Social Security benefits will see a 2.8% increase in payments next year, the Social Security Administration said Friday. (Photo illustration by iStock/Getty Images Plus)
The 75 million Americans who receive Social Security benefits will see a 2.8% increase in payments next year, the Social Security Administration said Friday.
The adjustment is lower than the average over the past decade, but higher than last year’s. The average adjustment for the past 10 years is 3.1%, including a 2.5% increase last year. On average, beneficiaries’ monthly payments will rise by about $56, the SSA said.
Beneficiaries include people who receive Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance, as well as Supplemental Security Income.
“Social Security is a promise kept, and the annual cost-of-living adjustment is one way we are working to make sure benefits reflect today’s economic realities and continue to provide a foundation of security,” Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano said in a statement. “The cost-of-living adjustment is a vital part of how Social Security delivers on its mission.”
The tax rate for Social Security and Medicare will remain steady at 7.65% for employees and 15.3% for self-employed workers.
Images depicting Dodge County deputies transporting ICE detainees to Broadview, Illinois. (Photo courtesy of Unraveled)
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin has been sending deputies into Illinois to transport migrants to and from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in suburban Chicago at the center of the Trump administration’s clash with Illinois officials and activists.
For more than two decades, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has had a contract with the U.S. Marshal’s Service to hold federal detainees in the county jail. As part of that contract, which budget documents show provided the county with more than $6 million last year, the sheriff’s office regularly holds migrant detainees for ICE and transports federal detainees of all sorts.
“We house federal inmates/detainees as part of our agreement with the U.S. Marshal Service. We also transport to and from various facilities as part of our agreement. The federal government reimburses us for transportation. ICE is a rider on the agreement,” Sheriff Dale Schmidt told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email. “It is a simple, non-political arrangement we have had for 20+ years under all previous administrations during this contract (Including President Obama and President Biden).”
But critics say that this year the arrangement has become more political because of President Donald Trump’s increased immigration enforcement and ICE’s escalation of tactics in both its efforts to capture people without legal documentation, and its confrontations with protesters.
“For two decades or more, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has obtained a steady stream of revenue from ICE for transporting and jailing persons in immigration detention,” Tim Muth, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin said in an emailed statement. “That practice continues. We regret that the sheriff declines to terminate his contract with ICE, a rogue federal agency that is increasingly violating the rights of persons it seizes from our communities, racially profiling and separating families, and landing some of them in the jail which the sheriff operates.”
Advocates and attorneys for immigrants say that ICE has been frequently moving detainees between detention centers as part of a “shell game” in an effort to keep them hidden from their lawyers and family.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” said immigration attorney Marc Christopher, describing unprecedented difficulties he’s experienced attempting to locate and represent clients under the second Trump administration. Under previous administrations, Christopher said, clients were relatively easy to locate and communicate with, and the attorney felt he had a good relationship with staff at facilities like the Dodge County Jail.
Now in nearly 70% of cases, Christopher told the Wisconsin Examiner, clients are “being shipped off to different facilities in many different locations…I’ve had clients sent to Indiana, Louisiana, Texas, Ohio, all different locations.”
In one case, coordinating a telephone conference with a client who’d been detained in a private out-of-state facility required a three day set-up process for a video call with poor audio quality that lasted just 20 minutes, Christopher said.
Another change he’s seen is that detainees in Wisconsin who are taken to Dodge County are given court dates in Chicago.
“I had it where I’ve traveled to Dodge County after checking to see if my client’s there, only to drive all the way there to find out that that morning they were moved to a different facility,” said Christopher.
The Broadview ICE detention center in a suburb of Chicago has drawn regular protests for months. The presence of Dodge County Sheriff’s deputies at the Broadview facility were first reported by the independent media outlet Unraveled.
Images depicting Dodge County deputies transporting ICE detainees to Broadview, Illinois. (Photo courtesy of Unraveled)
The federal response to those protests has frequently escalated into violence and those escalations have been used as justification for Trump’s attempt to deploy troops from the Texas National Guard to the Chicago area.
Illinois state laws restrict ICE cooperation with local law enforcement and prevent the long term detention of migrants in Illinois. Because of that prohibition, ICE has moved detainees from Illinois to facilities in nearby Indiana and Wisconsin.
Schmidt did not respond to questions from the Wisconsin Examiner about how frequently his deputies have driven detainees in and out of Broadview under Trump, but the department’s 2024 annual report shows sheriff’s office personnel made 302 trips at the request of ICE last year.
Dodge County is reimbursed for its trips to Illinois. The journey from Juneau to Broadview is a five-hour round trip. State Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove), whose district covers part of Dodge County, says expending county resources to help ICE doesn’t keep the community safe and amounts to participating in the administration’s “cruelty.”
“Local law enforcement does not have to take on federal immigration enforcement duties. When they do, it risks discouraging victims and witnesses from coming forward — making all of us less safe,” Ratcliff said in a statement. “Our local resources should not be diverted from protecting our local communities. Further, there are serious concerns about inhumane conditions at ICE detention centers. There are also troubling political shell games being played in which detainees are transferred from facility to facility — sometimes across state lines — making it difficult for attorneys and families to locate them or ensure they receive due process. That is not justice; that is cruelty disguised as policy and it’s unconstitutional. Wisconsin’s strength lies in our welcoming communities and our commitment to fairness, dignity, and safety for all. I urge our local leaders to prioritize community trust, transparency, and compassion in every action they take.”
“You used to be able to call Dodge, set something up for the next day, spend two-three hours talking,” Christopher said. “Now I have to fight and find out where they are, try to schedule a time to speak with them. And the family is sitting on pins and needles. They have no idea where their loved one is. They have no idea what’s going on. I’m spending all my time not trying to analyze their case, but simply to find out where they are and try to arrange a time to chat with them. It’s horrible.””
Under the current administration, critics say, transporting ICE detainees is direct participation in an effort to deny due process and avoid transparency.
“I think there’s a concerning pattern of more local law enforcement being brought in to play an immigration enforcement role as part of the machinery of mass deportations,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera. Local departments are paid to transport immigrants for ICE, “as in Dodge most recently, in Brown County as well and Sauk,” she said, and also receive significant federal money for sharing information on immigrants in their custody through 287g agreements.
Neumann-Ortiz pointed to the 287g agreement sought by the Palmyra Police Department, which is still pending. The 287g program involves local law enforcement agreeing to aid ICE in arresting undocumented migrants or holding them in jail until ICE can pick them up.
“There’s real concern about it,” said Neumann-Ortiz. “They’re really trading off public safety and building trust in a diverse community to take this money. That is particularly alarming when you see what’s happening with ICE, and Customs, and Border Patrol and how they’re operating…They are operating as a militarized operation with masks, with guns, and they are profiling people and physically assaulting people violently, and really trampling over people’s due process rights.”
“Under that threat which is terrorizing communities,” she added, “why in the world would local law enforcement want to partner with that?”
This article has been edited to correct the name of attorney Marc Christopher.
A September 2025 view of Drumgoon Dairy, which Dorothy and Rodney Elliott opened in 2006 near Lake Norden, South Dakota. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
LAKE NORDEN — The names on the list included some of Dorothy Elliott’s best employees: hardworking, reliable, honest.
Most had been working at Drumgoon Dairy for years. Some worked there for nearly two decades, playing a role in the operation’s expansion and success.
But after an audit of the dairy at the end of May by the federal Department of Homeland Security, 38 of those employees are gone.
The department said they each had inaccurate, outdated or incomplete proof of U.S. citizenship or permission to work in the country.
Co-owner Dorothy Elliott is pictured at Drumgoon Dairy near Lake Norden, South Dakota, on Sept. 17, 2025. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Elliott co-owns the farm near Lake Norden, 5 miles from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s eastern South Dakota home. Elliott asked the affected employees for updated documentation but ultimately had to fire those who weren’t able to adequately resolve the problems with their documents. One person returned home because his visa was expiring, and another quit.
The audit decimated Elliott’s workforce, once more than 50 employees, dropping it to just 16.
Audits at dairy farms under the Trump administration’s escalated immigration enforcement efforts have “created unrest” among workers and owners, Elliott said. It’s made for a tough summer in an industry that was flourishing after decades of support from state government.
Elliott’s remaining employees have been working without breaks, she said. Without a pathway or plan to create a sustainable workforce in agriculture and by “removing everyone working in it,” she worries some agricultural operations will go out of business. She hopes Drumgoon isn’t one of them.
“Basically, we’ve turned off the tap, but we’ve done nothing to create a solution as to how we find employees for the dairy industry,” she said.
Never previously audited
Elliott is required to file I-9 forms with documentation proving her workers’ identity and eligibility to work in the U.S. It puts employers in a difficult position, said Scott VanderWal, president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau, because applicants may present fraudulent documents an employer doesn’t catch. Yet employers could also be sued for mistakenly rejecting valid documents.
“If employers are presented with documentation that looks real and legitimate, they’re obligated to accept it,” VanderWal said. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offers similar guidance, saying employers must accept documentation if it “reasonably appears to be genuine.”
Elliott could use the federal government’s web-based system, E-Verify, that allows employers to confirm their employees’ eligibility to work in the country. But E-Verify is not mandated for new hires in South Dakota, and Elliott said she doesn’t use it because of “unreliable results.” Organizations ranging from the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute to the American Civil Liberties Union have opposed the use of E-Verify, citing reasons including errors that cost people jobs because the system wrongly flagged them.
So Elliott evaluates applicants’ documents herself. If their IDs are out of date or if they have a visa and are applying from another farm without returning home, she passes on hiring them. She’s turned people away a dozen times over the years, she said.
Drumgoon was never audited before. In her past dealings with the Department of Homeland Security during nearly two decades of running the dairy, Elliott said, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would merely tell her they were searching for a person and ask for a notification if the person applied for a job.
This time was different. After an audit, employers are required to terminate unauthorized workers who can’t prove their employability, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. Audits — which are distinct from raids or other immigration enforcement operations — are meant to ensure businesses comply with federal employment laws.
Elliott does not know where her 38 former employees went. They could be working at other dairies in the U.S. They could have left the country. They could be anywhere.
Because the dairy is near a farm owned by Noem, the former governor of South Dakota, and because Noem was in the state during the month of the audit to receive an honorary degree, South Dakota Searchlight asked the Department of Homeland Security if Noem had a direct role in the audit. The department didn’t respond to the question.
Elliott declined to talk about Noem, saying she recognizes that federal immigration authorities “have a job to do.”
South Dakota Farmers Union President Doug Sombke called federal dairy audits “stupid,” because they needlessly displace workers.
“Why the heck can’t we continue to use them there as an intern or apprentice or whatever you want to call it and make it legal? Why is it so important we grab them and call them a criminal? No one wants those jobs,” Sombke said. “I don’t understand why you’d cripple or cause problems for a labor shortage when all you have to do is get them legalized.”
Immigrants hiring immigrants
Elliott’s connection to immigrants isn’t limited to her employees. She was born in the United States but married her husband, Rodney, in Northern Ireland, where they had their children.
Eliott worked in health care and her husband operated their 140-cow dairy farm in Northern Ireland when a newspaper ad, “Wanted: Dairy farmers in South Dakota,” caught their attention. Moving to America meant fewer regulations, cheaper land, cheaper feed and the ability to grow their business, she said.
Dorothy Elliott interacts with cows at Drumgoon Dairy near Lake Norden on Sept. 17, 2025. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
The couple used the EB-5 investment-for-visa program to secure backers for their operation, opened the dairy in 2006, paid off the investors within a few years and have been expanding ever since. They started with about 1,500 cows in 2006 and have grown to 6,500.
Elliott’s children got their citizenship shortly after moving to the U.S., and her husband became a citizen about eight years after they moved. That experience helps her empathize with her workers, many of whom are Hispanic. She said everything they’re doing is to support their families back home, even though many aren’t able to see their families for years at a time.
“All they’re guilty of is working and doing a job that isn’t currently being filled by an American,” Elliott said.
Taneeza Islam advocates for immigrants as executive director of South Dakota Voices for Peace. She’s spoken to immigrant workers in other industries who were scared and confused after being terminated due to stricter immigration enforcement.
“We have two very separate worlds right now: the community that’s impacted and worried about getting detained and deported, and the community that doesn’t know this is happening here,” Islam said.
State recruited dairies
The Elliotts are among many new South Dakotans who’ve helped the dairy industry boom in the last two decades. Then-governor and now-U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican, focused on supporting the industry in the early 2000s, which included efforts to recruit farmers from overseas.
“We’ve achieved our goals we set out for ourselves: build a dairy, milk cows and grow the dairy industry in South Dakota,” Elliott said. “Is it a sustainable goal if there’s nobody to work on these dairies? No. So all the time, money, effort, investment and hard work that has gone into it will be null and void if there isn’t a workforce.”
A torn soccer goal stands in front of the Drumgoon Dairy office and near tractors on the operation on Sept. 17, 2025 near Lake Norden. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Sombke, the state Farmers Union president, said the state’s investment in dairy “has been a good thing,” but he isn’t surprised by the recent disruption in the industry.
South Dakota Searchlight requested the number of audits conducted in South Dakota so far in 2025, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the department “does not disclose specific data on audits or enforcement actions by state or industry.”
Sombke said dairy audits are “way up” in the state compared to last year. He said nobody should be surprised to find workers at dairies without permission to be in the country.
“What do you expect? The unemployment rate is less than 2% in the state,” Sombke said. “You’re going to be looking for labor anywhere you can find it.”
Aftermath of an audit
Drumgoon Dairy’s remaining employees have made mistakes because of the long hours they’ve had to cover — like reversing a payloader into a manure pond — or because they’re new to working on the farm.
“Some of them only get one or two days off in a 15-day period,” Elliott said. “But what else do you do? Do you just let cows starve or calves die because there’s no one there to take care of them?”
Some nearby farms sent workers to help at Drumgoon for a couple of days at a time this summer after the audit. Elliott and her husband have spent over $110,000 on recruiters and transportation so far to hire 22 visa workers from Mexico. But the visas come with restrictions on the types of jobs workers can do, so Elliott hired a dozen or so new employees locally, and still wants to hire another 10 to 15 people to replace terminated staff.
Elliott is struggling to find local applicants, which she is required by law to attempt before hiring visa workers.
“If raising wages even more will bring Americans to work on the farm, we can try it,” Elliott said, “but there is a limit to how high you can raise wages when you don’t get to set the price of milk. Can I afford to pay a milker $25 an hour? At some point, you’d produce milk for more than you’re receiving for it.”
Trump could lead immigration reforms, Thune says
After a panel discussion at the annual Dakotafest agricultural trade show in Mitchell in August, U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, told South Dakota Searchlight that he believes President Donald Trump is interested in legal immigration and work visa reforms.
South Dakota Republican congressional delegates, from left, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Sen. Mike Rounds and Rep. Dusty Johnson speak at Dakotafest in Mitchell, South Dakota, on Aug. 20, 2025. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
“If we can find some willing partners in the Democrats, some sort of an immigration policy or a piece of legislation that we could pass is not outside the realm of possibility,” Thune said. “Ultimately, that’s the best long-term solution, and I’ve heard him talk about it.”
Sen. Rounds told Searchlight that as more people are deported and industries are disrupted, “we will get enough support from the administration to begin looking at a legal system again.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, who is running for South Dakota governor next year, said some visa programs should be modified to meet the needs of the dairy industry. Some visas are seasonal programs that require participants to return home after a few months. The programs don’t fit the needs of dairy operations that require workers year-round.
Elliott has broached the issue for years to Thune, Johnson, Rounds and other federal officials.
“All I hear is, ‘I’ll mention that. We’ll talk about that.’ But nothing,” Elliott said. “What we hear is there is absolutely no passion for any kind of change to the status quo.”
Farmers suggest solutions
Lynn Boadwine of Boadwine Farms in Baltic has “run out of gas” trying to advocate for visa and immigration policy changes to support the dairy industry. But he was heartened to hear the congressional delegates’ comments.
“There’s rhetoric, but are you really working on it?” Boadwine said. “I hope they are, because the clock is really ticking on all of these issues and we’re going to start to run out of people.”
Lynn Boadwine surveys the Boadwine Farms operation near Baltic, South Dakota, which is an over 4,300-head dairy operation featuring a milking parlor, freestall barns and a methane digestion system. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Boadwine shared immigration reform ideas with congressional offices but hasn’t heard back on the topic. His hope is to modernize and simplify the H-2A visa program for dairies. His proposal would remove the seasonality requirement and allow workers in the country without legal permission to transition to guest-worker status. Long-term guest workers would have a path toward permanent residency by proving they are law-abiding, hardworking employees.
VanderWal, with the South Dakota Farm Bureau, said he met this spring with Noem in Washington, D.C., in his capacity as vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. He urged Noem and the Trump administration to back off on audits in the agricultural industry in hopes that Congress would “fix the system.”
“We wanted to impress upon the administration that if they started removing illegal workers up and down the food chain, from production to processing to transportation to grocery stores to restaurants, we’d see a disaster worse than the pandemic,” VanderWal said.
The administration has since “backed off ag,” VanderWal said, but the consequences linger for producers like the Elliotts and their employees. He said that unless President Trump “gets real forceful and goes after it,” he doesn’t expect Congress to undertake legal immigration reforms.
Economic consequence predicted
At Drumgoon Dairy, Elliott has tried automating aspects of her operation. She and her husband put in 20 robots a few years ago with the expectation they could hire students from nearby Lake Area Technical College’s robotics program to maintain them.
A robotic milking system milks a cow at Drumgoon Dairy near Lake Norden on Sept. 17, 2025. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
They posted robotics maintenance positions to attract graduates, but the response was deflating.
“To date, no one,” Elliott said.
She plans to remove the robots because the cost of running and servicing them is too expensive. So far, they’ve sold three. If the cost of technology continues to be prohibitive or there aren’t reforms to workforce visa or immigration programs, she said, “I wonder how we will become a sustainable industry.”
Elliott fears there will be consequences and higher prices for milk and other consumer dairy products without action at the federal level. Boadwine agreed.
“If we keep down this road we’ll have no choice but to import more food,” Boadwine said, “and the reason we’d import more is because it’s gotten so much more expensive here because we crippled ourselves.”
This story was originally produced by South Dakota Searchlight, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Marchers organized by Voces de la Frontera demanded immigration reform from the federal government. (Photo | Joe Brusky)
A family friend who lives in Mexico flew into Chicago last week to visit his college-aged son. We exchanged messages about getting together. Could the two of them come up to Madison, I asked. “The truth is with everything that’s been happening in Chicago, and the arbitrary arrests, we almost haven’t gone out at all these last three days,” my friend wrote back. “This stuff with ICE, it’s unbelievable,” he added. “But there it is. It’s happening.”
Sadly, he felt safer staying in his son’s apartment and then dashing to the airport Saturday to fly back to Mexico than driving across the border to visit us in Wisconsin.
The same day we exchanged messages, an ICE raid on the northeast side of Madison, not far from my home, swept up seven people. Madison police didn’t even know about the ICE raid until it was over, according to chief John Patterson.
So far, Wisconsin has not been targeted for the massive escalation in immigration raids taking place in neighboring states. But the Thursday morning arrests in Madison and a Sept. 25 sweep of dairy farm workers in Manitowoc mark a sudden shift.
Darryl Morin of the nonprofit Forward Latino addressed the Madison and Manitowoc raids at a Friday press conference in Milwaukee. “While other states such as California and Illinois have borne the brunt of these new immigration enforcement actions,” he said, “I fear we are turning the page and entering a new chapter, a new sad chapter, in immigration enforcement right here in our great state.”
“What we’re seeing in Chicago is now starting to hit closer to home,” agreed Jennifer Maldonado, an immigrants’ rights advocate in Manitowoc, who joined the press conference by video link. She described fielding calls from terrified family members after the crackdown in her area. “Many are people asking, ‘Should I send my children to school? Should I go to work?’” she said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security claims it disrupted an international sex and drug trafficking ring when it grabbed the 24 Manitowoc farm workers at a Walmart parking lot and in a door-to-door operation targeting workers’ homes.
But this is the same Department of Homeland Security that insisted a Mexican-born Milwaukee resident wrote a letter threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump — even after the person who actually wrote the letter, Demetric Scott, admitted that he was the real author and that he was trying to frame the other man to keep him from testifying against Scott at trial. Long after that confession a statement from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem celebrating the detention of “this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump” remained on the DHS website, uncorrected, connecting the wrong person to an image of the letter written by Scott.
Dubious hype about immigrant workers, portraying them as dangerous, violent criminals, is the now-familiar backdrop to a crackdown that does not, in fact, have anything to do with fighting crime. Fewer than half of the people ICE has arrested under Trump are convicted criminals. Of those, only 7% have been convicted of violent crimes and only 5% of drug-related crimes, Tim Henderson of Stateline reports.
In Manitowoc, “This [criminal network] narrative was pushed without any basis to try to paint a negative image of an entire community,” Christine Neumann-Ortiz of Voces de la Frontera said during the Friday press conference. Of the 24 people arrested, ICE identified one person who faced serious criminal charges. But, as Henry Redman reported, that person was not among those rounded up and was already sitting in custody during the Sept. 25 raid.
Neumann-Ortiz described seeing disturbing videos documenting ICE actions — agents barging into a home “as if this were some kind of cartel, when it’s a working class family” and of a father who was grabbed by ICE while taking out the garbage. “It’s disturbing. It’s very, very disturbing,” she said.
One bright spot, she said, has been the community response to “the tragedy that we’re witnessing around the U.S. and here in Wisconsin as well.” She praised Wisconsinites’ sense of “urgency to build community — to support each other.”
Voces and other groups have been training community members across the state, with Know Your Rights seminars and instruction on how to effectively document ICE activity without escalating a dangerous situation. They’ve been lobbying local communities to reject 287(g) ICE cooperation agreements along with the cash incentives the federal government is offering local law enforcement in exchange for rounding up immigrants — a system Neumann Ortiz described as allowing local police to “essentially function like bounty hunters.” And they’ve been trying to help immigrants prepare for the worst, connecting them with immigration attorneys and helping them make contingency plans by naming caretakers for their property and guardians for their children in case they are deported. Forward Latino is sharing helpful information in a “family separation toolkit.”
Advocates, Neumann-Ortiz said, are getting good at “combatting lies,” connecting immigrants with legal support, and moving fast.
Several Manitowoc workers have already been deported, she said, and another was moved to detention outside of Wisconsin, where it’s hard for his family members and his lawyers to be in touch with him.
Morin said he was on the phone with a Wisconsin resident who had been detained by ICE and he could hear an agent yelling in the background that the man had to sign a self-deportation order. Morin was also yelling, telling the man not to sign, and that they had to let him see a lawyer. “That’s happening on a daily basis,” Morin said. “The violation of constitutional rights is happening right now on a daily basis.”
Against a gale of misinformation, immigrants’ advocates are fighting to get out the truth.
“You can fight your deportation. But people need to know that and not be tricked or conned into signing deportation orders,” Neumann Ortiz said.
“It’s not a crime to be undocumented in the US. It’s a civil violation,” Morino added.
Farmers, alarmed at the prospect of losing the immigrant workers who perform 70% of the labor on Wisconsin dairy farms, have been communicating with each other and with immigrants rights groups, Neumann-Ortiz said, trying to help their employees protect themselves.
“We need to scale it up even more, so that people are not tricked into giving up their rights,” she said.
The federal immigration crackdown, and the way it has seeped into local communities, does nothing to improve public safety. We are all safer if immigrants are confident enough to call 911 to report crime and abuse “or if their neighbor’s house is on fire,” as Morin put it.
Despite the dire news, advocates see progress in community engagement and responsiveness.
“In the early days we were getting flooded with false reports,” Morin said. “People wanted to spread fear.” Now, through training and preparation, advocacy groups have created a reliable channel for information about ICE raids and are able to screen out unsubstantiated rumors.
And some communities that have been tempted to accept federal dollars and cooperate with ICE have begun to think twice.
In Palmyra, where the local police department signed an agreement with ICE, community pushback has slowed down implementation of the agreement. In Walworth County, Neumann-Ortiz said, public pressure helped persuade the sheriff to reject a 287(g) agreement and Ozaukee County rolled back an agreement to accept federal money in exchange for detaining immigrants arrested by ICE.
The massive increase in funding for ICE — and the incentives it offers local law enforcement agencies to pursue immigrants in their communities — is funded through the same “Big Beautiful Bill Act” that slashes health care, food assistance and education funding. “We’re taking away food from hungry kids, medical care, money from schools, to do what?” Neumann-Ortiz said, referring to the push to terrorize immigrants. “That does not promote public safety.”
Hundreds of thousands of students are on new routes to and from school this month.
While some school districts may still be tracking these numbers manually, many
transportation departments are implementing new technology to take the guesswork out of student ridership.
Luisa Brown is wearing two hats at Zillah School District in Washington, that of an accounts payable supervisor and transportation manager. When she started in the latter role in March 2020, and without a long background in student transportation, she leaned heavily on technology for all the assistance she could get.
Brown said that despite working at a smaller school district that transports approximately 662 students daily, she realized that tracking routing via spreadsheets was not an ideal solution. That’s when she first started using the Tyler Technologies routing software, implemented in December 2020. The student ridership verification
technology via RFID student cards was added in 2023.
A phased approach to implementing new technology was necessary from a budgetary standpoint, she noted, which also was essential for ensuring the technology is utilized correctly and benefitting the student transportation staff.
Tim Ammon, a consultant in the student transportation industry since 2001, said the “Holy Grail” of this kind of technology is the amount of intervention required.
Ammon explained that in his experience as a consultant and working in the business management of school bus technology (he recently served as VP and GM of passenger services for Zonar Systems and remains a strategic advisor), he sees two main uses of student ridership verification.
“The first is, in the event that something goes wrong, we can track back to where the kid got on and off the bus and at least have a starting point. So, emergency district management applications.”
In Brown’s case, integration was smooth, since she said she was already using Tyler’s routing software and Tyler Drive to connect with the RFID cards. But in Colorado, Denver Public Schools (DPS) ran into challenges as transportation prepared to roll out student ridership technology last month for the first time.
“Samsara has been a very willing and helpful partner in making sure all the components of our project roll-out smoothly and are operational internally,” said Tyler Maybee, director of operations for Denver’s transportation services, who said the district is creating an in-house student ridership technology solution with the GPS provider alongside a smaller technology company.
“We have another vendor that is more of a barrier than opportunistic and has prevented our innovation from raising the bar within their own technology. It has forced us to find many workarounds and begin to search for a better partner that has a similar vision to fully integrate transportation technology.”
With about 5,000 to 7,000 students being transported daily across Denver, Maybee said time will tell the success of the new project.
“But all signs point to a more knowledgeable and connected DPS community and a reduction in the number of calls our dispatchers receive regarding missing students and requests for bus information,” he said.
Keeping Data Secure
On the topic of data security for this type of technology, Ammon noted it’s crucial to have “procedural aspects in place to make sure that you know that information is
protected.” Easier said than done as it’s a process that can have an “enormous number of tentacles into it,” he added.
An Education Week article found that education was the fourth-most targeted sector during the first half of 2025, based on data collected by Comparitech.
“Schools are tempting targets for hackers because they have tons of sensitive data and have become more reliant than ever on digital tools,” the article stated. Amy McLaughlin, the project director for the Consortium for School Networking’s (CoSn) cybersecurity initiatives, was quoted saying that districts are aware of the security concerns but face challenges of funding and staff to ensure that data and cybersecurity issues are adequately addressed.
Brown said she keeps physical security on a tight lockdown as each tablet has a unique PIN that only she and the individual driver has access to.
Bill Westerman, Tyler’s director of integration solutions, confirmed that all Tyler Drive tablets are encrypted and that districts can choose how registration information is shown when student data is being inputted.
Maybee said the Denver IT team has a series of regulations in place to prevent student data from falling into the wrong hands and that vendors are required to sign a data privacy agreement “to make sure their systems meet the same level of security our network has to maintain adequate protections,” he continued. “We limited the amount of personal identifiable information on the ID virtual and physical ID cards to make sure even if a card was misplaced and then subsequently found that a student’s information is not at risk. This also includes encrypting the QR code so that a scan must be tied to our system to make any sense out of the resulting scan data.”
Edulog’s Lam-Nyugen Bull, who serves as the company’s chief experience officer, said the software company maintains SOC 2, Type 2 compliance and that “all data is encrypted at rest and in transit and we regularly undergo third-party penetration testing and evaluation of our overall security posture.”
As a certified risk manager, Ammon encouraged student transportation professionals to find resources or individuals that can assist with being able to “talk to your vendor intelligently about their data security procedures.”
Especially when integrating different vendors’ technology options into one transportation operation, he said that collaboration is crucial with increased risk of
malicious cybersecurity attacks.
“From a vendor perspective, it’s very likely that each district will have its own flavor of how it wants to deal with this, and so like as a vendor, I should know that,
right? Because I should be responding to what your requirements are as a customer, right? To assume that all 16,000 school districts in the country want exactly the same response in the event of it is, I think, a fallacy,” Ammon said. “There should be some collaboration between the district and the vendor in terms of, here’s our expectations around this, here’s the universe of what’s possible. How do we want to narrow that universe so that it fits whatever we’re doing?”
Evolving Technology
RFID cards, QR codes, barcodes and manual checklists are all ways that student ridership can be documented. Most industry experts agree that RFID cards can help keep tabs on the students on the bus without exposing their information, but what are the future possibilities when it comes to this technology?
Ammon noted that video camera facial recognition or biometric scans are trickier territory to navigate as those types of technology naturally raise a high level of privacy concerns with parents.
“There is no technology impediment today that would stop us from doing [options like biometric scanning],” said Zach Moren, Transfinder’s manager of sales enablement and engineering. “But schools need to consider a few things when looking at ridership solutions. What is the most cost effective? What is the most reliable to capture as close to 100 percent of riders as possible? And what technology can be easily adopted and utilized by bus drivers, students and the community? Based on those requirements I’m skeptical we will see a major change in technology anytime in the near future because RFID solves each of those challenges so effectively.”
Moren noted that Transfinder is developing a digital wallet card that students could access on their smartphones, “like they would a credit card or concert ticket,” which Moren said could address the issue of RFID cards being lost or damaged.
“As schools continue to prioritize student well-being, the evolution of ridership verification technology is set to move beyond isolated solutions and adopt a more holistic approach, intertwining safety and health measures with the core mission of ensuring every child’s secure passage to and from school,” said Edulog’s Nyugen-Bull
when discussing the future of this technology.
Brown noted that one Tyler software feature she found to be immensely helpful is the ability to run health reports to make sure drivers were aware of health information for the students on their routes, such as food allergies or other relevant factors such as anxiety. She said this information was historically kept in a folder or backpack on the bus, which was not the best way for drivers to quickly access the information and be aware of important student information or emergency contact details.
She also noted that Tyler is doing “an amazing job of making updates throughout the year, so that it’s not just a dead program and [it’s] improving every year,” she continued. “And I think they do an amazing job in getting the in-user’s input because they are creating something that they feel is going to work for everybody.
Because there [are] different circumstances in small districts versus large districts.”
Integration and collaboration continue to be important factor for companies and districts as they work together to keep student data secure and improve on the implementation of this technology to benefit not only the students but student transportation operational workings.
Editor’s Note: As reprinted from the September 2025 issue of School Transportation News.
Increasingly, the conversation about cybersecurity and data protection includes student transportation. STN addressed the subject of security in the September magazine issue, featuring articles that focused on video camera storage and security as well as data security and routing.
STN spoke with Jake McOmie, the CTO of Confluence Security, a systems integrator company that brings together products from various manufacturers — of cameras, recording devices, servers, networking equipment, and sensors — to create tailored security systems. These systems are designed to address both physical and cybersecurity needs with an emphasis on automation, identity management and analytics. The company, which works with government, school and commercial or enterprise customers, also provides software that unifies all components, enabling features like real-time alerts, video analytics and automated response to security events.
STN: Why is security and cybersecurity important for school districts and transportation departments right now?
McOmie: Security and cybersecurity aren’t new concerns, but in today’s connected world, they are more critical than ever. School districts are rapidly adopting technologies like IP cameras, GPS systems, Wi-Fi routers and student tracking software. These tools improve safety and efficiency, but each device added to the network also introduces potential vulnerabilities.
We call this security of security, a phrase borrowed from our trusted manufacturer partner of open-architecture security software platform, Genetec. The approach ensures a cybersecurity-first posture and it’s critical practice to understand your product choices are being systemically protected by design, not as an afterthought.
How concerned are you about the data security of your student transportation operations?
In the age of the Internet of Things (IoT), everything is interconnected. One unsecure device — whether a camera, HVAC sensor, or access control point — can act as the weak link that compromises the entire system. No matter how robust a network may be, its strength depends on every component being secure. That’s why it’s not enough to harden just the network. Districts must vet the products themselves, hold manufacturers accountable for cybersecurity practices and ensure every piece of technology is built with a “security-first” mindset.
Trust is earned, not assumed. Cybersecurity must be woven into procurement, deployment and management. When one compromised camera or device can become an open door, due diligence isn’t optional. It’s essential.
STN: How can transportation departments ensure their data is protected? What steps should they be taking?
Jake McOmie, CTO of Confluence Security
McOmie: Transportation departments manage highly sensitive data, including student info, vehicle locations, incident videos and operational logs. To protect this data, a comprehensive approach during the initial planning will ensure this sensitive data is not jeopardized from unauthorized access. We can talk about the various aspects end users should keep forefront during the planning phase
Vet manufacturers and integrators. Work only with vendors that prioritize cybersecurity and provide transparent security documentation. Vendors who operate under zero-trust security policies and demand nothing less of their technology partners, should be asked early in the process. It’s a pass or fail question and should be enforced without hesitation.
Network segmentation. Isolate transportation and security systems from general-use school networks. Implementing advanced enterprise segmentation through Federations allows for controlled third-party access while maintaining autonomous and isolated authorization. Preferably utilize SaaS-hosted federation services so partner agencies, such as between schools and 911 centers, can connect their networks for data sharing without actually connecting to anything except the mediary cloud-hosted federation server. This method adds the benefit of permission-based access at the most minute level of data, like allowing access to a video feed only if three independent trigger points have verified.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA). Implement MFA at all levels — application logins, device portals and cloud platforms — to prevent account takeovers, especially when passwords are compromised.
Zero-trust approach. Assume no device or user is secure by default. Require verification and limit access by role. To maximize the effects of this policy, utilize automations and/or integrations to minimize the number of touchpoints when permission changes occur.
Encryption & updates. Use end-to-end encryption for data in motion and ensure firmware/software is routinely patched. If available, consider using SaaS products to perform all or some tasks, which can help protect systems from becoming outdated, even if only for a short duration.
Automation & alerting. Leverage tools that can automatically identify patterns or anomalies and escalate issues to the right personnel. Open-architecture systems allow for a larger variety of inputs, and with proper configuration, the sensors can be associated with other sensors or events to help qualify any given scenario before notifying personnel, and ensure the correct personnel are the ones being notified.
Protecting data is not just about prevention. It’s about building resilience and ensuring your team can respond quickly and effectively when an event occurs.
STN: How do you advise school districts to work with their technology department?
McOmie: One of the most common challenges we see is operational silos. Safety and security departments know the problems they need to solve, but IT departments hold the keys to implementation. Successful projects require early and continuous collaboration between these teams.
At Confluence Security, we provide end-to-end IP-based solutions, which means we’re deeply engaged with IT teams during planning, design and deployment. While safety leaders define the why, IT ensures the how is executed securely and effectively. The IT team is critical in achieving a successfully hardened system and should include these three key points:
Designing the network architecture to limit exposure.
Setting access controls and firewall rules.
Validating compliance with cybersecurity policies.
In today’s world, a zero-trust model is no longer optional. Every actor, internal or external, must be authenticated and authorized. School districts can support this by standardizing processes like MFA and ensuring IT reviews any new connected hardware or software before it’s deployed.
STN: Where do you see AI in security?
McOmie: AI is transforming security in two important ways — behind the scenes and in front of the user.
Behind the scenes, AI helps devices self-optimize — learning traffic patterns, refining video compression, or detecting performance anomalies before they become problems. This isn’t flashy, but it’s foundational to deliver faster, smarter, more reliable systems. The increased accuracy and performance is generally appreciated by end users but in today’s world of tech, the continual improvements are more or less expected.
Video Analytics engines, where video streams are computer-analyzed for specific behaviors, have used AI to improve their intelligence for more than a decade in some cases. In this method, software developers gain tremendous assistance with perfecting their analytical algorithms. In recent years, advancemnts have been made so far as to providing users with the ability to generate their own behavior definitions and AI creates the behavior analysis, delivering a DIY approach to video analytics.
From the user perspective, AI enhances how we interact with security systems. Instead of digging through hours of video, users can issue simple commands: “Show me anything unusual at Bus Lot A last night,” or “Search for students wearing red backpacks on buses 12 thru 15 last week.”
AI enables faster investigations and richer situational awareness. Rather than responding to noise (e.g., constant motion alerts), users receive qualified insights based on anomalies — events that stand out from the norm, like a student jumping out of an open bus window, or a person loitering in an atypical location.
But AI doesn’t stop at behavioral detection. It fundamentally supports action through automation. Systems can support users through if/then/else conditional logic decision making to promote accuracy in the users actions and response. Ultimately, the preferred outcome can be guided by digitized SOPs, allowing for a newbie operator to respond the same way a well-seasoned operator would.
These layers of logic ensure that when serious threats arise, escalation to law enforcement or 911 is intentional, not a false alarm, and delivers real actionable video, data and evidence.
Brendan Boyd and her transportation team at Holland Public Schools in Michigan turn to technology to get the job done. Photo by Tyler Technologies Cover Design by Kimber Horne
This month’s issue features the 2025 Technology Superusers, transportation directors that are embracing technology to not only address today’s needs at their operations but also the future. Read articles about efficient routing, data security, student ridership verification, how new technology is going to affect school bus maintenance and AI usage, safety risks during the back to school season and more.
Check out the magazine for more details on the upcoming Transporting Students with Disabilities and Special Needs (TSD) Conference, coming to Texas on Nov. 6-11.
Future-Focused Technology
Transportation directors this month discuss why they embrace technology that helps their district not only address today’s needs but also tomorrow’s.
Features
Routing for Results
Besides getting students from Point A to Point B, experts share that creating efficient routes saves time as well as money.
Under Surveillance
No one wants to experience a data breach. Student transporters and industry vendors share the secrets to keeping data secure and accessed properly.
Special Reports
Transforming Student Ridership
Regardless of how districts choose to implement student ridership technology— RFID card, QR code, or barcodes—many agree that streamlining the process can improve student safety.
Reading Time: 3minutesClick here to read highlights from the story
A judge’s order promises compensation to potentially thousands of disabled workers who were denied unemployment benefits under a state law struck down as discriminatory.
The invalidated law prevented recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) from collecting unemployment insurance.
Two classes of workers may be eligible for compensation: those denied unemployment benefits after Sept. 7, 2015, and before July 30, 2025, under the invalidated law, and those who had to repay benefits they received during that period for the same reason.
A federal judge has ordered Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development to compensate disabled workers who were denied unemployment benefits under a state law struck down as discriminatory.
U.S. District Judge William Conley’s order promises relief to potentially thousands of workers affected by a 2013 Wisconsin law that banned recipients of federal disability aid from collecting unemployment compensation when they lost work.
But many details remain to be ironed out, including how quickly the state will reprocess a decade’s worth of denied claims and whether any claims should draw priority.
“Some work needs to be done yet to put the order into practice, and counsels for the class are working diligently to get to that point,” said Paul Kinne, one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs.
Conley issued his order Wednesday following a hearing in which attorneys representing workers and the state discussed remedies for denials under a law that Conley ruled violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.
The overturned law prevented recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) — a monthly benefit for people with disabilities who have worked and paid into Social Security — from collecting unemployment insurance.
Republican lawmakers who approved the law claimed in 2013 that simultaneously collecting disability and unemployment benefits represented “double dipping.” But SSDI guidelines have long allowed and even encouraged recipients to supplement their income with part-time work, so long as their earnings remain below the threshold of “substantial gainful activity.”
Conley’s order covers two classes: workers who were denied unemployment benefits after Sept. 7, 2015, and before July 30, 2025, due to receiving SSDI, and those who had to repay benefits they received during that period for the same reason.
Not every class member is automatically entitled to benefits, Kinne said, and it may take time to determine eligibility. That’s due to a variety of factors, including potential difficulties in retrieving and analyzing past claims data — and locating the claimants. Still, Kinne expects an “overwhelming majority” of class members to be compensated.
In addition to receiving compensation for past denied claims, class members can file certifications for subsequent weeks in which they were told they were ineligible to file. These certifications should be submitted within 90 days of receiving notice from the department, the order said.
Eugene Wilson of Madison, Wis., receives federal Social Security Disability Insurance due to health issues that prevent him from working full time. After he lost his part-time job during the pandemic, the state denied his unemployment claim — citing a law that banned workers on disability from collecting unemployment insurance. He’s among workers who may be eligible to be compensated for past denials after a federal judge struck down the ban. He is shown with his dog Kane on Aug. 18, 2025. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
The order also states that claimants who were charged with unemployment fraud for not properly disclosing their SSDI status will be eligible for benefits they had to repay.
Class members who received federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) — aid for people who lost work during the COVID-19 pandemic but didn’t qualify for regular benefits — will not receive additional benefits for weeks in which they already received pandemic aid. PUA claims were paid at a higher rate than regular benefits, Conley’s order states, and federal law bans the collection of both.
The Department of Workforce Development will begin notifying affected workers by Oct. 1, the order said. The parties must still agree on the language for those notifications, which should inform affected workers about the outcome of the lawsuit and how to claim benefits to which they should be entitled.
“I was generally pleased with the order,” Kinne said. “There is now light at the end of the tunnel for disabled people to receive the unemployment compensation that they should have received in the past.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Reading Time: 5minutesClick here to read highlights from the story
A 2013 state law prevented recipients of federal Social Security Disability Insurance from collecting state unemployment insurance after losing part-time work.
A federal judge struck down the law, ruling that it had “disparate impact on disabled workers seeking unemployment insurance benefits.”
A hearing will explore whether and how the state should compensate workers for past denied claims.
Wisconsin has stopped blocking laid-off workers who receive disability benefits from collecting unemployment insurance — a response to court rulings that the practice violated federal discrimination law.
Now U.S. District Judge William Conley will consider whether and how the state should compensate workers for past denied claims. Attorneys representing the state and affected workers plan to propose remedies ahead of a hearing on Wednesday.
“In my eyes, we deserve all of it,” James Trandel, a longtime seasonal worker who faced denials for years, told Wisconsin Watch. “The law should have never been.”
The state law in question prevented recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) — a monthly benefit for people with disabilities who have worked and paid into Social Security — from collecting unemployment insurance after losing work.
Eugene Wilson is shown with his dog Kane on Aug. 18, 2025. He has tried for years to return to the workforce, but he rarely hears back after filing applications. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
In proposing the law under Gov. Scott Walker in 2013, Republican lawmakers claimed that simultaneously collecting disability and unemployment benefits represented “double dipping” that “may constitute fraud.”
That overlooked the fact that SSDI guidelines have long allowed and even encouraged people on disability to supplement their income with part-time work, so long as their earnings remain below the threshold of “substantial gainful activity.”
Eight SSDI recipients, with help from attorneys, challenged the law in 2021 by filing a class action lawsuit.
Conley ruled in July 2024 that the law violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, citing its “disparate impact on disabled workers seeking unemployment insurance benefits.”
But the ruling was not immediately implemented. The state’s Department of Workforce Development continued denying unemployment claims until Conley ordered it to stop in July.
DWD spokesperson Haley McCoy said the department did not oppose Conley’s order to stop enforcing the law he struck down, but she declined further comment due to pending litigation.
The lawsuit covers two classes: workers who were denied unemployment benefits after Sept. 7, 2015, due to receiving SSDI, and those who had to repay benefits they received for the same reason.
Conley will now consider who in those classes qualifies for benefits and how much they should get.
Both parties will exchange proposals before Wednesday’s oral arguments to address such questions, said Victor Forberger, an attorney for the plaintiffs who has helped many SSDI recipients pursue their claims. The plaintiffs want the state to fairly compensate those who faced discriminatory denials, he added.
The discussions may also involve how to address past claims for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) — aid for people who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic but didn’t qualify for regular benefits. The state initially denied PUA claims from workers on disability, but it reversed course in mid-2020 following Wisconsin Watch and WPR’s reporting on the denials.
“No one’s asking to get paid benefits twice. They’re just asking to get paid to be treated just like everyone else,” Forberger said.
Fighting for future generations
Trandel, who has used a wheelchair since a 1983 fall left his legs paralyzed, filed for unemployment for years during the off-seasons of his job as a gate chief for the Milwaukee Brewers, where he helps with tickets and security. He has since hit retirement age, now 67, allowing him to switch from SSDI to Social Security retirement benefits. The state allowed him to collect a couple of weeks of state unemployment pay for the first time this spring because he was no longer on SSDI.
Although Trandel managed to get by without the state fulfilling his past claims, he believes that compensating workers for past denials would offer a measure of justice.
But even if that doesn’t happen, he’s proud of what the lawsuit has accomplished so far.
“If I get nothing, that’s fine,” Trandel said. “At least the law’s changed so the future generations won’t have to go through what we went through the last 12 years.”
James Trandel, center, is seen at American Family Field with a group of baseball fans. Trandel works as a gate chief for the Milwaukee Brewers, helping with tickets and security. (Courtesy of James Trandel)
Judy Fintz, a seasonal worker and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, hopes that allowing SSDI recipients to collect unemployment like others will eliminate one of the many barriers they face in interacting with a long-outdated system that’s undergoing an overhaul.
Fintz spends the school year cleaning tables, windows and soda machines part time at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse dining hall. She applied for unemployment during the off months from school, when she relies on SSDI while her bills pile up. That experience was far from smooth, even outside of the denials. She faced the difficulties of having to file claims by phone rather than online due to a severe learning disability, and she said she was treated poorly.
“This should really change everything around,” Fintz said of the court proceedings. “We should be able to get (unemployment insurance) without issue, so we can pay our bills.”
Reentering the workforce
As they await the outcome of litigation, some SSDI recipients are looking for more work that accommodates their disabilities.
Eugene Wilson of Madison is one such person. He deals with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder — conditions that make him easily overwhelmed by tasks and make repetitive work difficult.
Wilson found part-time work years ago before being laid off during the pandemic. He was denied regular unemployment and PUA during a process that took an additional toll on his mental health, he said.
He now receives about $1,500 a month in SSDI benefits and affords his apartment with the help of rental aid. He barely gets by.
He has tried for years to return to the workforce, but he rarely hears back after filing applications and sending thank-you messages.
“It’s like nobody wants to hire anybody on disability,” Wilson said.
“I just want to get out there and do it and show people that people on disability can do this.”
Jessica Barrera of Eau Claire lost her job during the pandemic and depended in part on Social Security Disability Insurance to survive. She spent six months fighting to receive her Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claim after being denied regular unemployment insurance, initially unaware of a state law that banned people on disability from collecting unemployment aid. “It really made me feel less than others,” Barrera said. (Courtesy of Jessica Barrera)
Jessica Barrera of Eau Claire has a similar goal. Wisconsin Watch followed her in 2020 as she navigated life as a single mother who lost her job during the pandemic and depended in part on SSDI to survive. She spent six months fighting to receive her PUA claim after being denied regular unemployment insurance, initially unaware of the 2013 state law.
“It really made me feel less than others,” Barrera said.
That pushed her toward a new goal: “to be equal” by earning a degree and returning to the workforce full time. Barrera is just two semesters away from earning her bachelor’s degree in social work at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She works part time as a peer and parent support specialist, supporting families with mental health challenges — including those who face similar barriers to hers.
She lives with a rare disorder that makes her blood too thick, causing clots and severe fatigue that can make it hard to even get out of bed. Her current job gives her the flexibility to handle her frequent medical appointments and other challenges with the disease. Working full time will require finding an employer who understands her situation.
Barrera, who is not a plaintiff, encourages those seeking justice in court to stay hopeful and persistent.
“When I got the denial, had I just been like, ‘Well, I’m denied. I’m just out of luck’… Would we be where we are now?” Barrera said. “You have to sometimes be patient, but keep (up) the good fight.”
Confused about the unemployment system?
Forberger created this primer to help workers navigate the complicated process of filing unemployment claims and participating in the system.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
As students across Ohio prepare to return to school this fall, a local company is stepping up efforts to ensure their safety on the way there.
S.T.A.R.T. (School Transportation Active-Threat Response Training), an Ohio-based organization, has launched a Back-to-School Active Threat Awareness Campaign to help protect the more than 800,000 students who ride school buses daily in the Buckeye State.
The program offers specialized training for school bus drivers and transportation personnel to help them identify early warning signs, manage high-risk situations and take swift protective action when necessary. The goal is to close critical safety gaps in student transportation.
S.T.A.R.T., was established in 2015 by a Jim Levine, a former school resource officer who saw a major gap in student safety. The organization is headquartered in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and operates nationwide. It offers hands-on, scenario-based training developed by a team that includes current and former law enforcement officers, SWAT members, Secret Service agents, crisis response experts and mental health professionals.
The organization is a sponsor of both the Ohio Association for Pupil Transportation (OAPT) and the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT), further underscoring its commitment to student safety on a state and national level.
Law enforcement agencies across Ohio are also being encouraged to take part in the initiative to help foster a coordinated, community-based approach to student safety.
“This training is invaluable. Our drivers, aides, and supervisors truly benefit from the skills and insights they gain,” said Dale L. Dickson, director of the Licking County Educational Service Center via a press release. “I hope to see the day when this training becomes a statewide, or even nationwide, requirement for all school transportation staff.”
Levine, who is also the president and CEO of S.T.A.R.T., emphasized that back-to-school season is only the beginning of the safety and security focus around student transportation.
“We’re encouraging schools to create a year-round mindset of preparedness,” Levine said. “Drivers should be ready to respond to threats at any time, in any location.”
After a recent government study found that Native people are more than twice as likely to deal with food shortages and lack of nutritional meals than all U.S. households combined, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) made six recommendations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) aiming to improve food security. But a year later, the USDA, which agreed with the recommendations, has yet to act on them.
In July 2024, the GAO issued the recommendations in a report outlining opportunities the USDA could take to address challenges in federal nutrition programs. The report also asked Congress to consider “addressing in statute” the role of tribes in administering federal nutrition programs.
Barriers to food security vary from tribe to tribe, but commonalities exist, according to GAO director Kathryn Larin. In many cases the rural locations of tribal communities make access to a variety of nutritious foods difficult. “And the costs of the foods are higher than in more urban areas, partly due to transportation costs or other factors,” Larin told Buffalo’s Fire.
Those challenges have led to significant health disparities, including higher rates of diabetes and obesity among Indigenous people.
The way food is distributed and administered in tribal communities may be contributing to the problem.
After interviewing tribes and tribal organizations in seven states, as well as state and USDA officials, the GAO asked Congress to consider requiring states to consult with tribes when carrying out federal nutrition programs on reservations and in Native neighborhoods. Lawmakers have yet to address the matter.
Currently, tribes can administer several programs, including Food Distribution Programs on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), if it’s determined that the state isn’t able to do so effectively.
In some cases, state programs or administrators are required to consult with tribes. “In other instances,” Larin said, “there’s no clear direction as to what the tribal role is. So we’ve asked that Congress address that explicitly.”
Some tribes told the GAO that their members were more likely to participate in programs the tribes administered, which tend to be located on reservations. Non-tribal programs are often off the reservation, which creates an additional burden of traveling.
“We know people are falling through the cracks,” said Mary Greene Trottier, a Spirit Lake member who serves as the director of its food distribution program and the National Association of Food Delivery Program on Indian Reservations.
Trottier says her people are struggling with diet, good nutrition and proper access to health services, and she estimates that 60-70% of schools on the Spirit Lake reservation have students in the free lunch program.
“We know the problems,” said Trottier, on the findings of the GAO study. “We know we can address the solutions.” She said tribal leaders and program directors are “boots on the ground” who just need to be heard and have their knowledge applied to improving food issues in tribal communities. “We know how to run our programs. We know what works, what doesn’t work.”
Letting tribes take the lead
Like Trottier, Marlon Skendandore is a proponent for having tribes administer more food programs. He sees it as a move toward food sovereignty.
Before being elected as an Oneida tribal councilor, Skendandore worked as a food pantry manager for the tribe for six years, helping members across Wisconsin get fed “without red tape.” One of the GAO recommendations — that the USDA work to avoid dual participation in both the Food Distribution Program and SNAP and help qualified applicants get enrolled in a timely fashion — addresses what he sees as a “weird caveat” in the current system.
“Say you were on SNAP low income (and) you start building yourself up,” said Skenandore, describing how some SNAP recipients get work or otherwise improve their earnings. “You’re no longer income eligible.” He added there’s then a waiting period of 30 days before someone leaving SNAP can apply for the Food Distribution program. “I don’t know what the sense of 30 days of waiting is because they’re being administered by two totally different departments.”
The GAO has recommended that Food and Nutrition Service administrators study how switching from one program to another affects food security and then share that information with Congress.
Skenandore says both nutritious-food access and affordability are issues affecting the Oneida. Besides his work with the food pantry, he launched the Tribal Elder Food Box Program during the COVID-19 pandemic to alleviate food insecurity among Wisconsin tribes.
“We’re now up to making 2,400 boxes every couple of weeks,” he said.
The Tribal Elder Food Box Program helps feed Native elders across Wisconsin. The initiative is a collaboration between Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Coalition. (Courtesy of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin)
Skenandore said that earlier this year funding cuts to the USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement program made the Tribal Elder Food Box Program’s future look bleak. But the program has since secured $3 million in state funding, which will allow it to continue for another two years.
The GAO also recommended that the USDA include national data on Native food security in an annual report and discontinue visual observation as a way to determine race and ethnicity for the Food Distribution Program on reservations. Finally, the GAO wants the agriculture secretary to identify and rectify gaps in outreach to tribal communities and make administering these programs more flexible in ways that support food security.
The USDA told Buffalo’s Fire in an email that it’s “working diligently” to address the GAO’s recommendations. But when asked about the timeline for implementing them, the press office did not provide one.
In a separate email, the USDA said the department and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins are “committed to working with states, tribes, territories, and local government partners” to improve and modernize their programs, while “upholding our responsibility to program participants and American taxpayers.”
“The bottom line is that we feel strongly that the recommendations we made are key to addressing the issue of food insecurity in tribal communities,” the GAO’s Larin said, adding, “That’s why we’re committed to following up with the agency and hopefully encouraging them to implement the recommendations.”
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.
Self-education
In the meantime, both Trottier and Skenandore say there’s much to teach their respective communities about proper nutrition and health. This means adapting more traditional foods into their diet and scaling back fast food and ultra-processed items that either lack nutritional value or add to health problems. And with some traditional staples like wild rice and berries getting expensive, focusing on community gardens is seen as a way to help offset some of the issues.
“We have little kids that we’re really trying to instill with gardening and nutrition knowledge so they make better choices,” said Trottier. “We might not be able to change the older generation, but we’ve got a start with the younger generation. There’s always new hope to be found.”
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