The recipient entity's physical address:
           2041 Silverside Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70808

The recipient entity's mailing address (if different):
           2041 Silverside Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Type of Entity (for instance, a nonprofit corporation):  Non-Profit Corporation

If the entity is a corporation, list the names of the incorporators:
          

The last four digits of the entity's taxpayer ID number:  3905

What is the dollar amount of the request?  $66,000

What type of request is this?  General Appropriation

Is this entity in good standing with the Secretary of State?  Yes

Provide the name of each member of the recipient entity's governing board and officers:
           Anne Hindrichs
1805 College Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Tanja Foil
426 W. Woodgate Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Karen Young
2140 Powerbrook Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70816

Eric Guerin
5000 Hennessey Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70802

Jan Ross
4463 Bluebonnet Blvd. Suite A
Baton Rouge, LA 70809

Sonia Girod
510 Highland Crossing St.
Baton Rouge, LA 70810

Devin Jones
4459 Bluebonnet Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70809

Maureen Edwards
1787 Shawn Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70806

Drew Walker, Executive Director
9854 S. Riveroaks Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70815

Provide a summary of the project or program:
           Capital Area Autism Network (CAAN) is a nonprofit backbone organization serving the ten-parish Capital Area of Louisiana. CAAN’s mission is to build the coordinating infrastructure that connects the healthcare, education, housing, and employment systems serving neurodivergent individuals and their families — systems that, by design and by funding structure, operate in isolation from one another.

The Capital Area Neurodiversity Coordination Initiative, for which this appropriation is requested, encompasses three interconnected program activities delivered in State Fiscal Year 2027:

1. The Capital Area Provider Summit (September 30, 2026)
CAAN will convene healthcare providers, special education professionals, HCBS waiver providers, employment service organizations, and family advocates in a structured cross-sector working session designed to build the relationships and shared protocols that system coordination requires. This summit directly addresses the fragmentation of publicly-funded services for the neurodivergent population in the Capital Area. Approximately 60–80 providers and stakeholders representing multiple disciplines will participate.

2. The State of Neurodiversity Report — Year 1 (Publication October 2026)
CAAN will produce the first comprehensive regional data analysis of neurodivergent individuals’ experience across the four systems that most determine their life outcomes. Year 1 will document the Capital Area’s special education outcomes (drawing on LDOE data compiled by CAAN), the Medicaid HCBS waiver landscape and workforce crisis (drawing on the SFY 2027 LDH rate study), and the healthcare access picture including diagnostic wait times and prior authorization barriers. This report will serve as the evidence base for regional policy advocacy and as a public accountability document for the systems it covers.

3. Cross-System Coordination Infrastructure (Ongoing)
CAAN maintains the ongoing relationship infrastructure — stakeholder convening, provider network communications, family navigation support, and policy advocacy — that allows the two above activities to produce durable systems change rather than one-time events. This function includes CAAN’s public communications platform, ongoing engagement with Louisiana Department of Health, the Louisiana State Medical Society, EBR Parish Schools, and Capital Area health systems, and representation of the neurodivergent community in regional policy conversations.

This program is the direct fulfillment of a recommendation made in 2016 by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and the Huey and Angelina Wilson Foundation, whose commissioned study of autism services in the Capital Region concluded that the community required “a comprehensive ASD support entity” to coordinate services, navigate families, and strengthen the regional ASD infrastructure. CAAN is that entity.

What is the budget relative to the project for which funding is requested?:
          Salaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . $53,000
          Professional Services. . . $5,000
          Contracts . . . . . . . . . . . $0
          Acquisitions . . . . . . . . . $0
          Major Repairs . . . . . . . $0
          Operating Services. . . . $5,000
          Other Charges. . . . . . . $3,000

Does your organization have any outstanding audit issues or findings?  No

If 'Yes' is your organization working with the appropriate governmental agencies to resolve those issues or findings?
          Not Applicable

What is the entity's public purpose, sought to be achieved through the use of state monies?
          The Capital Area Autism Network’s Neurodiversity Coordination Initiative serves a clear and documentable public purpose: it improves the effectiveness of state-funded services for neurodivergent individuals by building the coordination infrastructure those services currently lack, thereby reducing preventable costs to the public and improving outcomes for a vulnerable population.

Louisiana currently invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually in services for individuals with intellectual, developmental, and neurodevelopmental disabilities through Medicaid waiver programs, special education mandates, and related public systems. The SFY 2027 HCBS Payment Rate Study commissioned by the Louisiana Department of Health documents that these programs are underfunded by an estimated $165 million annually — a gap that drives a 35% annual turnover rate among direct care workers and produces chronic service gaps for the individuals these programs are designed to serve.

At the same time, LDOE data compiled by CAAN reveals that in East Baton Rouge Parish, 30% of students with disabilities exit special education by dropping out — nearly triple the state average of 11% — despite the state’s significant annual investment in special education services. In Ascension Parish, the comparable rate is under 5%.

These outcomes are not primarily a function of inadequate individual services. They are a function of fragmentation — systems that were built independently, funded independently, and measured independently, producing collectively worse outcomes than a coordinated system would. A student whose medical providers do not communicate with his school, whose school’s transition planning does not connect to the adult waiver system, and whose family bears the full coordination burden, is less likely to complete school, less likely to achieve employment, and more likely to require crisis intervention and emergency services that cost the state significantly more than coordinated community support would.

CAAN’s coordination function reduces this fragmentation. The state’s investment in CAAN is an investment in making its existing investments in Medicaid waiver services, special education, and related programs more effective. The public purpose is both immediate — improved outcomes for approximately 1,882 autistic students and thousands of adults with disabilities in the Capital Area — and fiscal: reduced emergency room utilization, reduced preventable institutionalization, and improved employment outcomes that generate tax revenue rather than consuming public benefits.

Louisiana’s investment in the autism services gap analysis that preceded CAAN’s founding — through the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and its foundation partners — identified exactly this coordination function as the community’s most critical need. This appropriation supports the organization the community called for.

What are the goals and objectives for achieving such purpose?
          Goal 1: Convene the Capital Area’s neurodivergent services provider community in structured cross-sector coordination.
Objective 1.1: Execute the Capital Area Neurodiversity Provider Summit on September 30, 2026, with a minimum of 60 participants representing at least four distinct professional disciplines (healthcare, education, HCBS waiver services, and employment).
Objective 1.2: Establish a standing quarterly provider network touchpoint by December 31, 2026, maintaining participation from at least 40 organizations.
Objective 1.3: Document at minimum three specific coordination commitments made by participating organizations at the summit — new referral protocols, shared communication mechanisms, or cross-discipline collaboration agreements — by December 31, 2026.

Goal 2: Produce the first State of Neurodiversity Report for the Capital Area.
Objective 2.1: Publish the State of Neurodiversity Report — Year 1 by October 1, 2026, covering the education and HCBS/Medicaid waiver domains with locally specific Capital Area data.
Objective 2.2: Distribute the report to a minimum of 200 stakeholders including legislators, state agency staff, providers, healthcare systems, and community organizations.
Objective 2.3: Present report findings in at least two public forums — including the October 1, 2026 State of Neurodiversity Conference — to establish CAAN as the regional data authority on neurodiversity outcomes.

Goal 3: Advance policy coordination between the systems serving neurodivergent individuals in Louisiana.
Objective 3.1: Maintain active advocacy engagement with the Louisiana State Medical Society on prior authorization reform affecting neurodivergent individuals’ access to behavioral health services, with at least two documented meetings or joint advocacy actions by June 30, 2027.
Objective 3.2: Initiate a Medical-to-Educational Pipeline pilot protocol with at least one Baton Rouge-area healthcare provider and EBR Parish Schools by June 30, 2027, establishing a replicable handoff process between autism diagnosis and educational evaluation.
Objective 3.3: Submit formal written testimony or policy recommendations to at least one Louisiana legislative committee or state agency on issues affecting the neurodivergent community during the SFY 2027 program period.

Goal 4: Maintain public communications infrastructure that educates the Capital Area community about neurodiversity needs and CAAN’s coordination work.
Objective 4.1: Publish a minimum of six issues of the NeuroPulse newsletter during the SFY 2027 program period, with a growing subscriber base documented at each publication.
Objective 4.2: Maintain an active public presence on at least three platforms (Medium, LinkedIn, Facebook, and/or the CAAN website) with content connecting regional data to family experience and policy context.

What is the proposed length of time estimated by the entity to accomplish the purpose?
           The specific objectives listed above are deliverable within State Fiscal Year 2027 (July 1, 2026 — June 30, 2027).

If any elected or appointed state official or an immediate family member of such an official is an officer, director, trustee, or employee of the recipient entity who receives compensation or holds any ownership interest therein:
     (a) If an elected or appointed state official, the name and address of the official and the office held by such person:
                
    
     (b) If an immediate family member of an elected or appointed state official, the name and address of such person; the name, address, and office of the official to whom the person is related; and the nature of the relationship:
                

     (c) The percentage of the official's or immediate family member's ownership interest in the recipient entity, if any:
                

     (d) The position, if any, held by the official or immediate family member in the recipient entity:
                 

If the recipient entity has a contract with any elected or appointed state official or an immediate family member of such an official or with the state or any political subdivision of the state:
(a) If the contract is with an elected or appointed state official, provide the name and address of the official and the office held by such person: 
               

(b) If the contract is with an immediate family member of an elected or appointed state official:
          Provide the name and address of such person:
              

          Provide the name, address, and office of the official to whom the person is related:
               

          What is the nature of the relationship? 

(c) If the contract is with the state or a political subdivision of the state, provide the name and address of the state entity or political subdivision of the state:
                

(d) The nature of the contract, including a description of the goods or services provided or to be provided pursuant to the contract:
               


Contact Information
name:  Drew Walker 
                                       address:  2041 Silverside Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
                                       phone:  225-939-5286
                                       fax: 
                                       e-mail:  drew.walker@caanbr.org
                                       relationship to entity:  Executive Director