Our purpose
Parents rarely begin with a billing code or professional credential. They begin with a question about their child. The site is structured to move from that question toward an appropriate evaluation, the professionals who perform it, local options, and practical cost information.
Our operating principles
Separate evidence from promotion
Payment does not determine provider order or editorial conclusions.
Show who reviewed what
Clinical reviewer credentials, scope, and review dates belong on substantive health pages.
Publish useful inventory
Empty combinations and thin location pages should not be indexed merely because a database can generate them.
Correct transparently
Material errors should be fixed promptly and significant changes documented.
What we check before a listing goes live
Every published listing has, at minimum: an organization we confirmed exists, a location we confirmed, and at least one evaluation service the organization describes in its own published materials. That is the floor. It does not mean we have confirmed the ages a practice serves, whether it does full testing, or a clinician's license.
“Fully checked” listings
A listing carries the “Fully checked” badge only when we have also sourced the ages it serves, whether it does comprehensive testing or consults and refers, and where each detail came from. It also needs at least one clinician the organization names, with a license we found active in the California Department of Consumer Affairs licensee file; the card shows that license and the month of the file we checked. We tie a license to a listing only when the organization's own website names the clinician, the state file has exactly one current license under that name, and either the clinician's federal NPI record lists the same license number or the practice is named for the clinician. When a name is shared or the records disagree, we leave the license off. Speech-language pathologists, physicians and behavior analysts are licensed outside the files we read, so their licenses do not count yet. You can filter city directories to show only fully checked listings.
How each provider fact is labeled
- 1
Confirmed by the organization
The practice reviewed its listing and confirmed the detail with us. The listing shows the date.
- 2
From the organization's own pages
We read the detail on the practice's website or another page it publishes, and the listing links that source and shows when we checked it.
- 3
Not yet confirmed
When a practice doesn't publish something, like a waitlist, Medi-Cal acceptance, or whether it does full testing, we say so instead of guessing. An unconfirmed detail never hides a practice from search results.
How providers are ordered
City pages and the Where do I start? tool list practices in your city first, then practices that confirmed their details, then the most recently checked. Practices that tie rotate weekly instead of sorting alphabetically, so no practice is always first. Get matched ranks practices by how well their listed services fit your answers, whether they're in your city, and how complete their information is. Payment doesn't change either order.
The editorial and directory system is live while Bay Area provider records are being curated. We will identify named clinical reviewers only after credentials, role, and actual review participation are confirmed.