Florida Early Steps: Who Qualifies and How to Apply

What it is and who pays for it

Early Steps is Florida’s version of a federal early intervention program that exists across the United States. The Florida Department of Health coordinates it, and local organizations deliver it by region.

It serves children from birth to 36 months with developmental delays, disabilities, or at-risk conditions. Services come at no cost to the family.

One important difference from clinic therapy: Early Steps works in the child’s natural environment. Evaluations and sessions usually happen at your home or at daycare, not in an office.

Who qualifies

Two main routes.

Developmental delay. The child is behind what is expected in one or more areas: communication, motor skills, social and emotional development, cognition, or self-help. The evaluation determines whether the delay is enough to qualify.

An established condition. Some diagnoses give direct access without having to demonstrate delay, because they are known to carry high risk. These include autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, deafness or hearing loss, visual impairment, orthopedic impairment, traumatic brain injury, and dual sensory impairment, along with other health conditions.

And here is what most people do not know: you do not need any of those diagnoses to ask for the evaluation. A suspicion is enough. The evaluation is precisely what determines whether there is something there.

How to ask

Anyone can refer a child, and that includes you. You do not need the pediatrician to do it, or the daycare, or a specialist. You call, and that is it.

It is a short call. They will ask for the child’s name, date of birth, your contact information, and a description of what worries you. That opens the case.

Before you call, have ready:

• The exact date of birth
• Your address and phone number
• Two or three sentences about what worries you, with concrete examples (“he is 22 months and says no words” works better than “he seems behind”)
• If your child was born premature, how many weeks

Who to call in Miami-Dade

The county is split into zones. If you are not sure which one is yours, call any of them and they will redirect you.

North Dade Early Steps
University of Miami · Mailman Center for Child Development
1601 NW 12th Ave, Miami, FL 33136
(305) 243-5600

South Dade Early Steps
17615 SW 97th Ave, Miami, FL 33157
(786) 268-2611

Southernmost Coast Early Steps (Easterseals)
(305) 929-8705

You can also look up the program for your area at floridaearlysteps.com.

(Phone numbers verified September 2026.)

What happens next

They contact you and do an intake interview. About your child’s development, the pregnancy and birth, and what concerns you.

The evaluation happens. Usually at your home or at daycare, with more than one professional depending on which areas need looking at. The family takes part, because you are the one who knows this child best.

They tell you whether your child qualifies. If not, you still leave with information about your child’s development and with recommendations, which is worth something on its own.

If your child qualifies, an IFSP is written. That stands for Individualized Family Service Plan. It is the document that says which services your child will receive, how often, where, and toward what goals. It is written with you, not handed to you finished. If something does not sit right, that is the moment to say so.

Services begin. In your child’s natural environment, with a lot of weight on teaching the family what to do day to day.

What happens at age three

Early Steps ends at 36 months. Not on that exact day, though.

Before your child turns three, a transition process opens with the school district, which becomes responsible from that age. If your child still needs support, they are evaluated for school services, and that is where an IEP can appear.

Two things worth knowing: the school district’s criteria are not the same as Early Steps’ criteria, so a child who qualified may not qualify afterward, or the reverse. And the transition is prepared months in advance, not in the final week. Ask about it when your child is two and a half.

Early Steps and private therapy are not either-or

Many families believe they have to choose. They do not.

A child can receive Early Steps services and also attend therapy at a clinic. They are different things. Early Steps works in the natural environment with heavy emphasis on the family and at whatever frequency the program can provide. A clinic works at a different intensity, with a different team and different materials.

What does matter is that both know the other exists. If your child has speech therapy at a clinic and also receives Early Steps services, tell both sides so the goals do not contradict each other.