Questions are welcome.

Two services for families raising neurodivergent children. Care Services provides specialized childcare from Care Specialists prepared specifically for your child. Navigation Services compares providers and programs, builds meeting materials, tracks deadlines, and handles approved calls, forms and records. Use either, or both.

People with backgrounds across healthcare, psychology, human services, public health, childcare, inclusive recreation, crisis support, and direct work with neurodivergent children. We carefully select, screen, train, employ, assign, and support every Care Specialist. They are not contractors you found through us.

A marketplace introduces you to an individual and then steps back. Novinway stays responsible for the service. We employ, train, assign and support every Care Specialist, and provide child-specific training before anyone assigned to your family arrives. Scheduling problems, matching problems and concerns come to us, not to the individual.

Novinway is accepting new families now. Every Care assignment requires matching and child-specific training, so start times vary by schedule and fit. Start with the short form; during the consultation, we’ll tell you what current availability looks like for your family.

For Care Services: the 90-minute Family Care Intake. The $300 fee covers the intake and your Family Support Profile, and becomes a service credit if you move forward.

For Navigation Services: we confirm whether you need ongoing support (Guide), a defined done-for-you project (Concierge), or both, then review scope, price, terms and the first step before you pay. Navigation-only families do not pay the intake fee.

No. We start with what your family needs and whether Novinway can help safely and well.

Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Care takes place in the family’s home and community. Navigation is generally provided remotely throughout the region.

The Care Specialists assigned to your family arrive already knowing the basics about your child, recurring care is built around familiar relationships, and Novinway stays behind the service so you are not managing individual sitters on your own. The detailed training, screening and supervision are what make that possible.

We look at the care you’re actually asking for, your child’s interests and communication, the setting, the schedule, safety needs, and each Care Specialist’s experience and working style.

Tell us. We’ll go through what didn’t work and decide whether a different Care Specialist or a different service is the better fit. You are not stuck with a bad match.

We don’t assign someone just to fill the schedule. If we can’t find a Care Specialist who fits the request safely and well, we’ll say so. If we accept your family but cannot offer a match within 90 days of the completed intake, you may stay in matching or request a full refund of the intake fee.

For recurring schedules, we keep the Care team small and consistent. Depending on your schedule, that may be one Care Specialist or a small group. If someone changes, Novinway handles the transition and carries what we’ve learned forward.

Yes. Care visits have a three-hour minimum unless Novinway agrees to a different arrangement in writing.

Care Specialists can support a wide range of communication, sensory, routine, regulation, and supervision needs within ordinary childcare. Tell us the practical things that make childcare work — how your child asks for a break, what helps during a transition, and what tends to make an afternoon easier. Before care begins, every Care Specialist assigned to your family is prepared specifically for your child.

No. It is specialized childcare. Care Specialists do not provide therapy or behavior analysis and do not carry out treatment, behavior-intervention or educational plans.

Yes, when the assignment calls for it. Tell us if transportation is part of the care you need so we can confirm it during matching. Driving is not part of every assignment.

The baseline service does not include routine medication or hands-on personal care beyond ordinary childcare. Tell us the exact task before care is scheduled and we’ll give you a clear answer.

Yes, up to 18. Care may look like companionship, conversation, gaming, music, exercise, a community activity, or help following a familiar schedule. We use the young person’s own way of communicating and keep it age-respectful.

Care Specialists follow the family’s emergency information and Novinway’s safety procedures. They contact emergency services when needed and notify the family and Novinway.

Your Navigator can help you get oriented after a diagnosis, prepare for a transition, research and compare options, keep the whole picture current, or handle defined project work you approve. Guide is the ongoing relationship. Concierge is the done-for-you project work.

Novinway employees selected for judgment, organization, clear writing, research and follow-through. Many have personally navigated disability, education, healthcare, benefits, or related systems as parents, alongside complementary professional backgrounds. You work with the company, not an independent consultant.

Navigators use current primary sources and direct outreach, supported by research and organizational tools that help us work efficiently. We turn what we find into a clear comparison, plan, or next step you can actually use.

Guide begins with your priorities and the roadmap. We keep providers, waitlists, deadlines, open questions and next steps current, and help research practical questions such as finding a sensory-friendly dentist or comparing transportation options. Defined done-for-you work is quoted through Concierge.

Applications and waitlists: requirements, forms, attachments, signatures and deadlines. IEP meetings: records, a timeline, questions, a packet, notes and follow-up. Insurance reimbursement: bills and insurer paperwork organized, missing items identified, and forms and attachments prepared. You review, sign and submit the packet using the instructions we provide. We help track deadlines and responses.

A Navigator can research the facts, build a side-by-side comparison around your priorities, and prepare the questions that still need answers. You make the final decision. We do not diagnose, prescribe treatment, or replace your child’s clinicians, school team, lawyer or financial adviser.

Yes, when you give permission for a defined task. Some organizations will still need you to speak, sign, or confirm your identity directly — we’ll tell you which ones up front.

When arranged in advance, a Navigator may join remotely as a support person and note-taker. They do not attend as a lawyer or educational representative.

One current view of your family’s priorities, providers, services, waitlists, deadlines, open questions and next steps. Each active item shows its status, what is waiting on whom, the next action and the deadline.

The done-for-you option for a defined project or add-on. Calls, scheduling, vendor coordination, forms, applications, records requests, provider follow-up, meeting packets and reimbursement paperwork. That can include setting up a complex transportation arrangement. We define the result, quote it first, and flag anything needing your signature.

Care covers the hours someone needs to be with your child. Navigation handles provider research, meeting preparation, deadlines and paperwork. With your permission, the teams connect schedules and next steps while keeping the services separate.

No. Each team receives the information it needs for its job. We ask your permission before sharing records across services or with an outside organization.

Yes. When you use recurring Care and ongoing Navigation together, both monthly fees are 10% lower.

Flex Care is $50 an hour plus a $100 preparation fee per block of up to 20 hours, used within 90 days. Monthly Care is $40 an hour plus a $300 monthly membership fee. Both fees cover preparation, matching, scheduling and support between visits.

Guide, the ongoing option, is $350 per month. Concierge, the done-for-you option, receives a custom quote before work begins.

No. Novinway is private pay and does not bill health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE, waiver programs, or another health payer for its services.

Novinway provides receipts and provider information. Your plan administrator or tax adviser determines whether the expense qualifies.

The $300 Family Care Intake becomes a full service credit if you move forward with Care. If we decide after intake that we cannot serve your family, we refund it. If we accept your family but cannot offer a match within 90 days of the completed intake, you may stay in matching or request a refund.

We review the full cancellation, rescheduling, and ongoing service terms before you pay.

No. Navigation has no intake fee. After the free consultation, we confirm whether Guide, Concierge, or both fit and review the price and terms before you pay.

Candidates complete a structured, scenario-based interview that looks at judgment, communication, boundaries, and how they respond to realistic childcare situations. Before any unsupervised contact, Care Specialists also complete criminal-history and sex-offender screening, provide three references we verify directly, finish the remaining hiring requirements, and hold current First Aid and CPR certification.

Yes. Care Specialists provide services as Novinway employees under Novinway’s commercial insurance coverage.

Training is in person and built around practice and feedback. Instructors explain and demonstrate common care situations; Care Specialists rehearse them, receive feedback, and try again. The foundation covers neurodivergent communication and AAC, rapport and assent, routines and transitions, regulation, active supervision, environmental safety, elopement, self-injury, emergency response, boundaries, and mandatory reporting. Training specific to the child comes next. A Novinway supervisor is there when care begins and can return in person for as many visits as the assignment needs. Ongoing supervision and support continue throughout.

No clinical supervision. Care is specialized childcare, not treatment. Care Specialists receive ongoing professional supervision and support from Novinway, both in person and virtually, but they do not deliver clinical services. Novinway co-founder Syd Pickard, a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst, designs the training and quality standards.