Amanda Davila was sentenced to three years in prison for the death of 6-year-old Fajr Williams, who fatally choked on a Somerset County, New Jersey school bus while wearing an improperly secured safety harness.
Davila faced up to 20 years in prison for the charges of aggravated and reckless manslaughter. Instead, a jury found her guilty of child endangerment on Jan. 13. On March 7, a judge sentenced her to three years in prison.
Davila, who was 27 at the time of the Julu 17, 2023 incident, testified in her own defense during the trial and claimed she was at fault but only partially. The defense argued that a family member of Williams improperly buckled her into her wheelchair that day. Davila also reportedly testified during the trial that she wasn’t trained properly on wheelchair securement and made a mistake. However, the school bus contractor she worked for provided monthly training sessions.
Davila’s lawyer said she shared responsibility with the family, who should have ensured the young girl was secured properly. Davila was the assigned bus monitor to Williams, who had Emanuel syndrome, was non-verbal and in a wheelchair. She was being transported to an extended school year program at Claremont Elementary School in Franklin Park New Jersey.
As School Transportation News reported at the time, Williams was strangled by her wheelchair’s harness on the bus ride. The student reportedly slumped forward in her wheelchair after a series of bumps. She was wearing a 4-point harness that secured her to the wheelchair, but ultimately became too tight around her neck, blocking her airway.
Video from the bus ride showed Davila seated in front of Williams, on her cellphone and wearing earbuds, a violation of policies and procedures.
The Corporate Transparency Act is back in play for small businesses including those in the student transportation industry.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday granted a stay of a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in December that issued a temporary injunction on enforcing the law. In the hope of preventing criminals from hiding illegal acts through corporate anonymity, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act in 2021, sandwiched into a larger 1,482-page defense bill. The law initially took effect on Jan. 1, 2024, requiring companies to disclose stakeholder information to the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, by Jan. 1, 2025.
In an order that called the law outright Orwellian, however, a federal judge in Texas on Dec. 3 granted an injunction blocking the Corporate Transparency Act from being enforced — a decision that U.S. attorneys quickly appealed to the 5th Circuit, putting the fate of the act in legal limbo.
On Dec. 23, the 5th Circuit granted the government’s motion to keep the law in place through the appeal, only to reverse on Dec. 26. On Jan. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the stay, through the completion of review before the 5th Circuit.
To make matters even more confusing for business owners, the high court reviewed the government’s request to lift the stay only in the Texas case, leaving in place a second Texas case, Smith v. U.S. Department of Treasury, in which a stay remains, making current reporting voluntary.
A third federal judge in Oregon denied a similar request for an injunction in September, which will be reviewed by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The U.S. Supreme Court did not provide an explanation for granting the request for a stay — Justice Ketanyi Brown Jackson was the only dissenting voice, noting she did not see a need for the nation’s highest court to intervene because the 5th Circult already expedited its consideration of the appeal by the federal government’s appeal, which already delayed enforcement of the law by nearly four years.
Parties often ask the U.S. Supreme court to review split decisions among appeals court, but since the high court holds arguments for less than 1 percent of the cases submitted, it is impossible to know whether it will step in.
Meanwhile, FinCEN issued an alert last week clarifying the current status of Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting. While the Supreme Court lifted the injunction in the Texas Top Cop Shop case, a separate injunction in the Smith case remains, temporarily blocking CTA enforcement, FinCEN continued. The government has yet to appeal the Smith ruling.
That means companies do not have an immediate filing requirement, but voluntary filing is available.
If CTA proceeds, small businesses would have to file the required benefit ownership report very quickly. Failure to report required information could result in $591 fines per day of violation as well as up to two years in jail and up to $10,000 in penalties.
“In a limbo like this the best practice is to be ready to file,” Megan Henderson, an attorney at the Longmont, Colorado firm Lyons and Gaddis, advised last month.
Specializing in real estate and business transactions, Henderson said she spent much of the past year advising clients on becoming compliant under the Corporate Transparency Act.
Most businesses that filed paperwork with their state to become incorporated are now required to disclose their beneficial owners with the federal government, but exemptions abound. One big carve out is for larger companies generating more than $5 million in gross receipts annually. The umbrella of “beneficial owners” might be broader than some people think and covering not just owners but indispensable managers as well.
FinCEN published a brief guide to help businesses navigate the requirements. While neither a lawyer nor an accountant is required to file the paperwork, the process can seem daunting, especially for mom and pop establishments with limited time and resources.
“It’s going to impact the contractors that service the school districts,” said Chris Wojciechowski, an accountant at the Bonadio Group in Rochester, New York.
Wojciechowski said the regulation is more burdensome to small businesses with fewer resources.
“There’s such a tight timeline regarding compliance,” he continued. “So how is our businesses going to deal with this? They’re going to have to be nimble and be on top of the transition if they turn the law back on.”
Similar legislation to the Corporate Transparency Act have already been introduced at the state level. One of the first copycat laws comes from New York lawmakers, requiring companies to report ownership by Jan. 1, 2026.
“It’s tricky because every state has their own regulations. I’ve seen companies who operate in one state come to another state and get slapped pretty hard with fines because they did not dig deep into the state regulations for school buses in that state,” said Mark Szyperski, president of On Your Mark Transportation, a consultancy firm based in Nashville, Tennessee.
For Szyperski, who grew up on the seat of his father’s Greyhound bus between Bay City and Detroit, Michigan, transportation is a family business.
Upon entering a new state, Szyperski said he often arranges to speak with the state’s school bus administrator to go over the basics. To be ready for the court’s outcome on the Corporate Transparency Act, he set up a Google alert and included news of the injunction in his newsletter.
“People need to be aware that [the injunction] could be overturned and then you best be getting ready to put the information into the system,” he said.
Ohio’s school districts are facing an uphill battle to meet state student transportation requirements amid a persistent school bus driver shortage, resulting in financial penalties and a high-profile lawsuit filed by the state attorney general.
The lawsuit and related fines levied against school districts for noncompliance with state regulations detail how the struggles in providing timely and reliable bus services for both public and non-public school students.
The compliance issues are in the spotlight after Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit against Columbus City Schools in September, accusing the district of failing to fulfill its statutory transportation obligations. This lawsuit has added to the urgency for Ohio’s school districts, which are already contending with a shortage of qualified school bus drivers, to find solutions that will ensure the safety and punctuality of school transportation across the state.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost
Attorney General Yost’s lawsuit claims that Columbus City Schools failed to provide transportation for students attending charter and private schools, a legal requirement under Ohio law. According to the lawsuit, Columbus City Schools labeled the transportation of these students as “impractical” and did not notify parents until days before the school year began, which left families scrambling to find alternate transportation.
“As a parent and grandparent, I understand the importance of making sure every child has a safe way to get to and from school,” Yost said at the time. “These families have a right to choose what school is best for their child, and the law is clear that transportation is to be provided.”
The lawsuit seeks a writ of mandamus compelling Columbus City Schools to resume transportation services for affected students immediately and to properly notify parents of their rights. The Attorney General’s office also issued a cease-and-desist letter to the district on Sept. 3, suggesting that the district’s failure to comply is suspected of being a deliberate attempt to circumvent legal obligations.
Last month, Columbus City Schools extended transportation service to about 100 students who were previously denied service and filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Yost in a statement said he is not convinced and remains undeterred.
“It remains to be seen whether the district will live up to its press release and really transport these children,” he said. “The state already has received some information suggesting that it is not. … Simply put, this case is far from over.”
Fines and Compliance Challenges Across Ohio
According to data from the Ohio Department of Education, Columbus City Schools is not the only district facing compliance challenges. The department has collected substantial fines from several districts over the past couple of years due to delays in meeting transportation standards, which the school districts claimed were the result of school bus driver shortages.
In fiscal year 2024 alone, over $7.3 million in penalties were imposed on Columbus City Schools for failing to meet timing and operational requirements under Ohio Revised Code 3327.021. Youngstown School District was fined $1.91 million, while the state will collect nearly $250,000 from Middleton City Schools. The total of $9.5 million was 472 percent more than the state collected for fiscal year 2023 ($1.66 million) and 70 percent more than for fiscal year 2022 ($5.6 million).
An Ohio Department of Education spokesperson confirmed that refunds received by Columbus City Schools, Dayton City Schools and Toledo Public Schools were were the result of litigation settlement agreements.
So far for fiscal year 2025, the data indicates a $2.2 million fine to Columbus City Schools.
Under Ohio law, school districts are considered “out of compliance” if students arrive at school more than 30 minutes late or are picked up more than 30 minutes after dismissal for five consecutive days or 10 total days within a school year. Additionally, if a school bus fails to arrive at all, the district may also face penalties. These regulations are intended to ensure the reliability of transportation for all students, including those attending charter and private schools.
An accounting of fines levied against Ohio school districts over the past three fiscal years for noncompliance with school bus timing regulations. Source: Ohio Department of Education
Todd Silverthorn, the second vice president of the Ohio Association for Pupil Transportation and director of transportation for Kettering Local City Schools, provided additional context on the challenges facing Ohio school districts. He explained that the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce is conducting a timing study to assess district compliance with Ohio Administrative Code 3301-83-05. This study evaluates whether routes are practical and efficient based on the most direct path between public and non-public schools.
Silverthorn emphasized the complexities of the timing study, as fluctuating student enrollment and significant bus driver shortages complicate compliance efforts. He noted that while state regulations are meant to uphold standards, the severe staffing shortfall has left school districts like Columbus City scrambling to cover essential routes, often falling short of the required timing standards.
“While state lawmakers may argue that there is adequate funding for transportation, the core issue is not funding but staffing,” Silverthorn said. “Districts are facing increasing difficulty in attracting and retaining qualified bus drivers. This isn’t about budget limitations but about the challenges inherent in the role [of driving] itself.”
The Impact of Ohio’s Decreased School Bus Driver Staffing Level
The statewide bus driver shortage has intensified the transportation crisis. Before the pandemic, Ohio employed 25,706 active bus drivers. By August, that number had dropped to 18,817. This shortfall is affecting the 612 public school districts and over 1,000 chartered non-public schools statewide, many of which depend on reliable transportation services.
The role of an Ohio school bus driver requires a Class B commercial driver’s license, criminal background checks, drug and alcohol screenings, and the responsibility of managing student safety and behavior. The part-time hours and split shifts many school bus drivers receive combined with a high level of responsibility have deterred many potential applicants, creating a pipeline problem that exacerbates the staffing crisis.
As a result, school districts face challenges in meeting the compliance standards set forth by Ohio law, especially when drivers resign or retire. Schools have reported delays, cancellations and logistical obstacles that disrupt the school day and create stress for families.
In response to these challenges, school districts have implemented various strategies to optimize transportation resources. Some districts have consolidated school bus routes, modified school start times, and offered incentives such as signing bonuses and wage increases to attract and retain bus drivers. However, these adjustments are only temporary solutions to a deep-rooted problem.
“The reality is that we need a multi-faceted approach. This means not only increasing recruitment efforts but also rethinking the job to make it more appealing,” Silverthorn said.
If or until that happens, school districts like Columbus City Schools will continue to face pressure from state to provide transportation services on time and consistently.
“It shouldn’t take a lawsuit and an emergency motion to decide to follow the law. Columbus City Schools admitted the law was to transport the children. Glad these kids are finally getting the transportation they were entitled to,” Yost added last month. “But this is not the end. There are more kids who still are not receiving transportation despite the district’s clear obligation to provide it.”
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