California Annual Average Per-Person Spending For Adult Autism Services Is Double Children’s Spending

Per-person spending on autism services in California for adults averages about $26,500 annually; per-person spending for autism services for children averages about $10,500 annually. For adults over age 65, the per-person annual spending on autism services averages nearly $50,000. For children age 3 to 6, autism spending averages about $12,000 annually.

These findings were reported in “Spending by California’s Department of Developmental Services for Persons with Autism across Demographic and Expenditure Categories” by J. Paul Leigh, Ph.D., Scott D. Grosse, Diana Cassady, Joy Melnikow, and Irva Hertz-Picciotto. For the analysis . . .