autism resources in florida

[wdwfan#1]

i recently posted about moving to florida and i received great information. (thanks everyone!!) now i have a more specific question. in ohio, my 2 kids receive outpatient speech and occupational therapy which my insurance covers (d/t dx autism). i've read that florida is lacking in resources for autism. does anyone have any experience with this or knowledge about these therapies in florida. this would be a huge factor in deciding if we could move or not. thanks in advance for your input. rachel

[murphy1]

A lot of parts of Florida are lacking as far as educational facilities (ie overcrowded schools) and ancillary therapies. You might want to call a couple of the schools directly in the district you are looking at moving to. We might move back to FLorida and are looking around Lake County and North Tampa/Brandon area I grew up down there and some friends of mine have used some of these services like Speech therapy. I moved to Ga and if you are looking for a warmer climate with a better job market, you might consider Alpharetta (we are still only 7 hours from Disney by car and FL border by about 4 hours) we have excellent therapy facilities (I have used speech for my oldest dd) and one of the top Autism centers in the country.

[wdwfan#1]

thanks, do you know the name of the autism center in georgia?

[murphy1]

Not sure, but if you go to the AGASA site, they can tell you (it's just AGASA com), a couple of my friends use an Alpharetta center I believe. You could also look at the Florida Chapter and find resources there. I really love Florida and am hoping we can get back, the job and housing situations with a recession just aren't great, so that's what's kind of putting us on hold now.

Shari