Autism and ABA Therapy in Florida: Statistics

Autism in Florida public schools

• 71,688 students in Florida public schools had autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as their exceptional student education (ESE) eligibility in 2025-26.Source: FLDOE, Final Survey 2 data, presented August 31, 2026. Period: 2025-26 school year (Final Survey 2)
• That is 20,240 more students than the 51,448 counted in 2021-22, an increase of 39% in four school years (our calculation). The count went up in every year shown; the latest year added 5,536 students (8.4%).Source: FLDOE, Final Survey 2 data, presented August 31, 2026. Period: 2021-22 to 2025-26
• Autism is the second-largest ESE eligibility category in Florida, after specific learning disability (161,395 students). It accounts for 15.8% of the 453,217 students with disabilities (our calculation; FLDOE’s slide rounds it).Source: FLDOE, Final Survey 2 data, presented August 31, 2026. Period: 2025-26

A school’s autism eligibility is decided by the school’s ESE team under Florida’s rules, and it is not the same thing as a medical diagnosis. Our guide to Florida ESE autism eligibility explains the difference.

How common autism is: the national picture

• About 1 in 31 children aged 8 (32.2 per 1,000) had been identified with autism in 2022 across the 16 sites of CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. Site results ranged from 9.7 per 1,000 in Laredo, Texas, to 53.1 per 1,000 in California.Source: CDC ADDM Network, surveillance year 2022. Period: 2022 (children born in 2014)
• Autism was 3.4 times as prevalent among 8-year-old boys (49.2 per 1,000) as among girls (14.3 per 1,000).Source: CDC ADDM Network, surveillance year 2022. Period: 2022
• Among 4-year-olds at the same sites, prevalence was 29.3 per 1,000.Source: CDC ADDM Network, surveillance year 2022. Period: 2022 (children born in 2018)

Florida is not one of the ADDM sites (the 2022 sites were in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin), so CDC publishes no autism rate for Florida, and the ADDM sites are not a nationally representative sample. The school count above is not a prevalence rate either: it counts students by their school eligibility. CDC’s own summary is on its autism data and statistics page.

Behavior analysts and technicians in Florida

• 9,954 Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) had a Florida address, including 310 with the doctoral BCBA-D designation. Florida also had 1,863 Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBAs) and 57,262 Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs): 69,079 certificants in all.Source: BACB region-specific data, retrieved November 11, 2026. Period: Current counts, retrieved November 11, 2026
• Florida has more RBTs than any other state in the BACB’s table (57,262; Texas is next with 31,883). It has the second-most BCBAs, after California (11,383).Source: BACB region-specific data, retrieved November 11, 2026. Period: Current counts, retrieved November 11, 2026
• Florida holds 20.8% of the RBTs, 12.0% of the BCBAs and 41.0% of the BCaBAs with a US address (our calculation from the same table).Source: BACB region-specific data, retrieved November 11, 2026. Period: Current counts, retrieved November 11, 2026
• There are 5.8 RBTs for every BCBA in Florida, against 3.3 across the United States (our calculation).Source: BACB region-specific data, retrieved November 11, 2026. Period: Current counts, retrieved November 11, 2026
• Worldwide, 88,013 people held the BCBA certification, 4,931 the BCaBA and 259,577 the RBT credential.Source: BACB certificant data, October 1, 2026. Period: As of October 1, 2026
• Florida is not among the 40 states (plus the District of Columbia) that the BACB lists as having a licensure law for behavior analysts. In Florida, the BACB credential is the one to check.Source: BACB, US Licensure of Behavior Analysts

You can look up any BCBA, BCaBA or RBT in the BACB’s free registry. Our overview of ABA therapy in Florida explains what each credential does, and our team page lists our clinicians’ credentials.

Military families: TRICARE’s Autism Care Demonstration

• 17,603 TRICARE beneficiaries with an autism diagnosis took part in the Autism Care Demonstration (ACD), TRICARE’s ABA program, in fiscal 2024: 13,021 active-duty family members and 4,582 other family members. Each year counts unique beneficiaries with a claim that year.Source: DHA Annual Report on the Autism Care Demonstration, April 2026. Period: Fiscal year 2024 (October 2023 to September 2024)
• That is 10.0% more than the 16,004 participants in fiscal 2019 (our calculation).Source: DHA Annual Report on the Autism Care Demonstration, April 2026. Period: Fiscal years 2019 to 2024
• The median participant was 7 years old, and 89.0% were 13 or younger.Source: DHA Annual Report on the Autism Care Demonstration, April 2026. Period: Fiscal year 2024
• For 84.6% of participants, a parent or guardian used family treatment guidance (parent training) during the year.Source: DHA Annual Report on the Autism Care Demonstration, April 2026. Period: Fiscal year 2024

These are national figures: the report does not give a count for Florida. It says the ACD is currently authorized through December 31, 2028. For how the program runs for Florida families, see TRICARE and ABA therapy; for where the program may be heading, see our guide to the ACD after 2028.

Florida law and policy

• Florida’s autism insurance law, the Steven A. Geller Autism Coverage Act (section 627.6686, Florida Statutes), applies to plans issued or renewed on or after April 1, 2009. It covers autism screening for babies and children, and treatment of autism and Down syndrome through speech, occupational and physical therapy and ABA, for people under 18, or 18 and older and still in high school if a developmental disability was diagnosed at age 8 or younger.Source: Florida Statutes s. 627.6686
• The law covers group plans from Florida-regulated insurers. It does not apply to individual-market plans, individually underwritten plans or small-employer plans, and its dollar limits are adjusted every January 1 for medical inflation. Our section-by-section guide to the Geller Act explains what that means for your plan.Source: Florida Statutes s. 627.6686
• Florida’s Applied Behavior Analysis Task Force was created by Section 40 of HB 5003-E in the 2026E legislative session, within the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). Its charge is ABA in Florida Medicaid: the law created it to evaluate how ABA services are delivered in a way that promotes high-quality, family-centered care while keeping the Medicaid program financially sustainable and costs predictable, without disrupting access for current enrollees and families.Source: HB 5003-E, Section 40
• The law asks the task force to evaluate clinical care models, transitions for enrollees across developmental, educational and community settings, quality metrics, limits and utilization controls on how long ABA may be authorized, possible caps on the number of months an enrollee may receive ABA, and Medicaid provider enrollment and billing standards, and then to recommend revisions to the state’s service delivery model.Source: HB 5003-E, Section 40
• The law sets its membership at 10, including a family member of a Medicaid managed care plan enrollee who receives ABA. Its report, with the advantages and disadvantages of each recommendation, is due to the Governor, the Senate President and the House Speaker by December 31, 2026. The section expires July 1, 2027.Source: HB 5003-E, Section 40
• The task force’s sixth meeting, on November 17, 2026, has a vote on recommendations on its agenda. Members and meeting materials are on AHCA’s task force page. The Florida Department of Education presented the school figures on this page to the task force on August 31, 2026.Source: ABA Task Force Meeting 6 agenda

The task force’s recommendations concern Florida Medicaid, not private insurance or TRICARE. Our guide to Florida’s 2026 ABA Task Force explains what it is reviewing and how families can follow it.

What this means for Florida families

• Many families are going through school eligibility. Florida schools added 20,240 students with autism eligibility in four years. Eligibility is a school decision with its own rules, separate from a diagnosis, so it helps to know both paths. Start with our ESE eligibility guide.
• Check the credential, not a state license. Florida does not license behavior analysts, so the BACB’s registry is where you confirm that a BCBA or RBT is certified and in good standing.
• Ask who supervises the technician. Florida has 5.8 RBTs for every BCBA. Before you start with any provider, ask which BCBA will oversee your child’s program and how often they will see your child and meet with you.
• Your plan type matters. Florida’s autism insurance law does not reach every plan. Our insurance page lists the plans we accept, and we will check your benefits before you decide anything.
• Military families have their own program. TRICARE covers ABA through the Autism Care Demonstration, currently authorized through December 31, 2028. We accept TRICARE East (Humana Military).

Method, sources and limits

We took each figure from the organization that collected it and re-read every number against that source on November 11, 2026. Figures marked “our calculation” are simple sums, shares or ratios of the published numbers; percentages are rounded to one decimal place, and the headline 39% rounds 39.3%. The script that builds every number on this page from the downloaded sources, and the source files themselves, are kept with the page’s code.

• School counts: the statewide counts come from the Florida Department of Education’s slides in the task force’s August 31, 2026 meeting materials (slide 7 for 2025-26 by eligibility category, slide 10 for the five-year series). The category counts on slide 7 add up exactly to its 453,217 total, so each student is counted once. Gifted students are not included. District counts were not published with these slides; we will add counties when FLDOE’s district file is available.
• CDC: the ADDM Network estimates autism among 8-year-olds (and 4-year-olds) from health and education records at its sites. It is not a sample of the whole country, and Florida is not a site.
• BACB: state counts are the BACB’s live region table, which places each certificant by the address on file; we read it on November 11, 2026. The BCBA-D column is listed separately, so our BCBA totals add it in. The worldwide totals are as of October 1, 2026, so the two tables do not match exactly. A certificant is not necessarily practicing, or working with autistic children.
• TRICARE: the Defense Health Agency’s April 2026 report to Congress uses claims data as of August 1, 2025. Fiscal years run October to September.
• Medicaid: the Medicaid facts on this page are limited to the task force’s charge and dates, from the law and AHCA. We do not include Medicaid spending or enrollment figures.
• Counts, not outcomes: this page makes no claim about the results of ABA for a particular child.

• Florida Department of Education, presentation to the Applied Behavior Analysis Task Force (August 31, 2026), slides 7 and 10. School years 2021-22 to 2025-26 (Final Survey 2).
• CDC, Prevalence and Early Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 4 and 8 Years, ADDM Network, 16 Sites, United States, 2022 (MMWR Surveillance Summaries, April 2025). Children aged 8 (and 4) in 2022.
• CDC, Data and Statistics on Autism Spectrum Disorder. Surveillance year 2022.
• Behavior Analyst Certification Board, BACB Certificant Data. As of October 1, 2026.
• Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Region-Specific Certificant Data. Current counts, retrieved November 11, 2026.
• Behavior Analyst Certification Board, US Licensure of Behavior Analysts. Retrieved November 11, 2026.
• Defense Health Agency, Annual Report on Autism Care Demonstration Program (report to Congress, April 2026). Fiscal years 2019 to 2024 (October to September); claims data as of August 1, 2025.
• Florida Statutes, s. 627.6686, Coverage for individuals with autism spectrum disorder required (Steven A. Geller Autism Coverage Act). 2026 Florida Statutes.
• Agency for Health Care Administration, Applied Behavior Analysis Task Force page. Retrieved November 11, 2026.
• HB 5003-E (2026E Legislature), enrolled, Section 40. 2026E session.
• Applied Behavior Analysis Task Force, Meeting 6 agenda, November 17, 2026. November 17, 2026.

Cite this page

Hope Center for Behavior Change, “Autism and ABA Therapy in Florida: Statistics,” November 11, 2026, https://hopecenterforbehaviorchange.com/research/florida-autism-aba-statistics/. Data: Florida Department of Education; CDC ADDM Network; Behavior Analyst Certification Board; Defense Health Agency.

Download the figures as a CSV: one row per figure, with its source, period and link. Free to use with credit to Hope Center for Behavior Change and a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). Please cite the original sources too.

Spotted an error or a newer figure? Email office@hopecenteraba.com and we will correct the page and note the change.

More autism and ABA research for Florida