Going Local: Virginia - Special Education Action

Former VDOE Superintendent James Lane Heads to Washington; How Will U.S. Dept. of Education Defend Hiring the Official Who Reigned Over Years of VDOE Failures?

James Lane, the former superintendent of public instruction at the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is making a move from Richmond to Washington, D.C.

How will USDOE defend hiring the senior official who reigned over so many years of failure?

Office of Civil Rights Opens Investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools; Retaliation

Fairfax County Public Schools is again the focus of an investigation by the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

January 27, 2022, OCR issued a letter announcing the opening of the investigation.

Retaliatory actions are the focus of the complaint.

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.

1.28.22 VDOE systemic letter of findings on Loudon County Public Schools

Loudon County Public Schools at Fault for Systemic Violations Related to Independent Educational Evaluations; Must Reimburse Parents for Out-of-Pocket Costs

January 28, 2022, the Virginia Department of Education issued a Letter of Findings in which it ruled Loudon County Public Schools “to be in noncompliance with regard to cost containment criteria, submission or reports, and pre-evaluation discussions,” related to Independent Educational Evaluations.

In a surprising move from a state agency averse to investigating complaints at a systemic level, VDOE ordered LCPS to “reimburse parents who have paid out of pocket for IEEs due to the unreasonable cost containment criteria,” which means the Corrective Action Plan encompasses parents who were not included in the initial complaint.

FCPS at Fault for Two More Privacy Breaches; Released Mental Health Information About Almost 60 Thomas Jefferson High School Students

October 8th and 28th of 2021, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) again breached the privacy of its students, to include sharing mental health-related information for about 60 Thomas Jefferson High School students.

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.

Update on Fairfax County School Board’s Legal Action Against Parents

September 2021, Fairfax County School Board took legal action against me and fellow Fairfax County Public Schools parent Debra Tisler after we exercised our First Amendment Rights.

This article provides an update to the timeline I provided in the article “FCPS Threatens Legal Action Against Parents Who Exercised Their First Amendment Rights And Right To FOIA”.

You’ll find more information about FCPS’s history of breaches and failures to stop the breaches, the transcript for the October 22, 2021, hearing, and FCPS’s response to VDOE’s investigation.

FCSB Files Motion for Nonsuit after Suing Parents and Failing to Prevail in Court; Judge Signs Order to Nonsuit

Fairfax County School Board (FCSB) filed a “Motion for Nonsuit” after failing to prevail in its lawsuit against me and another Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) parent. December 22, 2021, Judge Richard E. Gardiner signed an “Order to Nonsuit”.

Although the nonsuit removes the suit from the docket—as if it never happened—the suit happened and won’t be forgotten.

Prior restraint is not legal.

Court Transcripts: Fairfax County School Board vs. Tisler, et al.

I continue to be asked if I’d share the court transcripts related to Fairfax County School Board’s (FCSB) lawsuit against me and Debra Tisler.

The transcripts can be found in the article “Update on Fairfax County School Board’s Legal Action Against Parents,” which is a running update of what’s going on with the case.

I’m posting them again here, for easy access.

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.

Clue of the Date: 12.3.21

Clue of the Day

What is Fairfax County Public Schools trying to hide?

“Attention to email correspondence with C. Rosenberg regarding status of investigation and communications with DOJ.

“Conference call with AUSA Pedersen regarding status and developments.”

Fairfax County Public Schools Found in Violation of FERPA; Virginia Department of Education Refuses to Find FCPS at Fault for Systemic Noncompliance

November 26, 2021, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) was found in noncompliance of FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) regulations by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE).

VDOE concluded that that the legal invoices at the core of the investigation, which contain personally identifiable information (PII) about children, “are maintained by the school division, therefore they are education records under FERPA and this matter is within our jurisdiction.” In addition, VDOE rejected the following argument posed by FCPS, thus acknowledging that initials constitute PII:

“Under the definition of PII, information is PII if it is possible to identify a student with reasonable certainty. In this case, students E1 and E2 have a different last name as the parent, and so the disclosure of parent name does not make the students identifiable.”

Although VDOE determined the matter in its jurisdiction and once again found FCPS noncompliance, VDOE refused to place weight on the thousands of students whose privacy FCPS has breached over the past five years, and did not “characterize” FCPS’s noncompliance as systemic.