OPWDD Coordinated Assessment System (CAS): What New York Families Need to Know

What the CAS Assessment Is and Why It Matters

The Coordinated Assessment System is the standardized evaluation that determines what level of OPWDD-funded services an adult with developmental disabilities in New York can access. Without a completed CAS, you cannot receive authorization for Home and Community-Based Services Waiver supports — day habilitation, community habilitation, supported employment, residential services, or self-direction.

The CAS is not an eligibility determination. By the time you reach this step, your family has already completed the OPWDD Front Door intake, received a basic eligibility determination under Mental Hygiene Law Section 1.03(22), enrolled with a Care Coordination Organization, and obtained the Level of Care Eligibility Determination. The CAS comes after all of that — it is the functional assessment that shapes the scope and intensity of the services OPWDD will authorize.

Who Administers the CAS

Maximus, a private contractor working under contract with OPWDD, administers the CAS for all individuals aged 18 and older. For youth under 18, a different tool — the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) assessment — is used instead.

A trained Maximus assessor conducts the evaluation, typically in the individual's home or at the CCO's office. The assessment is based on interviews with the individual and their family or caregivers, along with a review of existing clinical documentation.

Your CCO Care Manager coordinates the scheduling. You do not contact Maximus directly — the Care Manager submits the request through the OPWDD system and works with the assessor to set a time.

What the CAS Measures

The CAS evaluates functional, behavioral, and medical support needs across multiple domains:

• Daily living skills — personal hygiene, meal preparation, household tasks, money management, transportation use
• Health and medical needs — chronic conditions, medication management, nursing supports, seizure frequency, mobility
• Behavioral support needs — frequency and severity of challenging behaviors, history of crisis events, psychiatric diagnoses
• Social and community participation — ability to interact with others, navigate community settings, maintain relationships
• Employment and vocational capacity — current work skills, need for job coaching, supported employment history
• Safety and risk factors — wandering risk, self-harm history, vulnerability to exploitation

The assessor assigns standardized scores across these domains. Those scores generate a support-need profile that OPWDD uses to determine which services are appropriate and how many hours or units to authorize.

How to Prepare for the Assessment

The CAS is not a pass/fail test, but how your family presents information directly affects the service authorization that follows. Families who describe their best-day scenarios tend to receive lower support-need scores and fewer authorized hours.

Document the hard days. Write down specific examples of when your adult child needed intensive support — crisis episodes, medical emergencies, times when behavioral challenges prevented community participation, days when personal care required hands-on assistance. Bring dated incident reports if you have them.

Gather clinical records. The assessor reviews documentation, so have the following ready:

• Most recent psychological evaluation with IQ and adaptive behavior scores (Vineland or ABAS)
• Psychiatric evaluations and medication lists
• Medical records for chronic conditions
• IEP transition documentation including functional behavioral assessments
• Any prior CAS or CANS assessment results

Include caregiver perspective. The assessor interviews the individual and their caregivers. If the individual tends to overstate their independence in interviews (a common pattern), the caregiver's input provides essential context about what actually happens day to day.

Do not coach or rehearse answers. The assessment works best when the individual and family describe real situations honestly. But do not minimize challenges out of pride or habit — the assessment directly drives service authorization.

What Happens After the CAS

Once the assessment is complete, the results flow into two processes:

Service authorization. Your Care Manager uses the CAS results to develop a Life Plan (formerly the Individualized Service Plan) that identifies the specific OPWDD waiver services the individual needs. The Care Manager submits authorization requests to the regional OPWDD Developmental Disabilities Regional Office based on the assessed support needs.

Provider matching. After services are authorized, the Care Manager helps you locate providers with available capacity. This is often where the real delay begins — New York does not maintain a single public waitlist for HCBS services. Even with an authorization in hand, finding a provider with open slots can take months, particularly for day habilitation, community habilitation, and residential programs in high-demand areas.

If your family disagrees with the CAS results — for example, if the scored support level does not reflect the actual intensity of care needed — you can request a re-assessment. Discuss this with your Care Manager, who can advocate for a new evaluation with additional documentation.

Timing the CAS in the Transition Sequence

The CAS should be completed while the individual is still in school, ideally between ages 18 and 20. Waiting until the student is about to age out at 22 leaves no buffer for the service authorization and provider-matching process that follows.

The full OPWDD access sequence — Front Door intake, eligibility, CCO enrollment, LCED, CAS, service authorization, and provider placement — can take 12 to 24 months from start to finish. Starting early is the single most effective way to avoid the transition cliff that strands young adults without services after school ends.

The New York SSI at 18 & Adult Disability Benefits Guide maps this entire sequence with timelines, checklists, and the OPWDD Front Door tracker — so every step lands in the right order and nothing falls through the gap between school and adult services.

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