Does your child have special needs?
Do you have questions and don't know where to get answers?

Wisconsin First Step serves as the 24 hour, 7 day a week information and referral hotline for the Regional Centers. Calls are taken by Parent Specialists, information and referral professionals who are parents of children with special needs.


There are five Regional Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) Centers throughout Wisconsin to help answer your questions.

• Northern Regional Center
• Northeastern Regional Center
• Southern Regional Center
• Southeastern Regional Center
• Western Regional Center

• Great Lakes Intertribal Council Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Project - provides information, resources and assistance to Native American families of children with special needs.

• Wisconsin Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Program

 

  The goals of the Regional Centers are to:

• Provide information, referral, and follow-up services so all families of children with special needs and providers have access to complete and accurate information. Wisconsin First Step supports the information and referral needs of the Centers
• Promote a parent-to-parent support network to assure all families have access to parent support services and health benefits counseling
• Increase the capability of local health departments and other local agencies, such as schools, to provide service coordination
• Work to establish a network of community providers of local service coordination
• Initiate formal working relationships with local health departments and establish linkages for local service coordination