Yes I have private insurance through my employer. We were approved for SSI back in September 2016 and received Medicaid. Since December I got a promotion along with a pay increase. SSI cancelled all our benefits along with Medicaid but my daughter still has a disability. I have an appointment with SSI on the 17th of this month. They're asking for all my recent pay stubs since November. I'm walking in there already knowing the outcome....denied.

Do you have insurance? If you do BY LAW your insurance MUST provide ABA services for your child, so long as you have the official diagnosis of autism.

Need advice from the most experienced people! I've been taking my daughter to ABA (Pinecone In Southlake TX) for the past 2 months. They have been encouraging us to place her there full time. With school starting in a month, we originally wanted to enroll her in public school half time and continue ABA. My wife and I are thinking she could benefit from both. We have an appointment this Tuesday with Pinecone to recap our daughters progress. Mainly, they want to speak to us about our daughter attending full time ABA instead of part time at public school. From what I read, sometimes an Autistic child could get lost in the public school system. I've been thinking about the best decision for her. I do have insurance through my employer that provides ABA therapy with a copayment. I'm kind of lost...and don't know what decision to make...please help!

You need to find an employer who does not provide "self funded" insurance. Many large employers are self funded, which means they only need to follow national laws, not state laws. We moved out of Texas because it has the 2nd worst special education funding in the country. I'm sure there are schools in Texas that do a decent job, but you'll need to look closely and possibly move to find one. We moved to Illinois and our public school could rival the private special education school we enrolled our son in when we were in Texas. It's excellent.
I think you're doing the right thing by focusing on speech - if you can get her to speak, it makes everything else easier. But, remember, there are other ways to communicate that can be just as effective (assisted technology). You might want to give that a try. I wouldn't necessarily recommended 40 hrs/week of ABA. My son did about 15-20 hrs/week of ABA for a couple of years. It helped him "learn to learn" and gave him the ability to focus on what he was being taught -he just couldn't sit still. But, I think a speech therapist is better at teaching speech and an OT is better at fine motor skill training.

I am unsure how it works in texas, because I live here in california. However here in California there is something called the regional center and they offer services for ABA free, or at least will help you get resources? And have you tried applying for medical? I'm getting services through medical, so I don't have to pay for my son's therapy which if I did out of pocket would be over $100,000 a year. And truthfully I read a lot of blogs where autistic children get lost in the public system, because they don't get the individual help they need. I think if you are looking for a change at home ABA might be better. I tried speech therapy and feel like ABA is helping my son communicate more than speech therapy.