confirm the date with the school. OPWDD advises families to start planning adult services at least three years before school ends.

Can parents get paid to care for their child through OPWDD?

Not through self-direction. OPWDD guidance bars parents, legal guardians, spouses and adult children from being paid self-hired staff. Other relatives can be paid if five conditions are met, including not living in the same home. Under CDPAP, a parent of a consumer aged 21 or older can be the paid aide. A parent of a consumer under 21 cannot.

Can someone have OPWDD services and a home health aide at the same time?

Yes. A home health aide from a Certified Home Health Agency (CHHA) is a separate Medicaid benefit, prescribed by a doctor and supervised by a CHHA nurse. It does not come from OPWDD and does not replace the services in the Life Plan. ProLife Home Care provides aides on CHHA cases for children and adults in all five boroughs.

Can we hire an aide privately while Medicaid or OPWDD is still pending?

Yes. A family can pay an agency aide privately while the Medicaid application, the OPWDD eligibility review or the CHHA case is still being arranged. Getting Medicaid itself usually takes 45 to 90 days. At ProLife Home Care, private pay for a home health aide starts at $32 an hour and can begin within days, with no assessment or waiting list. Private pay is the family's own cost, so confirm the rate and the hours in writing before the aide starts.

Do OPWDD services continue if we move out of New York?

OPWDD serves people who live in New York State or intend to live here when services are delivered. Other states run their own developmental disability systems, so a family that moves applies there.

Sources

Where these facts come from

Every rule on this page was checked against the official source in October 2026. Agency and advocacy websites were not used as sources.

Months of paperwork, and still no help at home? OPWDD services in New York City: who qualifies and how to start