FOIA Bank - Special Education Action

FOIA Response: More Internal Emails Provided, More Proof FCPS is Aware of Problems with Independent Educational Evaluation Rates and Other Issues

July 26, 2022, Fairfax County Public Schools provided its response to another FOIA request, this one focused on staff correspondence over a few days in May 2022.

For the limited time covered, the FOIA response includes significant information related to the hot-button issue of FCPS’s below-market Independent Educational Evaluation rates.

Although numerous parents through the years have complained to FCPS and/or have filed state complaints about the rates, FCPS has refused to change the rates.

Yet . . . It looks like FCPS has known for years that the rates are a problem.

FOIA Response: Records FCPS Provided to Office of Civil Rights for OCR’s COVID Investigation

January 2021, the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools, for civil rights violations related to the COVID pandemic.

A FOIA request was made for all of the records FCPS provided to OCR for the investigation. In response to the request, FCPS refused to provide the records within the mandated timeline, filed a lawsuit related to the request, and to date has refused to respond to subsequent requests for records and to questions about records responsive to the request.

Over a period of about a month, FCPS provided the records published here.

FOIA: Fairfax County Public Schools Independent Educational Evaluations

Update: This article was published July 2020. It is being updated to include an email indicating Fairfax County Public Schools has long known that its price cap for Independent Educational Evaluations is below market price. FCPS’s low rate limits parents to 1) using private providers who accept FCPS’s low IEE rate or 2) paying the difference out of pocket for providers who don’t accept FCPS’s low rate. The email was obtained via a FOIA request for documents FCPS provided the Office of Civil Rights.

This FOIA request was done in 2018 and was submitted to Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia.

The response includes 528 pages, including how FCPS set its “rates” and letters to providers asking if they’ll accept FCPS rates.

How to Submit a Freedom of Information Act Request

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provides the public access to records held by public bodies.

As FOIA.gov stated, the freedom of information act “is a vital part of our democracy.”

Learn how to write and submit a FOIA request, and learn about some of the issues that may arise in response to your request submission.

Fairfax County Public Schools Leadership Team Annual Employment Contracts

Employment contracts for Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) leadership team were released today. FCPS released them in response to a FOIA request submitted by parent Debra Tisler — and then turned around and attempted to recall the response.

The contracts provided to her today include information that should be publicly available as it details the terms of contracts for FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand and numerous other “leadership team” members who are responsible for the education of Fairfax County’s students and the running of its school system.

Fairfax County School Board’s Legal Fees for Prior Restraint Lawsuit Against Parents Now Expected to Exceed $300,000

“What we’re doing here is — what the defendants are doing is enforcing their rights under the First Amendment, and those rights, enforcing their rights under the First Amendment, is about as high in the public interest scale as you can get.”

~Judge Richard E. Gardiner

November 16, 2021, Judge Richard E. Gardiner ruled that a Fairfax County School Board’s (FCSB) lawsuit against two parents was “about as much a prior restraint as there ever could be” and he characterized one of the Board’s arguments as “almost frivolous.”

As legal fees continue to roll in, the total spent by FCSB now is expected to exceed $300,000.

The irony of the FCSB wasting $200,000+ of taxpayer funds to sue two taxpayers who dared to expose wasteful spending is impossible to ignore.

Fairfax County School Board Spent over $115,000 on a lawsuit it tried to make disappear

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.

Fairfax County Public Schools Restraint and Seclusion Policy training videos

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.

Category: FOIA Bank (page 3)