ASD Nest, ASD Horizon and District 75, Explained
NYC runs two autism programs inside regular district schools, Nest and Horizon, and a citywide district, District 75, for students with the most significant needs. What each one is, how a child gets a seat, and the high school programs we list.
If your child is autistic, or has significant needs of another kind, you will run into three names that general admissions guides skip: ASD Nest, ASD Horizon and District 75. They work differently from everything else in NYC admissions, and the biggest difference is who decides. This is what each one is, how a child gets a seat, and the high school programs we list.
It’s a companion to our guide to NYC admissions with an IEP or 504 plan, written from one set of parents to another. It isn’t legal advice; your child’s IEP team is where every one of these starts. The program descriptions below come from NYC Public Schools’ Autism Family Resource Guide (last updated January 9, 2025).
ASD Nest and ASD Horizon: autism programs inside district schools
Both are special education programs run inside regular schools in Districts 1–32, for some students whose IEP carries an autism classification. Both teach the same New York State standards and the same curriculum as every other NYC public school, and both work on social and communication skills alongside academics. They differ in the class and in who they’re designed for.
| Compare | ASD Nest | ASD Horizon |
|---|---|---|
| The class | Integrated Co-Teaching: one special education teacher and one general education teacher, with students with and without disabilities. Classes grow as students get older. | A special class of at most eight autistic students, with one special education teacher and one paraprofessional (8:1+1). Time with general education students is encouraged. |
| Social skills | Social Development Intervention, a social curriculum developed at NYU and taught in small groups. The program is a partnership with NYU Steinhardt’s Nest Support Project. | Weekly group speech sessions on social communication, with teaching materials based on Applied Behavior Analysis. |
| Designed for, in the DOE’s words | Students with average to above-average intelligence, academic skills on or above grade level, and language near age level except in social language. | Students with below-average to average intelligence, academic skills at or near grade level, and mild to moderate language difficulties. |
How a child gets a seat
Not through a ranked list. Nest and Horizon share one application, and the city’s Central Autism Programs Team decides, working with your family and your child’s IEP team:
- Apply through the IEP team.For a child in grades 1–12, the application can go in at any time of year. For a child starting kindergarten, the guide asks families to apply as early as possible in the preschool year, and to take part in the regular kindergarten application as well.
- The team reviews your child’s evaluationsand may ask for updated testing or schedule an observation. Any testing it needs can be done through the IEP process; outside evaluations aren’t required.
- The team decides whether your child meets the criteria for Nest or Horizon, and discusses it with you and the IEP team. If not, the IEP team works with you on another setting.
- The city assigns the school.In the guide’s words: “Because Autism Programs are not in every school and there are a limited number of seats, student applications are assigned to a specific school. We are not able to accommodate requests for specific schools.” Once your child is accepted, you can visit before enrolling.
That last step is the one that surprises families most. You can research which schools run a program, and it’s worth knowing, but you don’t pick among them the way you rank schools on MySchools.
The high school programs we list
Our data holds 14 ASD Nest and ASD Horizon high school programs at 13 schools, the ones that appear in the city’s high school admissions data. Nest and Horizon also run in elementary and middle schools, which this list doesn’t cover, so treat it as a starting point, not the full map.
Bronx
- Bronxdale High School — Nest
- Millennium Art Academy — Nest
- Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science — Horizon
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Queens
Staten Island
- New Dorp High School — Horizon
District 75
District 75 isn’t a neighborhood district. It’s the city’s citywide network of schools and programs built for students with the most significant disabilities, autism among them. Many District 75 programs share a building with a district school.
A seat in District 75 also comes through the IEP process, not an application: the IEP team recommends the setting, and the city places your child. We list 67 District 75 schools, and a District 75 school’s How to get insection on Motley NYC says exactly that, rather than showing an application step that doesn’t apply.
Questions worth asking
- Is there a Nest or Horizon program at this school for my child’s grade, and how many classes?
- How do program students and the rest of the school share lunch, electives, clubs and trips?
- Who on staff has the program training, and how long have they been here?
- Which related services, such as speech and occupational therapy, are delivered in the building?
- For high school: how do students in the program take Regents exams and plan for after graduation?
For the rest of the list, see our tour questions, grade by grade, and for how an IEP fits into every other application, our IEP and 504 guide.
Program descriptions and the admissions process from NYC Public Schools’ Autism Family Resource Guide (last updated January 9, 2025). Program and school counts from our data as of October 17, 2026.
