South Carolina’s Tiered Screening Process Improved Early Identification Of Children With Autism

South Carolina’s Early Intervention Program, BabyNet, implemented a two-tiered autism screening process with presumptive eligibility. After that, the number of children eligible for early intensive behavioral intervention increased by a factor of five, with few false positives. Eligibility for behavioral intervention services was not linked to a formal autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis, so children with likely ASD were able to receive services more quickly than if they had to wait for diagnostic evaluation. Only 2.5% of children identified as eligible were later found to not have ASD following a comprehensive evaluation.

These findings were reported in . . .