Dartmouth families of children with autism and other special needs now have a new resource for childcare.

The Pacheco Autism Center, located at 703 State Road North in Dartmouth, opened for the first time this week and will now begin offering one-on-one applied behavioral analysis and special needs daycare services from licensed therapists.

“A lot of people go to work and they’ve tried daycares but they just can’t handle their kids,” said owner Steve Pacheco.

Pacheco said he has been working with children with special needs for 24 years and has owned his own business doing home service care for six.

Pacheco was once a semi-professional baseball player in Georgia. When he retired from the sport, he returned to his hometown of Dartmouth where he wanted to become a math teacher and baseball coach.

Instead of teaching math, Pacheco was placed in a special needs class where he said he fell in love with the kids, leading to a career in the field.

“It’s been a long road, but it’s getting there,” he said.

Now that it’s open, Pacheco’s facility will offer sensory integration work, functional communication training, parent training and applied behavioral analysis. They will also do weekly community outings to destinations like the Boston Science Museum.

Pacheco said he will also look to form after school social groups for older students with special needs.

Though the center just opened its doors, Pacheco said that he already has eight kids signed up — and about 60 more waitlisted.

Pacheco explained that given the current amount of space and staff, he wanted to start small with no more than eight kids at the facility at a time.

“I wanted to make sure it’s done right,” he said. “I didn’t want to get overwhelmed.”

But with so many kids on the waitlist, Pacheco said he is already thinking about expanding the business to new facilities.

“There’s a lot more of a need than I thought,” he said.

Pacheco said that on-site care facilities are especially important for children with disabilities like autism because they add structure and consistency to their lives.

“It’s definitely beneficial,” he said. “I think it’s very important [for the kids] to be doing the same things everyday.”

He added that when compared to traditional daycare, his facility is able to provide a much more appropriate level of care for children with special needs.

“Places like this can provide the one-on-one assistance they require,” he said. “It hits every aspect of their lives.”