Landri Hellinga is 15. She has a rare joint condition called Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita that locks her joints straight or bent, so she spends most of her day in a motorized wheelchair. She has had more than 40 surgeries. Her mother, Laura, walked away from a career as a national accounts manager at Walmart when Landri was born, because she knew she would be doing all of the caring herself.
Laura Hellinga applied in 2022 to get Landri into an Arkansas program that pays for exactly the things a family like hers needs. She had to apply more than once. She was accepted in 2024.
The last time her mother checked, Landri was number 636 on the waiting list.
There are more than 2,400 people on that list. And Arkansas's leaders are, at the same moment, touting a $655 million surplus.
The program, and the governor who cleared it
The program has a bureaucratic name — the Community and Employment Support Waiver, or CES — and a simple job. Run by the Department of Human Services, it pays for the things ordinary Medicaid does not: a customized wheelchair, a bathtub seat, a ramp, a lift, home modifications, medical supplies. The point of it is to let a disabled person live at home instead of in a nursing home.
Families have waited as long as ten years to get in.
In 2021, Arkansas's previous governor decided that was unacceptable. Republican Asa Hutchinson put up more than $37 million to zero out a waitlist of more than 3,200 disabled Arkansans. The state cleared it over four years. He did not need a special session to do it: the legislature dedicated the $37.6 million during the short fiscal session Arkansas holds in even-numbered years.
Sarah Sanders took the office after him. Four years after Hutchinson left, the list is back above 2,400.
What it would cost, and what she spent instead
State Rep. Andrew Collins, a Little Rock Democrat, has asked Sanders to call a special session to deal with it. Clearing the list means asking federal Medicaid officials to open more slots, and Arkansas paying for them.
"Right now, the estimate is that it would cost somewhere between $35 (million) and $50 million," Collins said. He also noted that Arkansas's share of CES costs runs about 30% — the federal government covers the rest.
So the state's own portion of fixing this is a fraction of a fraction. Collins set that against what Sanders has chosen to fund instead: the LEARNS voucher program, which pays private school tuition for families that do not necessarily need the help — at an estimated cost, the paper notes, approaching $400 million a year — plus tax cuts for the highest earners.
His verdict was one sentence:
"If it was a priority, it would have been done already."
We have put a number on that voucher program before. Sanders' voucher program will cost $367 million this year, and Arkansas has never permanently barred a single school from that program while asking those schools for little more than fire drills, shot records and a flagpole.
Collins was blunter about what the waiting means for families:
"To allow those individuals to be burdened in this way feels morally indefensible," he said. "You're telling them they have to spend years on end waiting for help that may never come."
What answering a letter looks like
Laura Hellinga did the thing citizens are told to do. She wrote to her elected officials.
"I have written Sarah Huckabee Sanders and (Sen.) John Boozman and (Sen) Tom Cotton," she said. "Mostly, I got the same letter back, thanking me for writing."
Boozman, she said, replied that it was not his area of responsibility. Cotton wrote back only after several letters. Sanders, she said, has largely ignored her.
The state office handling Landri's paperwork has lost or misplaced her four-inch binder of medical records more than once. Her place in line moves up and down, and nobody can tell her why, because the office is understaffed. Sometimes no one answers the phone.
What she is asking for is not complicated:
"I just want to talk to the governor, one on one," she said. "Not a photo-op, just a conversation on what her plan is. What is the plan for these thousands of individuals on this list? I just want to know where this is going and what to expect. So far, I have not gotten those answers."
Asked what the waiver would mean if Landri ever got in, she listed a pool membership — Landri has her best range of motion in water — a lift system she can actually operate, and adaptive tools around the house. Then her voice shook.
"And I'd like for her to learn to drive. I just want her to be able to do things."
The Arkansas Times sent questions about the CES program to the governor's office by email. They got no response.
Nothing happens until January 2027
Hutchinson fixed this in a scheduled session. Arkansas's next regular session does not start until January 2027. Parents have been pushing publicly for Sanders to call a special session before then. She has not called one for the waitlist. She did call one this spring: on April 30 she summoned the legislature into extraordinary session to cut the top individual income tax rate to 3.7% and the corporate rate to 4.1%.
That is a decision, not a delay. And it is consistent with how Sanders has treated health coverage in Arkansas generally: she cheered the budget bill that ended the state's Medicaid expansion, leaving about 200,000 Arkansans hanging.
What it adds up to
A Republican governor of Arkansas spent more than $37 million in 2021 to clear a waitlist of 3,200 disabled people off the CES waiver. Under Sarah Sanders it has grown back past 2,400, a Little Rock lawmaker puts the cost of clearing it at $35 to $50 million with the state paying about 30%, and the state is touting a $655 million surplus. Sanders has not called the special session parents are asking for, so nothing can happen before January 2027 — though she did call one in the spring to cut income taxes. Her voucher program for private school tuition costs more than $367 million this year. Landri Hellinga is 15, has had more than 40 surgeries, and was number 636 in line the last time her mother checked.
Source
Arkansas Times, Aid program for disabled Arkansans that took priority for Hutchinson languishes under Sanders, by Byron Tate, September 8, 2026. Photo: Laura Hellinga, via Arkansas Times.
