Kansas: I/DD waitlist at 5,383, above 4,000 cap

Kansas counted 5,383 people waiting for its comprehensive I/DD waiver as of Aug. 31, 2026, 1,383 more than the 4,000-person cap set by a budget proviso. The figure is in the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) update presented Oct. 6 to the Robert G. (Bob) Bethell Joint Committee on Home and Community Based Services and KanCare Oversight, whose agenda listed an update on the proviso directing KDADS to cap the waitlist at 4,000.

The same afternoon, the Kansas inspector general presented an interim audit that found most sampled waitlist files were missing key records. KDADS disputes those findings.

The waitlist numbers

All figures are KDADS data reported to the committee unless noted.

• 5,383 people on the I/DD waitlist as of Aug. 31, 2026 (data pulled Sept. 18).
• 9,848 people eligible to receive I/DD waiver services in August 2026.
• 5,348 on the list in July 2026, with an average wait of about three years, according to the inspector general's interim report. That report charts the list rising from 4,320 in December 2024.
• Since 2023, KDADS has sent 1,713 waitlist offer letters. 1,273 people (74%) accepted. After accepting, 23 (1.8%) were found functionally ineligible and 75 (5.9%) financially ineligible.

KDADS says Kansas confirms program eligibility and completes a level-of-care assessment before adding anyone to the list, and checks both again when a slot is offered.

What KDADS told lawmakers about the cap

KDADS said it expects some people on the list to choose the new Community Support Waiver, which launched Oct. 1, and that this should eventually shrink the list. It said it will give lawmakers updated estimates of the extra funding needed in January, as it has the past two years. It also argued that spending money not specifically appropriated for waiver slots would commit future legislatures to that spending and take over the Legislature's role as appropriator.

In August, KDADS surveyed people on the waitlist about the new waiver, and just over half of 1,003 respondents said they were interested. In September it mailed 1,000 invitations to the people who had waited longest. A person who enrolls leaves the I/DD waitlist only after signing a person-centered service plan; someone who doesn't sign keeps their place.

On Oct. 7, the committee advanced a recommendation to bring Kansas into compliance with the 4,000 cap, according to Sara Hart Weir, executive director of the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities, in an Oct. 18 Kansas City Star column. She put the gap at roughly 1,400 slots and wrote that lawmakers set the cap at 4,800 in 2024 and lowered it to 4,000 in 2025. The committee's minutes and annual report had not been posted as of Oct. 18.

Inspector general: records missing in sampled files

Inspector General Steven D. Anderson's interim report (OIG-IR-26-003, dated Oct. 2) reviewed samples from the I/DD and physical disability (PD) waitlists:

• 72 of 77 sampled I/DD cases (92%) lacked a signed initial assessment, the state's ES-3160 HCBS notification form or ES-3161 closure form, or both, so the OIG could not validate eligibility and waitlist placement.
• Initial assessments could not be found for 47 (61%), and 3 (4%) had no history at all in KEES, the state's Medicaid eligibility system.
• Five people received crisis exceptions to bypass the waitlist without the required documentation.
• 79 of 91 sampled PD cases (87%) lacked an initial assessment or had one that wasn't signed as required.
• KDADS did not deliver requested waitlist and assessor records until July 12, 2026, after four OIG requests between November 2025 and June 2026, which the OIG says delayed the audit seven months.

KDADS disagrees. It says being placed on the waitlist is not the same as enrolling in the waiver: a person does not have to be Medicaid-eligible to be on the list, and eligibility is confirmed when a slot is offered. It also says the CMS-approved functional assessment does not require the applicant's signature. The OIG kept its 92% finding but removed estimates it had extrapolated from the sample. A full report is still to come.

Rates and what comes next

KDADS's rate slide shows 20 hours a week of I/DD personal care in fiscal 2027 costs the state about $1,853 a month when agency-directed ($5.34 per unit) and about $1,811 when self-directed ($4.69 per unit plus a $183.79 FMS fee). Its next steps for the I/DD waiver are a comprehensive rate study setting rates by each person's assessed needs, unbundling day supports and residential services, conflict-free case management, and a waiver renewal effective July 1, 2029.

Why this matters for providers and DSPs

The list is still about 1,400 people over the cap the Legislature wrote, and the funding question moves to January. If lawmakers pay for more slots, offers go out in batches, and about three in four people accept. Provider agencies would need direct support professionals hired and ready for that.

The new waiver's invitations went to the people who have waited longest, so some families may start with lighter, capped supports while they keep their place in line.

The audit puts paperwork in the spotlight. CDDOs, assessors and targeted case managers should expect more questions about whether initial assessments and notification forms are signed, dated and saved where the state can find them.

The planned rate study and the unbundling of day and residential services will change how agencies are paid for the same hours of support. Watch for the 2029 waiver renewal timeline.