June 6, 2023, Virginia Department of Education found Fairfax County Public Schools at fault for systemic noncompliance regarding FCPS’s local administrative review process.
The complaint on which VDOE’s findings are based was filed April 7, 2023, and alleges FCPS for years misled parents about their procedural safeguards, by leading them to believe a local administrative review within FCPS, done by a hearing officer that is an employee of FCPS, is in compliance with IDEA and implementing state regulations. Hence, parents have taken this local administrative review route, at which there is no impartial hearing officer and no hearing in compliance with IDEA or implementing state regs.
In addition, the complaint alleges FCPS believes it can operate outside of federal and implementing state regs by forwarding an appeal option that 1) is not in compliance with IDEA, Sec 504, or VAC, and 2) by its own existence in FCPS’s student rights & responsibility manual, and on the FCPS site, falsely lead parents to believe that they are accessing procedural safeguards under federal and state implementing regs.