This document is a report evaluating the Community Options Program (COP) operated in Wisconsin in 1982 and 1983. The report states that the program is designed to reduce the institutionalization of disabled persons by supporting these persons in the community, thereby decreasing expenditures for long term support and slowing the demand for nursing home beds. The document reports that the data on the influence of the COP on Medicaid-funded admissions to nursing homes are inconclusive. Elderly and nonelderly disabled persons in the program are compared and the COP clients' characteristics are profiled in light of their risk of institutionalization. An extensive segment of the document compares the costs of COP programs versus nursing home care, examining such factors as Medicaid eligibility, client turnover, Medicaid costs for community care, and Medicaid costs for nursing home care. Eighty data tables and seven figures are given to document this analysis. The report concludes that Community Option Programs do not replace or diminish private support to the disabled by friends and family. Appendices include data collection instruments, county statistics, specific comparison groups, and services available in Wisconsin. (ABL)