FCPS FOIA Response: How FCPS Ascertains the Prevailing rate for IEE Assessments and Written Guidelines for Independent Education Evaluations

In 2019, a Fairfax County Public Schools parent submitted a FOIA request for “Information on how FCPS ascertained the prevailing rate for IEE assessments within the Washington DC metro area as written on your Guidelines for Independent Education Evaluations.”

FCPS FOIA Response: How FCPS Ascertains the Prevailing rate for IEE Assessments and Written Guidelines for Independent Education Evaluations

August 8, 2019, a Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) parent submitted a FOIA request for the following:

"Information on how FCPS ascertained the prevailing rate for IEE assessments within the Washington DC metro area as written on your Guidelines for Independent Education Evaluations."

August 15, 2019, FCPS' FOIA officer provided dozens of pages of emails from 2017, in which FCPS asked private providers if they would accept FCPS' IEE rates, and the providers responses, as well as a spreadsheet indicating FCPS based its rates on an average of what it had paid previously, rather than basing it on the actual going rate in the area.

Since 2017 rate setting was provided for a 2019 FOIA response, it was clear FCPS had not updated its rates in years. A 2022 FOIA response indicated that FCPS kept the same rates between 2017 and 2023.