This paper gives a brief historical account of Wisconsin's Cooperative Educational Service Agencies (CESA's) and the need for changes, outlines some of the recommendations of a CESA fact-finding task force, and describes the current transition period. The first section describes the background and legislative history of the CESA, followed by an account of its development and setbacks since its origin in 1965. In October 1981, a 22-member task force undertook a year-long study of CESA's, resulting in 22 recommendations. In the second section, 10 of these recommendations are summarized, illustrating the variety of issues covered and rationales used. The third section describes the steps taken in the current transition from 19 CESA's to 12: determining new boundaries; establishing boards of control, policies, and procedures; selecting and orienting CESA administrators; transfer of assets and liabilities to new CESA's; plans for the metro unit; evaluation of CESA's; and school district boundary appeal boards. The fourth section discusses selected issues: revised goals, revised funding, new leadership, and accountability lines. The final section addresses implications for the future. (TE)