This move is not just a new address. It is a services ledger.
California entitlements can end at residency. Texas Medicaid and waiver paths start under Texas rules. The school IEP is the piece that travels through federal law.
entitlements
service seam
new clocks
Make the hidden cost visible before you decide.
The hardest part of this move is that some supports do not transfer. Put those supports on paper before the lease, job offer, or school start date makes the decision feel automatic.
Regional Center and IHSS are California systems. Put their replacement cost on the ledger.
Texas interest-list date is an asset. Start it for every likely waiver.
The current IEP helps the Texas district provide comparable services quickly.
What ends, what starts over, what travels
This guide keeps both states on the page because the comparison is the point. Use the ledger before you decide whether the move math works for your family.
Entitlements can end.
Regional Center services and IHSS are California programs. Texas does not have the same entitlement structure.
New clocks start.
Texas Medicaid and waiver interest lists start under Texas eligibility and list rules, generally from today's request date.
The IEP travels.
The Texas district must provide comparable services in the same school year while it evaluates or develops a new IEP.
Records carry leverage.
Carry the IEP, evaluations, medical records, current authorizations, medication lists, and provider letters before you leave.
What ends at the border
Regional Center services are a California entitlement under the Lanterman Act. The system does not exist in Texas, and services through it end when California residency ends. IHSS is also a California program. Texas serves children with disabilities through Medicaid programs and waiver interest lists instead, and the difference between an entitlement and an interest list is the single biggest change in this move.
The interest lists: your clock starts at today's date
Texas runs statewide interest lists for its major waiver programs, and slots are offered to the person who has waited longest (HHSC LIDDA Handbook, Section 7000). Arriving from California, you join at today's date, no matter how long your child has received services elsewhere. That is exactly why the first week matters. Contact the Local Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authority, the LIDDA, for your new county to register for the HCS and TxHmL lists, and call the HHSC interest list line for MDCP, CLASS, and DBMD. Register for every program your child might ever need. The date is the asset, and the lists are served longest-waiting first.
Medicaid does not cross state lines
Medi-Cal ends with California residency, and Texas Medicaid is a new application under Texas rules. Plan for the seam: refill prescriptions, collect medical records, and copy any equipment authorizations before the move, then apply in Texas as soon as you have an address.
What the school owes on day one
This is where federal law travels with you. If your child has an IEP and enrolls in a Texas school within the same school year, the new district, in consultation with you, must provide services comparable to the California IEP until it conducts an evaluation, if it decides one is needed, and develops a new IEP (34 CFR 300.323(f)). Texas rules let the district confirm the prior services through your verification or the prior district's (19 TAC 89.1050). The new district must take reasonable steps to promptly obtain your child's records, and the California district must take reasonable steps to promptly respond (34 CFR 300.323(g)); hand-carry copies anyway. In Texas the IEP meeting is called an ARD meeting, for Admission, Review, and Dismissal. Same federal rights, different name.
Two Texas specifics worth knowing on arrival. If you request a special education evaluation in writing, the district must respond by the 15th school day (19 TAC 89.1011). And if your child's California IEP includes extended school year services and you move during the summer, the new Texas district is responsible for providing them (19 TAC 89.1065(10)).
One precision note: the comparable-services rule applies when the child enrolls within the same school year. If you move over the summer, the protection is the broader requirement that the district have an IEP in effect for every eligible child when school begins (34 CFR 300.323(a)), so contact the district as soon as you arrive, not in August.
What to gather before the state line
Regional Center services, IHSS hours, parent-provider income, Medi-Cal plan, CCS, therapies, and current out-of-pocket costs.
Current IEP, evaluations, service logs, progress reports, ESY page, and any Prior Written Notices.
New address, medical records, prescriptions, equipment authorizations, diagnosis documentation, and LIDDA/HHSC contact notes.
Do the hard math before the move becomes urgent.
- Total the ledger: list what your child receives now through the Regional Center and IHSS, and what each would cost the family at zero. That number belongs in the moving decision.
- Call the destination LIDDA and the HHSC interest list line, and ask about the lists for each program.
- Request complete records from the school, the Regional Center, and every provider before you leave.
- Time the move around the school year if you can; a same-school-year enrollment carries the comparable-services protection with it.
- Close nothing until residency actually changes.
When calling the LIDDA
"We are moving to your county. Which interest lists should I join for my child, and what date will be recorded for each list?"
When enrolling in school
"Here is the current California IEP. Please provide comparable services while you request records and decide whether to evaluate."
When deciding whether to move
"What supports are we losing at the border, and what would it cost to replace them privately while Texas applications and lists are pending?"
Wayfound covers both states' programs and can show you, program by program, what your child receives now and what the Texas path looks like. Start free.
Related guides
- Moving counties in California: what transfers, what changes, what never to close
- Moving to California: what opens up for your child
- Extended school year: what the law actually says
- IEP eligibility: the 13 categories in parent language
Sources and verification
This guide was verified against the primary sources in June 2026:
- HHSC LIDDA Handbook, Sections 7000 and 20000
- 34 CFR 300.323, IEP transfer requirements (eCFR, verified June 2026)
- 19 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 89 (sections 89.1011, 89.1050, 89.1065)
- Lanterman Act, Welfare and Institutions Code Division 4.5
Wayfound provides information, not legal or medical advice.