Massachusetts program
The state’s special-needs referral line
A family-run information and referral service for children with special health needs [Family TIES].
What it is
A family-run information and referral service for children with special health needs [Family TIES].
Finding the right service can take energy you need for your child. Family TIES can help identify state care-coordination routes and parent connections. It is an information and referral conversation rather than a cash application.
Eligibility rules
- Family TIES describes support for Massachusetts families of children and young adults from birth through 26 with disabilities or chronic health conditions. A referred program has its own eligibility rules.
What you get
- Free information and referrals for families of children with special health needs.
- Connections with other parents and state care-coordination programs.
What the help covers
- Family TIES offers family information, parent-to-parent support and connections with care-coordination resources, including work with the state Division for Children and Youth with Special Health Needs. The social worker can help identify the right program; Family TIES itself is not a treatment-payment benefit.
If you decide to apply
- Contact Family TIES through its family service page and describe the practical problems you want help with.
- Have a short list of the services or parent support you are looking for.
Family TIES at the Federation for Children with Special Needs: 617-236-7210 or 800-331-0688. · Official page ↗
After you ask
- The conversation can lead to a named program or parent contact. The hospital social worker can help when a referral does not fit.
Good to know
This service does not pay treatment bills. It can help you identify other doors to discuss.
Other details
- Any program reached through a referral has its own scope and eligibility. A referral is not an approval for payment or care.
Official sources
“Would Family TIES be useful for the practical help or parent support we need? Could you explain what it offers and connect us if it would help?”
Why I’m asking: I would like help finding the right services without having to work out every agency alone.
More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules
Who does what
The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.
You
Call and describe what you need.
Your social worker
The line points you to state care-coordination programmes and to other parents.
The care team
Records and letters when the application asks for them.
- Who decides
- Nobody decides eligibility; it is a referral line.
- Ask the agency
- “My child is in cancer treatment. What care coordination does the state division for children with special health needs offer, and is there a parent I can talk to?”
How to apply
First step: Call the family line when you have ten minutes spare, and ask what care coordination is available.
- Call when you have a spare ten minutes, not in week one.
- Ask what care coordination the state division can offer.
Official application / program page ↗
Where it starts: Call the family line and ask what care coordination the state division offers for a child in cancer treatment.
What to gather
- A list of the practical problems you want help with
How long: A phone call.
What a yes looks like
A named programme or a parent contact to follow up.
What a no looks like, and the next move
If they cannot help, the hospital social worker is the better route.
Watch out
- It is referral and coordination, not money.
- Whether the state pays for anything cancer-specific through this route was not established.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.
What it is worth
A referral and care-coordination route for families of children with special health needs. No treatment payment, income line or cancer-specific benefit was established.
Covers: Information and referral from a family-run line · A route to the state division’s care-coordination programmes
What it costs the family: None.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Who
- families of children with special health needs in Massachusetts
The trap: Do not expect it to pay bills. The research could not establish any treatment payment, income line or cancer-specific benefit behind it.
Where I read this
- Federation for Children with Special Needs — Family TIES — Federation for Children with Special Needs, read September 10, 2026