Questions are welcome.

Novinway is a specialized childcare and family Navigation company for families raising neurodivergent children. Care Services provides childcare based on your child’s communication, routines and needs, with Novinway supervision and support behind every visit. Navigation Services helps families get oriented after a diagnosis, prepare for a transition, improve the support they already have, or solve a specific problem. We make the options clear, build or improve the plan, and take on the research, coordination, and follow-through. Families can use either service or both.

People with backgrounds across healthcare, psychology, human services, public health, childcare, inclusive recreation, crisis support, and direct work with neurodivergent children. We carefully select, screen, train, employ, assign, and support every Care Specialist. They are not contractors you found through us.

A marketplace introduces you to an individual and then steps back. Novinway stays responsible for the service. We employ, train, assign and support every Care Specialist, and provide child-specific training before anyone assigned to your family arrives. Scheduling problems, matching problems and concerns come to us, not to the individual.

Novinway is accepting new families now. Every Care assignment requires matching and child-specific training, so start times vary by schedule and fit. Start with the short form; during the consultation, we’ll tell you what current availability looks like for your family.

For Care Services, the next step is the 90-minute Family Care Intake. The $300 fee covers the intake and Family Care Plan and is credited toward Flex fees or your Monthly membership if you move forward.

For Navigation Services, the next step is a 90-minute conversation. The $300 payment also covers the work to build your initial roadmap afterward and is applied in full to your first three hours of Navigation if you continue.

No. We start with what your family needs and whether Novinway can help safely and well.

Novinway serves Washington, DC; Northern Virginia; Montgomery, Prince George’s and Howard counties; Baltimore City and Baltimore County; and selected communities in Anne Arundel County. Care takes place in the family’s home and community. Navigation is generally provided remotely throughout the region.

The Care Specialists assigned to your family arrive already knowing the basics about your child, recurring care is built around familiar relationships, and Novinway stays behind the service so you are not managing individual sitters on your own. The detailed training, screening and supervision are what make that possible.

Novinway is a private-pay specialized childcare and family navigation company. Families use Care Services for after-school and workday coverage, regular weekend support, appointments and events, and time away from caregiving. That last use is sometimes called respite, but it is one of several purposes our childcare can serve.

We look at the care you’re actually asking for, your child’s interests and communication, the setting, the schedule, safety needs, and each Care Specialist’s experience and working style.

Tell us. We’ll go through what didn’t work and decide whether a different Care Specialist or a different service is the better fit. You are not stuck with a bad match.

We don’t assign someone just to fill the schedule. If we can’t find a Care Specialist who fits the request safely and well, we’ll say so. If we accept your family but cannot offer a match within 90 days of the completed intake, you can ask us to keep looking or request a full refund of the intake fee.

Under both Flex and Monthly Care, only Care Specialists who have been matched to your family and prepared for your child provide care. Monthly Care includes a regular schedule with your assigned Care Specialists. Flex visits are scheduled with your matched Care Specialists based on their current availability.

Flex Care has a four-hour minimum per visit. Monthly Care has a three-hour minimum. Monthly Care’s recurring schedule allows us to offer the shorter minimum.

Care Specialists can support a wide range of communication, sensory, routine, regulation, and supervision needs within ordinary childcare. Tell us the practical things that make childcare work: how your child asks for a break, what helps during a transition, and what tends to make an afternoon easier. Before care begins, every Care Specialist assigned to your family is prepared specifically for your child.

No. It is specialized childcare. Care Specialists can follow familiar family or provider routines within the agreed childcare scope. They do not provide therapy or behavior analysis, implement treatment or behavior-intervention plans, or deliver professional educational services.

Yes, when the assignment calls for it. Tell us if transportation is part of the care you need so we can confirm it during matching. Driving is not part of every assignment.

Care can include ordinary, nonmedical help with toileting, diapering, dressing, meals and other daily routines within the agreed childcare scope. Routine medication and clinical care are not included. Tell us the exact task before care is scheduled and we’ll give you a clear answer.

Yes. For older teens, Care may look like companionship, conversation, gaming, music, exercise, a community activity, or help following a familiar schedule. We use the young person’s own way of communicating and respect their age and interests.

Care Specialists follow the family’s emergency information and Novinway’s safety procedures. They contact emergency services when needed and notify the family and Novinway.

A Navigator figures out what is available, what each option requires and what is worth pursuing. Then they handle the practical work: comparisons, meeting preparation, applications, records, calls, scheduling and follow-through.

Novinway employees selected for judgment, organization, clear writing, research and follow-through. Our Navigation team brings experience from disability services, healthcare, education and government, and its approach is shaped by firsthand family experience navigating these systems. You work with the company, not an independent consultant.

We check current information from the original source and contact organizations directly, using tools to help with research and organization. We turn what we find into a clear comparison, plan, or next step you can actually use.

Yes. Some families use us for one project. Others ask us to keep the roadmap current, watch what is coming and take on new work as needs change. It is the same $100-an-hour service, shaped around the amount of help your family wants.

Applications and waitlists: we check requirements and organize forms, attachments, signatures and deadlines. IEP meetings: we gather records and prepare a timeline, questions and meeting packet, with notes and follow-up. Insurance reimbursement: we organize bills and insurer paperwork, identify missing items, and prepare forms and attachments. You review, sign and submit the reimbursement packet using the instructions we provide. We help track deadlines and responses.

We can research the facts, build a side-by-side comparison around your priorities, and prepare the questions that still need answers. You make the final decision. We do not diagnose, prescribe treatment, or replace your child’s clinicians, school team, lawyer or financial adviser.

Yes, when you give permission for a defined task. Some organizations will still need you to speak, sign, or confirm your identity directly. We’ll tell you which ones up front.

When arranged in advance, a Navigator may join remotely as a support person and note-taker. They do not attend as a lawyer or educational representative.

One current view of your family’s priorities, providers, services, waitlists, deadlines, open questions and next steps. Each active item shows its status, who needs to respond, the next action and the deadline. It is where Navigation starts, and it is yours to keep.

Care covers the hours someone needs to be with your child. Navigation handles provider research, meeting preparation, deadlines and paperwork. With your permission, the teams connect schedules and next steps while keeping the services separate.

No. Each team receives the information it needs for its job. We ask your permission before sharing records across services or with an outside organization.

No. You can use Care, Navigation or both.

Flex Care is $50 an hour plus a $100 service fee for each block of up to 20 hours, used within 90 days. Monthly Care is $40 an hour plus a $300 monthly membership, including a regular schedule with your assigned Care Specialists and a monthly check-in to discuss your family’s goals. Both include matching, child-specific training, a current Family Care Plan, scheduling, supervision, ongoing support and direct access to our team.

Navigation is $100 an hour, billed in 15-minute increments. You can use it for one project, ongoing help, or anything in between. Before we start, we estimate the time and cost, and keep you informed as priorities change.

The $300 payment covers a 90-minute conversation and the work to build your initial roadmap afterward. If you continue with Navigation, the full $300 is applied to your first three hours.

Both services accept ACH or credit card only. ACH has no surcharge. Credit cards carry up to a 3% surcharge. Debit and prepaid cards are not accepted.

No. Novinway is private pay and does not bill health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE, waiver programs, or another health payer for its services.

Novinway provides receipts and provider information. Your plan administrator or tax adviser determines whether the expense qualifies.

The full $300 Family Care Intake fee is credited toward Flex fees or your Monthly membership if you move forward with Care. If we decide after intake that we cannot serve your family, we refund it. If we accept your family but cannot offer a match within 90 days of the completed intake, you can ask us to keep looking or request a refund.

You may cancel or reschedule a Care visit without charge at least 48 hours before it begins. With less notice or a no-show, the full scheduled charge applies, except for unexpected illness or a genuine family or medical emergency. Please let us know as soon as practical. You are never charged when Novinway cancels a visit or determines that travel or conditions are unsafe.

We review the full cancellation, rescheduling, and ongoing service terms before you pay.

Candidates complete a structured, scenario-based interview that looks at judgment, communication, boundaries, and how they respond to realistic childcare situations. Before any unsupervised contact, Care Specialists also complete criminal-history and sex-offender screening, provide three references we verify directly, finish the remaining hiring requirements, and hold current First Aid and CPR certification.

Yes. Care Specialists provide services as Novinway employees under Novinway’s commercial insurance coverage.

Care Specialists complete paid, in-person training built around practice and feedback. Instructors explain and demonstrate common care situations; Care Specialists rehearse them, receive feedback, and try again.

Training covers:

• Neurodivergent communication, including augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).
• Building rapport and recognizing assent (a child’s willingness to participate).
• Routines, transitions and regulation.
• Active supervision, environmental safety, elopement (leaving a supervised area) and self-injury.
• Emergency response, boundaries and mandatory reporting.

Training specific to the child comes next. A Novinway supervisor is there when care begins and can return in person for as many visits as the assignment needs. Ongoing supervision and support continue throughout.

No clinical supervision. Care is specialized childcare, not treatment. Care Specialists receive ongoing professional supervision and support from Novinway, both in person and virtually, but they do not deliver clinical services. Novinway co-founder Syd Pickard, a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst, designs the training and quality standards.