October 8th and 28th of 2021, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) again breached the privacy of its students, to include sharing mental health-related information for about 60 Thomas Jefferson High School students.
Fairfax County School Board Spent Over $115,000 on Lawsuit it Tried to Make Disappear; More Legal Invoices to Come
In a period of just two weeks, between September 16 and September 30, 2021, Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) racked up legal fees of $116,001.42 with law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, in relation to one lawsuit that later it tried to make disappear. Matters related to the lawsuit continued into December, to include two hearings and a nonsuit, so the final bill is expected to be in excess of $200,000.
The lawsuit was filed against me and another FCPS (Fairfax County Public Schools) parent after this site published some of FCPS’s legal invoices. The published invoices were obtained legally after FCPS released 1,316 pages as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response. FCPS later tried to claw back the documents after being made aware it released documents damaging to its reputation. When that didn’t work, FCSB filed a lawsuit.
Update on Fairfax County School Board’s Legal Action Against Parents
September 2021, Fairfax County School Board took legal action against me and fellow Fairfax County Public Schools parent Debra Tisler after we exercised our First Amendment Rights.
This article provides an update to the timeline I provided in the article “FCPS Threatens Legal Action Against Parents Who Exercised Their First Amendment Rights And Right To FOIA”.
You’ll find more information about FCPS’s history of breaches and failures to stop the breaches, the transcript for the October 22, 2021, hearing, and FCPS’s response to VDOE’s investigation.
FCSB Files Motion for Nonsuit after Suing Parents and Failing to Prevail in Court; Judge Signs Order to Nonsuit
Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) filed a “Motion for Nonsuit” after failing to prevail in its lawsuit against me and another Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) parent. December 22, 2021, Judge Richard E. Gardiner signed an “Order to Nonsuit”.
Although the nonsuit removes the suit from the docket—as if it never happened—the suit happened and won’t be forgotten.
Prior restraint is not legal.
Court Transcripts: Fairfax County School Board vs. Tisler, et al.
I continue to be asked if I’d share the court transcripts related to Fairfax County School Board’s (FCSB) lawsuit against me and Debra Tisler.
The transcripts can be found in the article “Update on Fairfax County School Board’s Legal Action Against Parents,” which is a running update of what’s going on with the case.
I’m posting them again here, for easy access.
College Board Fails to Provide “Universal Features” to All Students; Students with Accommodations Suffer
College Board continues to fail students who need accommodations. It does not ensure the provision of its “universal features” to all students, which in turn impacts the students’ test-taking experiences and scores.
“Universal features” are the “common administrative features” shared by College Board tests. These common features are supposed to be provided to all students, which in turn negates the need to ask for one of these “universal features”—such as a quiet testing environment—as an accommodation.
And yet . . . College Board continues its failure to ensure all students who have accommodations receive a testing environment that includes College Board’s “universal features”.
Fairfax County Public Schools Restraint & Seclusion Policy Training Videos
After years of traumatizing children through its use of restraint and seclusion practices, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia made headlines the past few months after FCPS finally settled a lawsuit filed against it.
Although FCPS schools has committed to banning restraint and seclusion practices in all of its schools, “including private schools with whom FCPS contracts, by the start of the 2022-2023 school year,” questions remain about the training being provided to FCPS staff.
Restraint and seclusion videos in this article were created by FCPS and made public in response to a FOIA request.
Special Education Action YouTube Channel Launched
Last week, Special Education Action launched a YouTube Channel.
The videos feature responses from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, such as Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) restraint and seclusion training videos, school web site pages (to preserve in case the pages are deleted), and documents (to preserve in case something happens to the hard copies).
Although the videos posted to date are FCPS focused, the intent is to include videos related to education throughout the United States.