Landlord/Tenant laws will vary by state. I did a google search for "Wisconsin landlord/tenant" and one of the first five links was this:
http://wis-law.com/tenant.html
You can find a lot of the information you want there. The things you can't find there you should speak to a Wisconsin attorney about.
I was actually going to give you a few suggestions specific to your post, but then I remembered that it only took me 3 minutes to look up and review the link I posted above which answers probably half of your questions. Go ahead and read that and you may learn something. Furthermore, you should contact legal aid or a similar agency in Wisconsin for free advice. Unlike a lot of responses you will get on ATOT, they actually know what they're talking about AND know the local laws.
http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Wisconsin_Legal_Services_Agencies
One thing I will point out to you: You're NOT going to get your deposit money back BEFORE you leave if you get it back at all. IMO you should get it back, and if you don't, you may have to start a (small claims) lawsuit against the landlord...but either way you wouldn't get it until after you left. Point being? If you're relying on that money for a deposit and 1st month, its time to rethink your strategy.