Fairfax County Public Schools Withheld Records from Office of Civil Rights; FCPS Didn’t Provide Full Response to OCR’s Investigation Data Request

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) failed to provide the United States Department of Education (USDOE) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) a full response to OCR’s request for data.

January 12, 2021, OCR launched an investigation into FCPS, for civil rights violations related to the COVID pandemic.

May 4, 2021, OCR submitted an “Initial Data Request Letter” to Superintendent Scott Brabrand, which has a focus on “what the Division has done to address any denial of free appropriate public education (FAPE) that has occurred for students with disabilities while the Division has offered remote learning in response to the pandemic.

What Did OCR Request?

OCR’s initial data request states the following:

Please provide the following information, documents, and/or records developed, utilized, received, and/or disseminated during the period beginning when the Division first closed schools in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (the pandemic) to the present time:

1. The Division’s narrative response to the issue identifies above—what the Division has done to address the effects of any pandemic-related disruptions in services required to meet the individual educational needs of students with disabilities pursuant to 34 C.F.R. 104.33—and all documents or records referenced in the narrative response. Please include a timeline that provides all relevant dates, including: the date of initial school closure March 2020; the date when the Division first began using remote learning in response to the pandemic; and any opportunities for in-person learning provided to students with and without disabilities during the pandemic;

2. The Division’s policies and procedures to ensure that students with disabilities received a FAPE while the Division has been offering remote learning in response to the pandemic, including evaluations and modifying, as appropriate, Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and Section 504 plans while the Division has been offering remote learning, and developing contingency or temporary learning plans;

3. The Decision’s policies and procedures pertaining to the provision of “recovery services” and compensatory services for students with disabilities while the Division has been offering remote learning in response to the pandemic, and the dates on which each policy/procedure came into effect;

4. Copies of all training materials presented and/or disseminated to Division staff concerning the definition of the term “recovery service” and the process for determining if and when such services are appropriate for students with disabilities;

5. All correspondence among Division staff concerning the definition of the term “recovery services” and the process for determining if and when such services are appropriate for students with disabilities, and how the Division determined what “recovery services” it would provide eligible students;

6. All correspondence among Division staff concerning the provision of compensatory services and the process for determining if and when such compensatory services are appropriate for students with disabilities;

7. If not already provided in response to the above, please provide any documentation, communications, and training materials explaining if and when students who have received “recovery services” could also receive compensatory services;

8. Copies of all communications and information disseminated to parents/guardians of students with disabilities pertaining to the provisions of compensatory services and/or “recovery services,” excluding communications between a parent/guardian and a staff member about an individual student;

9. Please provide a narrative response and any related documentation explaining whether the Division has required students to receive “recovery services” and/or compensatory services in a particular format (e.g., in-person), and what occurs if the parent declines or refuses such services;

10. The name and contact information of the Division’s Section 504 Coordinator; and

11) Any additional information that the Division believes may be helpful in resolving this complaint.

What Did FCPS Provide OCR?

According to a FOIA response provided by FCPS, FCPS provided OCR thousands of documents and records, to include the following seven videos (they are listed according to the file names provided by FCPS):

What Did FCPS Withhold from OCR?

February 18, 2021, I published an article featuring FCPS videos related to recovery services. I had obtained these videos from FCPS’s Special Education Hub and FCPS’s 24/7 Learning sites. Yet, the majority of these videos, the associated chat room conversations and the other materials related to the trainings were not provided in FCPS’s response to OCR.

Below you’ll find a short list of some of the video trainings and related records FCPS failed to provide to OCR:

  • September 14, 2020, Trainings
    • “Special Education Principal Updates/Elementary School Principals”
      • Video
      • chatroom
    • “Special Education Principal Updates/Secondary School Principals”
      • Video
      • chatroom
  • January 25, 2021, Training
    • Special Education Lead Teacher Meeting
    • video

In addition to the videos listed above, FCPS failed to provide 1) presentations for school board meetings at which FCSB discussed virtual learning and recovery services; and 2) social media posts, such as Facebook Live Sessions with Superintendent Scott Brabrand, in which he discussed recovery services.

An audit of documents FCPS alleged it provided to OCR is being compared to records and other documents obtained via other sources, to identify more responsive records that FCPS withheld from OCR. This article will be updated as more records are identified. (Links to the videos, chatrooms, and other materials will continue to be added, too.)

1 comment on “Fairfax County Public Schools Withheld Records from Office of Civil Rights; FCPS Didn’t Provide Full Response to OCR’s Investigation Data Request”

  1. Thank you for covering this. Horrible but I’m not surprised by this at all. This is the same approach FCPS took when I approached them about their failure to do a single thing to implement my child’s 504 – deny, deny, deny and hide negative evidence or recreate fake positive evidence.

    Reply

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