FOIA Bank - Special Education Action

Fairfax County Public Schools Leaked Its Own Legal Invoices

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) leaked almost 1500 pages of its own legal invoices—and again breached the privacy of students, parents, and FCPS staff. The documents vary from being partially redacted to being entirely free of redactions.

In addition to sharing unredacted information about Due Process Hearings and Equity and Employee Relations Complaints (including staff grievances and dismissals), the following is a short list of some of the information within the documents:

Heartbreaking information related to children who died on FCPS’s watch, as well as the names of the children and their parents was included, as was information about FCPS’s restraint and seclusion problems.

Cyber Hacking Investigation

Blackboard Investigation

Coalition for TJ Lawsuit

Recall of Elaine Tholen

Email from Stephen Hunt to Alice Farling

Your Fairfax County School Board Member: Stephen Hunt

Stephen Hunt served as an at-large member of the Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) between 2004-2007.

Why bring him up now?

For over 15 years, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has been failing students who have special education needs. FCSB and FCPS knew this 15 years ago and they know it now.

August 21, 2006, Stephen sent an email to Alice Farling, who at the time was the assistant superintendent of FCPS’s Department of Special Services. The subject of the email?

Problems with FCPS’s special education program.

10.1.21 Karen Keys-Gamarra Twitter follower

Your Fairfax County School Board Member: Karen Keys-Gamarra

This marks the launch of a new series that will feature information, documents, emails, recordings, and so on, related to Fairfax County School Board members and Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) special education program.

I’m starting with Karen Keys-Gamarra for no other reason than that I happened to tap into an email of hers for another article I posted today.

Less James Bond and More Sherlock Holmes

Obtaining information that might help you make a case in favor of helping your student—or which could prove the noncompliance of your school district—is often a matter of paying attention to what’s around you.

Years ago I had the honor of working with LTG Samuel Vaughan Wilson. General Sam was the youngest of Merrill’s Marauders and went on to have an extraordinary career in the military in the decades that followed. (Too much to include here.)

He once told me that obtaining information is less about being James Bond and more about being Sherlock Holmes. We don’t need hi-tech devices to obtain the information we need. Often, it is staring us right in the face.

FOIA Release: Fairfax County Public Schools’ 4.1.20 Special Education Department Chair and 504 Meeting

The video, video chat, and video transcript in this article are from Fairfax County Public Schoolsâ€™ (FCPS) 4.1.20 Special Education Chair and 504 Meeting.

FOIA Release: Fairfax County Public Schools’ 9.21.20 Special Education Chair Meetings

The documents and videos in this article relate to the morning and afternoon sessions of Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) 9.21.20 Special Education Chair Meeting.

Both meetings cover the following topics:

FCPS Online Campus

Data Collection

Sharing Successes

Career and Transition Services

Recovery Services

Due Process & Eligibility and SEA-STARS

OSEI Updates

Related Services

View Fairfax County Public Schools’ “Concurrent Instruction Professional Development Guidebook”

This post shares Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) “Concurrent Instruction Professional Development Guidebook”.

Documents, images, and videos noted within the guidebook are included as well.

FOIA Release: Compensatory Services and Governor Northam’s Staff; Please Tell Us Our Tax Dollars Didn’t Pay For This

Governor Northam’s office provided the document below, in response to a FOIA request.

It reads like a report modeled on a deflated balloon. “Full” isn’t a word to associate with it.

At this point in the game, states across the nation have been facing this topic since Spring 2020. Fingers crossed that a) more research is being done and b) that any related charges are minimal (or waived).

Category: FOIA Bank (page 4)