<p>This paper presents a meshless formulation for the analysis of laminated plates using first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) combined with a radial basis function–finite difference (RBF-FD) method. The proposed local approximation employs polyharmonic splines (PHS) with polynomial augmentation, which eliminates the need for a shape parameter and provides accurate differentiation on structured and mildly perturbed node sets. Unlike global radial basis function collocation schemes, which typically produce dense and ill-conditioned matrices, the present RBF-FD approach leads to sparse algebraic systems and is compatible with scattered-node discretizations. The laminated plate equilibrium equations are discretized in strong form and applied to static bending and free vibration problems. Numerical results for isotropic and laminated square plates show very good agreement with analytical, elasticity, and benchmark numerical solutions. Additional verification studies are included to document the influence of nodal perturbations, polynomial reproduction, matrix sparsity, conditioning, and the sensitivity of the higher vibration modes.</p>