ABA waitlist management is the discipline of keeping families engaged, informed, and ready to start services across a wait period that often exceeds three months. The two failure modes are silent attrition (families giving up and going to a competitor) and onboarding friction (families who waited but bounce at activation).
Effective waitlist management combines a structured email sequence (status updates, educational content, expectation setting), periodic personal check-ins from the intake coordinator, and a fast-path activation flow when capacity opens.