An effort to limit the Milwaukee Common Council’s ability to shape police and fire department policy passed an Assembly vote Thursday, in the form of an amendment to a completely unrelated bill. If the measure becomes law, the council would need a unanimous vote before suspending or modifying police or fire department policy. 

The amendment was offered by Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) on Thursday, as lawmakers undertook a lengthy Assembly floor session voting on legislation. Although the amendment falls in line with past Republican moves to weaken the control local government has over law enforcement, it was attached to a bill completely unrelated to that issue. 

Donovan’s amendment was attached to a Republican bill framed as granting parents and guardians more access to medical records of minor children. The bill, among other things, would eliminate the ability for children who are at least 14 years old to contest release of their mental health records and the results of HIV testing to their parents or guardians. 

Nothing about the bill Donovan attached his amendment to involves common councils setting policy for police and fire departments. Yet this sort of maneuver was not unheard of in the lead up to the Assembly floor vote on Thursday. Republican lawmakers also amended a bill regarding hunting sandhill cranes to include provisions covering wake boat regulations. Another bill designed to provide additional court support statewide was amended to selectively remove additional public defenders from Milwaukee County. 

It’s also not the first time Republicans worked to disrupt the ability of officials in Milwaukee to oversee the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD). In 2023, after failing to pass bills backed by the Milwaukee Police Association aimed at preventing the city from ever reducing its police force and removing, forcing Milwaukee Public Schools to re-adopt school resource officers, and eliminating the policy-setting power over MPD that the Fire and Police Commission (FPC) had enjoyed for decades, Republican leaders attached those same provisions to a shared revenue deal which Milwaukee County needed in order to avoid a fiscal catastrophe.

Since the passage of the deal, FPC members and local activists alike have decried the attack on the FPC’s ability to oversee the police department. In lieu of setting policy, the FPC is able to make policy recommendations to the common council, an alternative avenue Donovan’s amendment is tailored to close.

Although the amended bill passed the Assembly, it now needs to pass in the Senate, and then to the governor’s desk. It’s unclear if the bill will gain Senate support, where several organizations have lobbied against it.

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If your local court is struggling with a backlog of cases then help is on the way — except for people living in Milwaukee County. Although initially included in a Republican effort to fund more legal staff statewide, Milwaukee was largely removed from a bill authorizing additional circuit court and criminal justice system positions, in a move both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have said was purely political. 

On Thursday, lawmakers voted to pass the Assembly version of that bill (AB 514) during an Assembly floor session. Under its original form — authored by Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Gillett) and Rep. David Steffens (R-Howard) — the bill would have provided Milwaukee County with funding for four assistant district attorney positions, four assistant state public defender positions, and six support staff positions for the Public Defender’s Office by 2028. 

That aid is sorely needed in Milwaukee, where courts are burdened by thousands of unresolved cases, Wisconsin Watch reported. The backlog creates situations where cases are dismissed, people are held in custody for excessive periods waiting for trial, and attorneys on both sides of cases are overwhelmed. “Justice delayed, justice denied,” is how Kent Lovern, Milwaukee County’s District Attorney, described the backlog’s consequences. Yet in late January, the bill was amended to cut assistance for Milwaukee except for additional assistant prosecutor positions. 

When questioned about the cuts during an early February Senate hearing, Steffens said “there were certain things that had to be done” in order to get unanimous support for the bill among his fellow Republicans. Other counties, including Waukesha, Green Bay, Menomonee, Kenosha, Richland, Sauk, Ozaukee, Washington, Jefferson, Eau Claire, and numerous others didn’t see cuts in the number of additional public defenders the bill supports. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, courts across the state have battled backlogs and staffing shortages. In August 2025, Wisconsin Watch reported, there was a backlog of 12,586 felony cases across the entire Wisconsin court system. Currently, according to Wisconsin Watch, there are over 10,000 unresolved felony cases in Milwaukee County’s court system.

Answering questions from Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee), Steffens explained that the original bill was designed based on clear and “clinical” needs assessments. “However,” said Steffens, “there does become a period where politics sometimes gets involved. And the substitute that was passed, again unanimously in the Assembly, did reflect some of those political pressures.” Instead of ensuring Milwaukee’s justice system gets the resources it needs now, Steffens said there would be “a continued opportunity through the next budget” to accomplish that.

“People have different positions on things all the time, and we have to respond to that as bill authors,” said Steffens. “I will say this, though, with every piece of legislation we introduce we have an opportunity to do nothing, something, or everything. This is quite something. This will be the largest increase in well over 15 years for these positions. The people who have been working on this look at this as a historic opportunity. If you are looking for perfection in this bill, you will not find it.”

Steffens declined to say which Republican lawmakers did not want to support Milwaukee County’s court system.

In a statement to Wisconsin Examiner, State Public Defender Jennifer Bias stressed the need for more defense attorneys in the court system. “Wisconsin has a dire need for more public defender staff statewide,” Bias said in an emailed statement. “Even in its amended form, this bill is a big step in the right direction and has the full support of our agency.”

On the Assembly floor Thursday evening, Steffens said that over his nearly 12 years in the legislature, he has worked with the Republican majority (which he noted has maintained “nearly uninterrupted control” for 30 years) to pass new crime laws or measures to enhance existing crime laws hundreds of times. Steffens said he was unaware of how this would shape the court system, and that the thousands of case backlogs is a sign that he and other lawmakers have failed the court system. He recounted hearing about a man in the Brown County Jail, who claimed he was innocent, and spent over a year waiting his case to conclude. As a result, he lost his job, his wife, and his job.

“That’s not justice,” said Steffens. “The Constitution guarantees that every person shall be provided with a speedy trial. We’ve been denying that to people throughout this state. In Brown County alone, we have a backlog of 8,000 cases.” Steffens added, “I’m trying to make up for my errors, my failure as a legislator, and I hope you’ll join me.”

Recalling a colleague who said that the bill “is the cost of being a law and order state,” he declared, “it’s time to pay that bill, and we’re going to do it by hiring these people. So I hope you’ll all join me in supporting this bipartisan piece of legislation and making a substantial step forward in restoring some measure of justice for all the people in Wisconsin.”

After Steffens spoke a voice vote was called on the bill. Some lawmakers very audibly yelled “no!” but were unable to stop the bill from passing and being messaged to the Senate. 

Safety and support for everyone, except if you live in Milwaukee

“We see time and time again that Milwaukee County is blamed for its criminal activity,” Johnson said in frustration during an interview earlier this week. “We’re blamed for the rise in crime in other suburban areas, and other surrounding areas in Milwaukee, but this is a clear indication of why that continues to happen. Because when we have opportunities such as this…And I’m upset that other counties are getting these resources. If they need them, they deserve them. Milwaukee deserves those same measures of safety and security, too.” A spokesperson for Steffens said that he was unavailable for comment, and Wimberger’s office didn’t respond to Wisconsin Examiner’s request. 

Johnson said that the motivation to cut Milwaukee out of the court support bill stemmed from a conflict involving the district attorney’s office, public defender’s office and a court watch group called Enough Is Enough. The group is dedicated to Erin Mogensen, a 32-year-old Shorewood woman who was pregnant when a driver crashed into and killed her in 2023. Enough Is Enough monitors similar cases in the court system, and has issued reports suggesting that judges delivered sentences in reckless driving and fleeing cases that were more lenient than what prosecutors recommended. 

Last fall, two regional managers of the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office issued a letter to judges in the Milwaukee County Circuit Court’s criminal division accusing Enough Is Enough of being little more than “an extension of the DA’s office,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The defenders obtained 258 emails from a public records request, showing “extensive meetings” between members of Enough Is Enough and the Milwaukee County DA’s office. Current and former assistant district attorneys were involved in the meetings, and even worked to review and draft letters from Enough Is Enough addressed to the judiciary. The public defenders warned the judges to consider this when evaluating impact statements or the presence of Enough Is Enough. 

Both the group and the DA’s office pushed back against the public defenders’ accusations, the Journal Sentinel reported. Lovern acknowledged that he was approached by the group’s members in 2024, when he announced his bid for district attorney after John Chisholm retired. By the time Lovern became DA, Enough Is Enough had obtained 501(c)3 status. Lovern said he offered the group access where appropriate and assistance from his office. 

Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) jumped to the group’s defense, accusing the public defender’s office of trying to intimidate and discredit what Donovan called a “volunteer” and “grassroots” organization. Donovan had backed Enough Is Enough since its inception, has focused on the issue of  reckless driving in recent years, according to the Journal Sentinel. Donovan didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story. 

“When we talk about how things in this building can be political,” Johnson told the Wisconsin Examiner, speaking of the state Capitol, “this is a perfect example of a petty argument between two factions of the court system can be interjected by somebody in the state Legislature that just takes this argument to a whole new [level].” 

The decision to strip the public defender positions from Milwaukee will only worsen the court backlog, Johnson said. “So you’re going to make things more complicated simply because you’re being petty,” she told the Examiner. “And what really pisses me off is the fact that we know in this building that if the rest of the state is taken care of with their needs, and the only entity that has a need is Milwaukee County, it will not get met. Because we’ve seen them slight Milwaukee County before…You don’t get to trump public safety for hundreds of thousands of people simply because you’re being petty, and petty politics is playing into this state Legislature, and their responsibility to an entire county.”

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Whether it’s a full-size school bus with track seating running the length of the floor or a compact van with fixed belt points, no two vehicles secure a student the same way—and too often, drivers are left to figure it out on the fly.

That variability, experts warn, can compromise safety for students who rely on wheelchairs, car seats or booster seats, especially as alternative transportation expands and fleets grow more diverse. Driver training has never been more paramount.

Darren Reaume, the director of training for Q’Straint/Sure-Lok, explained that school buses from different OEMs and of various model years have different characteristics. This is why it’s so important that drivers know what’s available on the vehicle and how to use the wheelchair securement equipment.

“If you have 50 different buses in your fleet, chances are you have four or five varieties of different equipment, and your drivers need to know how to use all of that stuff because you don’t know which [vehicle] they’re going to have,” he said.

When transporting a student in a wheelchair as a van passenger, the space is going to be much more limited than in a school bus, where track seating will typically extend the length of the bus because of the need for traditional bench seats. In vans, everything is much more compact. This mean there could be a fixed location for the shoulder belt, for example.

“Sometimes we run into this disconnect where it’s easier to transport a small student in a side-entry van because it’s a smaller space and the device is small,”  he said. “But then the occupant securement doesn’t fit great on them because they’re a smaller individual.”

On the flip side, it might be harder to secure a larger student in their mobility device because it’s a small space, but the occupant securement fits better.

“So now, you’re taking into account the particular equipment and layout of that vehicle,” he said, adding that everything from the size of the securement location to how much space the driver has to operate in makes a difference in safely securing at student.

Certified passenger safety technician Cassidy Miller noted drivers are responsible for proper securement of the CSRS in their vehicles, and they need proper training or information on the student. Miller, who is also the director of transportation for Cashmere School District in Washington state, shared that a lower anchor system securing the car seat into a vehicle has a weight limit. The other option is using a seatbelt, which has no weight limit, to secure the car seat.

Miller suggested asking if contracted providers know each child’s weight, or are they guessing based on age and size? Regardless of weight, Miller added that if the child is being restrained in a forward-facing car seat, a strong U.S. recommendation is to use the top tether.

“And they need to make sure that the harness straps fit the child who they’re transporting,” she said. “If they’re transporting multiple [students] in a day, that can get tricky. They need to make sure that it’s adjustable.”

All are adjustable to a degree, she explained, but some are more complicated and require removing the car seat to make the adjustment.

The Alternative Student
Transportation Association

 

Greg Prettyman, vice president of First Alt, explained the creation of the Alternative Student Transportation Association that gives a voice to providers. He said the goal is for different companies to develop a unified message on issues as they arise. At the top of the to-do list is public outreach and creating a website as well as consulting on the National Congress on Student Transportation Alternative Transportation committee. Prettyman added NCST was the impetus for creating the association because each company was providing input individually.

Miller added that the harness needs to fit the child properly, and it needs to be snug to their body with the chest clip at armpit level. “Those points need to be monitored by the drivers, and sometimes that’s hard when they’re a company that has back-to-back rides or a lot of turnover,” she added.

She also recommended that families who are using an alternative transportation service also be educated about the car seat installation points. “Is the family looking to make sure that the car seat is installed properly for the child’s weight? Is it installed via seatbelt or lower anchors? Is the harness fitting them correctly? Is the chest clip at the right point, is the top tether attached to the back of the seat? … They should kind of have a mental checklist every day when they help load their child,” she recommended.

The liability falls on the school district but she said parents can serve as a second set of eyes to ensure the car seat is installed correctly. She provided an example at her previous district, where a family took pictures to prove the contractor wasn’t installing the car seat correctly.

“I took [the pictures] back to that transportation company, and I said, ‘Listen, here are five things wrong with this car seat right now. Those need to be addressed,” Miller recalled. “I know you say you train your drivers on using car seats, but this car seat has not shown up in an acceptable manner, and the parent has been reinstalling the car seat as properly as she can get because she doesn’t have the manual in hand whenever the car seat arrives. And it’s getting very frustrating.’”

Depending on the state, it might be hard for all independent contracted drivers to undergo securement training like district employees. Instead, she advised school districts ask for the driver training curriculum that contractors use and determine if it meets the standard. Plus, she recommends random checks.

“Go out to that elementary school at pickup and see and just observe that child. Observe that car seat as it’s waiting,” she said, adding it’s important to make extensive notes. “I would highly recommend all of those random checks just to ensure the drivers are in compliance with their company and or even if it’s your own drivers, that they’re in compliance with your standards.”

Training Drivers

Gregg Prettyman, the vice president of First Student subsidiary First Alt, said the driver training standard should be the same no matter the vehicle. He noted FirstAlt follows First Student’s driver vetting, training and credentialing standards.

“There’s a lot of different types of vehicles — Type A, Type B, Type C, vans and SUVs — but there really should only be one type of driver, and that’s just a driver that meets all of the state requirements for a bus driver,” he explained.

He said the only exception would be vehicle-specific licensing, adding that alternative vehicle drivers like those in Type A school buses don’t need a CDL. He added that when it comes to wheelchair securement, First Alt works with transportation companies that are established in correctly transporting people in wheelchairs, whether that’s to and from work or doctor’s appointments.

“We reach out to those companies who really are already experts in that and doing that in the state, and we certify, license and onboard them,” he said, adding the oversight provides an extra layer of protection “We still do verify that their drivers know how to secure and meet all the student securement transportation requirements. But the nice thing is, when you’re working with existing companies, they already have a lot of that training and expertise in place.”

Blake Smith, area general manager for the east for First Alt, agreed, noting the importance of being a part of First Student and how it has been asset for its training program.

“We really want to make sure that we’re doing our due diligence for the safety aspect and keeping with those First Student standards and core values to make sure that we’re properly securing these students and properly securing the equipment, because at the end of the day … we’re firm believers that the yellow school bus is the safest way to get these students to school, but in those instances where you’re not using a yellow school bus for a variety of reasons, we want to make sure that the safety isn’t sacrificed when we’re doing that.”

He said a session presented by industry consultant Alexandra Robinson at the National State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services annual conference in November touched on securement in yellow school buses as well as alternative transportation vehicles. CPST instructor Denise Donaldson is presenting a similar topic at STN EXPO East on March 28, “What’s the Difference?! CSRS Use in School Buses versus Alternative Vehicles.”

Smith said a takeaway from the NASDPTS presentation was ensuring the drivers know that information. “In the event that we have to take a car seat out because they’re doing another route where we need actual space in the vehicle, that we’re properly securing that piece of equipment back in the vehicle,” he said of the importance of training. “And understanding the different checkpoints of making sure that piece of equipment is secure in the vehicle.”

Even something like not securing a child in a puffy coat needs to be communicated to drivers, as they transport students in the Northeast, where kids are coming out of their houses in jackets.

“[We’re] making sure we’re doing our due diligence for those two pieces, helping the drivers and also the monitors — if we have monitors in those vehicles — not only properly secure the car seat, but secure the student properly.”

EverDriven CEO Mitch Bowling said every driver is required to complete the EverDriven Driver Education Course, “which is the first program in the industry designed specifically for transporting students with unique needs,” he claimed.

He explained the course covers everything from wheelchair securement to defensive driving to sensitivity training.

“It’s a six-module course that prepares drivers for real-world situations, like managing behavioral challenges or responding to emergencies,” he continued. “Drivers must pass a 40-question exam before they can drive students. While district requirements vary, our training is built to meet those needs and often goes beyond them.”

Bowling said a standardized training ensures every driver is ready for a variety of scenarios and can adapt to individual student needs, whether that involves mobility devices or behavior support.

Blake added that drivers are trained before they start any trips with First Alt, with a test at the end of the program to become certified. Every six months they do a refresher course. However, he noted states and districts will have other requirements. For example, some districts in the Dallas area require transportation to the school for the deaf and blind, and FirstAlt will send their drivers to be trained on courses that address that specific group of individuals.

The School of Philadelphia has a specific training course for monitors and Colorado has inclement weather training. “It’s not only important to have your own [standard] but to make sure you’re compliant with the unique training requirements of each state and each district,” he said.

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Related: NAPT Statement Provides Recommendations for Alternative Transportation
Related: Alternative School Transportation: Roadmap for Decision-Making For Children with Disabilities and Special Needs
Related: NASDPTS Publishes Paper Espousing Safety of School Buses Over Alternative Transportation
Related: Beyond the Yellow School Bus: Alternative School Transportation

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Prettyman said that alternative transportation can be so individualized at times that FirstAlt will partner with the district to ultimately support that one particular student.

“Maybe it’s a student where they’re trying to reinforce certain behaviors in the classroom, and we’re trying to figure out how do we extend that classroom to the classroom on wheels,” he said. “We’ve had drivers and monitors that we coordinate with at the school specifically to go in and observe that student in a classroom setting and better understand not only that student from when they’re just transporting, but also how are we understanding that student, and how can we support that student through transportation?”

Putting the driver classroom on wheels can heighten learning quickly.

“One small thing can become a major issue,” he said. “How can we partner with our districts, and also their teachers and paraprofessionals … to ultimately support these students on an individualized basis? Because that’s what alternative transportation does really well. The yellow school bus is great, but when it comes down to these individual students that have IEPs …how do we take that classroom environment and extend to the to the vehicle and also support safe transportation for that student?”

Jennifer Brandenburger, the senior vice president of Safety at HopSkipDrive, said dedicated programs for riders with specialized needs help ensure safety and compliance.

Drivers transporting younger riders “receive specialized education on proper installation and harnessing techniques, which is guided by certified child passenger safety technicians from Safe Kids Worldwide,” she said. “Only these approved drivers receive and use the company-provided car seats for these specific rides.”

Brandenburger added that HSD selected a car seat model that meets the impending standards set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in consultation with expert advisors.

Wheelchair transportation, meanwhile, is facilitated by CarePartners. Brandenburger said these are “local professionals who undergo HopSkipDrive’s rigorous and comprehensive certification process, including name- and fingerprint-based background checks, clearing child abuse and neglect screenings where available, and enrolling in continuous criminal record monitoring.”

She said that CarePartners provide a wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) and are trained on the correct securement.

“By ensuring CarePartner drivers undergo our onboarding and management, we are able to monitor, manage, and ensure compliance with district requirements,” she concluded.

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