2.3.8.1Vertical

Autism & Behavioral Education Programs

Schools and programs providing specialized education for autistic students.

Market snapshot

These figures describe Special Education & Learning Services (2.3.8), the segment that Autism & Behavioral Education Programs sits within. They are not figures for Autism & Behavioral Education Programs on its own.

Market size
~$22B
Growth
~5.9%CAGR (2017–22, nominal)
Companies
~10,363 firms
Firms by employee count

91.8% of firms have fewer than 20 employees: 9,514 micro-businesses, below most mandates.

The investable universe849 firms with 20+ employees
20–99
65677%
100–499
12915%
500+
648%

There is no clean federal code for special education itself, which sits inside private schools and disability-services classifications, so this sizes the adjacent, measurable market: educational support services, meaning assessment, evaluation, instructional support, and intervention. A grab-bag 'all other schools' residual that had been folded in is excluded; it nearly doubled the firm count with cooking classes, CPR and public-speaking courses that have nothing to do with the segment. Demand tracks the rising identification of learning differences, and the field increasingly overlaps ABA and behavioral-health consolidation.

NAICS 611710. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.

Business model & economics

Revenue model

Private-pay and publicly funded specialized instruction and support

Key economics

Revenue per firm
$2,099,483
Revenue per employee
$166,767
Employees per firm
12.3
Recurring revenue
Moderate

ongoing intervention programs recur

EBITDA margin
12–25%
Capex intensity
Low

Characteristics

  • Balanced cost base: payroll is 32% of revenue, leaving room to scale margin without cutting staff
  • Moderate strategic-buyer pool: 64 firms exceed 500 employees, so a scaled asset has buyers, but not many
  • Rising identification of learning differences drives demand.
  • Overlaps behavioral health (ABA) and tutoring.
  • Blends private-pay and publicly funded models.

NAICS 611710. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.

Geographic concentration

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaColoradoFloridaGeorgiaIndianaKansasMaineMassachusettsMinnesotaNew JerseyNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOklahomaPennsylvaniaSouth DakotaTexasWyomingConnecticutMissouriWest VirginiaIllinoisNew MexicoArkansasCaliforniaHawaiiIowaKentuckyMichiganMississippiMontanaNew HampshireNew YorkOhioOregonTennesseeUtahVirginiaWashingtonWisconsinNebraskaSouth CarolinaIdahoNevadaLouisianaRhode IslandDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaMarylandVermont

Educational support services cluster hard around Washington, D.C. (at nearly five times its expected share of firms) and its Mid-Atlantic orbit of Maryland and Delaware, where affluent, policy-dense, advocacy-heavy markets drive demand for assessment, evaluation, and intervention; Vermont rounds out the list on its small-state, high-services base.

District of ColumbiaVermontMarylandDelaware

U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses (firms by state), NAICS 611710. Concentration shown by location quotient.

M&A deal context

Deal activityModerate

Who’s acquiring

  • Special-education & therapy platforms
  • PE-backed learning-services roll-ups
  • Behavioral-health acquirers

What’s driving deals

  • Growth in identified learning and developmental needs.
  • Consolidation of specialized, outcomes-driven providers.
  • Overlap with behavioral-health (ABA) consolidation.

Find Autism & Behavioral Education Programs acquisition targets

Search Acquisera’s index for companies classified under Autism & Behavioral Education Programs (2.3.8.1) and build a targeted deal pipeline.

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