The School Board annually adopts a legislative program to inform public officials and others of its positions on legislative policy issues of importance to Fairfax County Public Schools.  The program contains the School Board's positions on state and federal issues of major and current significance.  To help bring some focus to the most critical issues facing FCPS, the Board has identified a subset of these program positions as "priorities". 

Fairfax County School Board 2023 State Priority Positions

The Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) believes that public education should be based on a strong partnership between the Commonwealth and local school divisions, with the state supporting locally based and student-centered public education. Adequate and appropriate state funding for public pre-K, elementary, and secondary education—with the state fairly sharing in the true local costs of implementing Virginia’s mandated education related programs – is critical to ensuring high quality instructional and support programs for all students in the Commonwealth.  While we understand the state’s role in setting and measuring standards, the supervision of schools and flexibility in the implementation of educational policies should remain with local school boards per the Virginia Constitution.

Student Academic Success

• The Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) supports additional state resources dedicated to addressing learning delays resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The FCSB supports ensuring students have multiple pathways to earn a diploma, as well as access to dual enrollment and work-based learning opportunities to explore career pathways in preparation for postsecondary and workforce opportunities, including addressing barriers to participation for historically underrepresented populations.

Workforce Shortages

• The FCSB supports funding and initiatives to address ongoing and acute shortages of highly qualified educational and professional staff, particularly including special education teachers, nurses and mental health professionals, instructional technology and cybersecurity professionals, and school bus drivers.

Safety and Security

• The FCSB supports development, implementation, and funding of a centralized and standardized state reporting and notification system regarding public school employee misconduct.
• The FCSB supports dedicating additional state resources to accelerate Virginia’s planned participation in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Next Generation Identification (NGI) Noncriminal Justice Rap Back Service, and on-going funding for local participation once implemented.
• The FCSB supports increased state resources dedicated to assisting local school divisions in addressing the cyber and data security needs of school divisions.

• The FCSB supports additional local authority and flexibility in setting speed limits in school zones.

State Funding

The FCSB supports continued efforts to address state funding formula imbalances and inadequacies through elimination of the state’s cap on support position funding; full restoration of the Cost of Competing adjustment for support positions; and addressing required local match provision imbalances, especially in high cost of living jurisdictions.

 

Fairfax County School Board 2023 Federal Priority Positions

The Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) supports full and adequate funding to implement federal mandates, such as those found in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as well as broad flexibility to empower states and localities to fulfill mandated program requirements.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

• The FCSB supports mandatory funding for chronically underfunded special education programs to meet the federal commitment to fund 40 percent of the “excess costs” of special education as promised but never realized since the 1975 adoption of federal special education laws (currently known as IDEA).

Title I

• The FCSB supports increased funding for the federal Title I, Part A grant within the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that serves schools with the highest percentage of children from low-income families.

Cybersecurity

• The FCSB supports increased federal resources dedicated to cyber and data security for school and school division technology infrastructure.

Impact Aid

• The FCSB supports full funding for the federal Impact Aid program, which is intended to offset the local impact of Fairfax’s over 19,000 federally-connected students as well as those associated with federal military base relocation decisions.

Federal Meals Reimbursement

• The FCSB supports restoration of enhanced United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) federal reimbursement rates to resume the provision of high quality and nutritious free meals to all students.

Pandemic Funding Resources

• The FCSB supports continued federal funding to help school divisions address the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including funding dedicated to remediation and learning recovery, special education services, technology and broadband provision, social-emotional supports, and services for English learners.

Title IX

• The FCSB supports repealing the U.S. Department of Education’s Final Rule under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (released May 2020), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance and, in the interim, returning to the pre-May Rule.

Student Safety

• The FCSB supports requiring all states to participate in the FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) Noncriminal Justice Rap Back Service.