Children's Long-Term Support: Continuous Enrollment
The Children’s Long Term-Support (CLTS) program helps children with disabilities and their families through supports and services that help children grow and live their best lives in their home and community.
In the past, there was a CLTS waitlist. To remove the waitlist, Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) set up the continuous enrollment approach.
Learn about continuous enrollment
Continuous enrollment is a process that helps kids join the CLTS Program faster. Kids are served on a first come, first served basis.
This process works because the state of Wisconsin partners with local counties. Once a child is found eligible, their county health and human services agency works to enroll them using the statewide budget.
Learn about your county
The county health and human services agency enrolls kids in the program.
You can contact your county agency to get more details about:
- Your county’s enrollment status.
- Your child’s enrollment status.
- Your child’s application or how to apply.
View your county's enrollment status
This online tool will help you learn about CLTS Program enrollment in your county and across the state. It shows:
- How many kids are in the CLTS program
- How many kids are eligible but not yet enrolled
- How long it takes to enroll
What are the benefits?
Using continuous enrollment means:
- Less wait time.
- Faster program entry.
- Access to supports and services for children and families who need them.
- More families getting supports and services.
Take a look at the numbers before continuous enrollment (2017) and after (now).
- Kids waiting to be enrolled—Then: 2,600+ | Now: Just over 2,000
- Kids enrolled—Then: 6,200 | Now: 20,000+
- Average time waiting to enroll—Then: 1,095 days (3 years) | Now: less than 100 days
What makes continuous enrollment happen?
We can offer continuous enrollment because:
- Funding—State funding has helped us get rid of the program waitlist. With more funds, we can serve more kids. The 2017-2019 state budget and 2021-2023 budget from Governor Evers have helped a lot. Our state is a leader in serving kids with disabilities. Future funding will help this continue.
- Partnerships—DHS and counties work together to enroll kids. They also make sure funding can support enrollment across the state.
How to enroll
The county health and human services agency near you can help you apply for the CLTS Program. The county agency confirms if a child is eligible.
The enrollment process can take one to two months. This is the time from when a child is found eligible to when they get supports and services.