Arkansas to Help Families on Community & Employment Support Waitlist

DARDANELLE, Arkansas—Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Secretary of the Department of Human Services (DHS) Janet Mann announced a framework to assist families on the Community and Employment Support (CES) Waiver waitlist. DHS said it will begin work on providing supportive living services to families currently on the CES waitlist, all of whom are automatically enrolled in the Provider-Led Arkansas Shared Savings Entity (PASSE).

The CES Waiver offers services to support clients with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) with all major life activities, such as living independently and working at a job with help from an employment coach. The program promotes inclusion for clients through community experiences and provides care coordination to help access services. It is available to Arkansans of all ages with IDD.

Families on the CES waiver waitlist are able to access 25 out of the 29 services available to families enrolled in the CES waiver, including a variety of services, therapies and medical supplies. Of the four services not available to families on the waitlist, the most commonly requested is supportive living services. Supportive living services help individuals with disabilities live at home by paying for in-home care.

“In my conversations with families enrolled in the CES waiver or on the CES waitlist, one request came up again and again: supportive living services for their loved ones,” said Sanders. “Today, we’re announcing a plan to provide those services to every eligible Arkansan, whether they’re enrolled in the CES waiver or not. This will go a long way toward addressing the number one concern we hear from families about the CES waitlist. As we work to get this change in place, DHS is also convening relevant stakeholders and policymakers to create additional long-term solutions for these families.”

“We recognize the powerful impact that waiver services like supportive living have on families, and we are excited to develop a way to increase the availability of this critical support,” said Mann. “It’s always our goal to connect eligible families to services that will benefit them. We’ve been moved by the stories we’ve heard from families on the waitlist, and we look forward to making this change as expeditiously as possible.”

The CES Waiver program currently has a maximum enrollment of 8,233 and a waitlist of 2,464. Providing supportive living services for individuals on the waitlist will cost an estimated $17 million. Sanders said she and her administration will begin discussions with the legislature on the best way to fund these services in both the short and long term.

It is estimated that PASSEs will begin to make supportive living services available to families on the waitlist starting in January 2027 at the latest. Arkansas will also incorporate this change into its planned CES waiver resubmission in February to offer this service long-term to families on the waitlist once the renewed waiver goes into effect in August.