Internet and many phone calls. That how I found a great school for Brooklyn.

We found several sitters with line therapy experience and had good experiences on care.com. Interestingly, their sister site is for house cleaners and about 2/3 of the sitters were on there also. We subscribed for a month and found a couple of sitters.

The YMCA Child Care is a great place to check out....I have found them to be sensitive to special needs, increasingly so. My son has been going there for over a year after school. It's a good time for him to be around typical peers. Obviously, it would depend on the degree of your daughter's needs..

State agency referrals for in home daycare are good. At least in my state and region they sent me list of people and what special needs they can handle plus hours. Or try to get a sitter at your house that can deal with autism. I am doing the same thing right now. I just interviewed someone today. I thought our home would be the most comfortable for our soon.