Georgia Department of Public Health - Southeast Health District - Babies Can't Wait - Pierce County Health Department

That proximity is genuinely useful. Waycross is the largest city in the southern half of the Southeast Health District and carries the deepest concentration of medical services in the area, so Pierce County families generally have a shorter drive to a hospital or specialty appointment than families in the district’s more isolated counties.

Even so, intake for early intervention runs through your county of residence, so Pierce County families should start here in Blackshear rather than at the Ware County office. Your service coordinator can then arrange services that may be delivered by providers based in Waycross.

Functionally, most Pierce County families operate across a two-town service area, with Blackshear for local needs and Waycross for anything larger. Understanding which system follows your address and which follows your provider will save you a lot of confusion.

Your Babies Can’t Wait intake, eligibility, and Individualized Family Service Plan follow your county of residence, so they run through Pierce County even if every therapist who ends up serving your child is based in Waycross. Your school district services after age three likewise follow your residence, through the Pierce County school system, not Ware County’s.

Private therapy is the exception — you can use any provider you can get to, in any county. So the practical pattern for many Pierce County families is Pierce County for the public programs and Waycross for private supplements. Keep the paperwork for each track separate; mixing them is a common source of delay when someone requests records.

Babies Can’t Wait is Georgia’s statewide early intervention system for children from birth to age three, run by the Georgia Department of Public Health under Part C of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Eligible children can receive speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, developmental instruction, service coordination, and family training, delivered in the child’s natural environment. An Individualized Family Service Plan is written with the family, and the eligibility evaluation is provided at no cost.

The statewide intake line is (800) 429-6307. No physician referral is needed and a parent can self-refer. Eligibility ends on the third birthday, when children who still need support transition to preschool special education through their local school district — a separate determination that should be started around thirty months, not later.