For a lot of South Florida parents of a neurodivergent child, a normal week is a map: occupational therapy in one plaza, speech in another, a psychiatrist across the county, a counselor on Thursdays, and a school that needs to hear from all of them. NorthStar Day, now open in a corporate park in Palm Beach Gardens, is built on the idea that all of that should happen in one building, with one team, on one plan.

The program describes itself as the Southeast's first multidisciplinary day treatment program for neurodivergent children, and it is aimed at kids ages 5 to 12. It sits at 4750 East Park Drive, Suite 110, in an office park, and it is the first location of what its founders say will become several across South Florida.

What a day treatment program actually is

Most families know two speeds of care: a weekly outpatient appointment, or a hospital. Day treatment sits between them. A child spends the school day, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., in small, consistent groups with clinicians who see them every day, then goes home at night. The clinical term is a partial hospitalization program, though nothing about the building looks like a hospital.

NorthStar also runs a lighter after-school track, an intensive outpatient program from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, so a child can stay in their regular classroom and come in afterward. Children can move between the two tracks without changing buildings, teams or care plans, and the goal of both is to step down: to less intensive care, back to school full time, or into a mainstream setting when the family and the team agree the child is ready. There is no fixed length of stay.

Eight kinds of care, one hallway

The point of the model is that the specialists are not across town from each other. Under one roof, the program lists:

  • Therapy for the child individually, in groups and with the family, drawing on CBT, DBT-informed skills work, Floortime and family systems approaches.
  • Occupational therapy in a sensory gym, for sensory integration, motor planning and daily-living skills.
  • Speech-language therapy for expressive and receptive language, articulation and social communication.
  • Psychiatric care, including medication management, on site.
  • Pediatric nutrition, coordinated with the OT and behavior plan.
  • Expressive arts, for children who find it hard to put things into words.
  • Case management, a single contact for schools, outside providers and insurance approvals.
  • Educational support, with a certified teacher on site every day so academic work does not stall.

Those clinicians sit in the same weekly team meeting about each child. For parents, the practical change is that they stop being the only person carrying information from one provider to the next.

Who it is for

The program treats autism, ADHD, developmental delays in speech, motor or cognitive skills, sensory processing differences, childhood anxiety and OCD, depression and mood disorders, trauma, and trouble with emotional and behavioral regulation. It is explicitly built for children who have more than one of those at once, which its clinicians describe as the norm rather than the exception: autism with anxiety, ADHD with a trauma history, a speech delay with sensory issues.

It is also worth knowing what it is not. NorthStar says its approach is relational and developmental, starting with connection and regulation, rather than a program built mainly on behavioral compliance. Families looking specifically for ABA therapy are referred to other providers in the area.

A building designed to calm kids down

The facility was built around sensory needs. Low-stimulation rooms use soft, indirect lighting instead of overhead fluorescents, low-contrast wall colors, minimal decor and no competing background noise. There is a sensory gym for occupational therapy, quiet spaces for children who need to reset, and an outdoor nature area the children help look after. Transitions are deliberately gentle and the day follows a predictable rhythm, which matters a great deal to kids for whom a surprise can derail an afternoon.

The people running it

NorthStar Day was co-founded by two Florida psychologists, Dr. Brandi Rials, its chief clinical officer, and Dr. Kelly Everson, who leads psychological services and training and has worked with autistic children and their families since 2006. Its chief medical officer, Dr. Jonathan Stevens, is board certified in child and adolescent psychiatry and previously led child and adolescent psychiatry at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, after training at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital. Chief executive James McManus, a mental health counselor, has worked in behavioral health since 2007.

The program is a sister to NorthStar Behavioral Health, an outpatient mental health practice, and psychological and neurodevelopmental testing, including autism and ADHD evaluations, is handled through its affiliate Palm Beach Behavioral Health and Wellness.

Cost, insurance and getting in

NorthStar says it works with most major insurance plans, verifies a family's benefits the same day they call, and handles prior authorization before a child starts, so families know what is covered going in. Private pay is also accepted. Admissions begins with a short phone call at (561) 781-9400, and in-person tours of the space can be booked through the program's admissions team.

Why it matters here

Individual therapists are not the hard part to find in Palm Beach County. The hard part is everything in between: the driving, the separate waitlists for each discipline, and the fact that nobody but the parent sees the whole child. A day program that puts eight disciplines in one hallway in Palm Beach Gardens will not be the right fit for every family. For the ones whose child needs more than a weekly hour and less than a hospital, it is a new option that did not exist in this part of Florida before, and it is close to home.