Back in March, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology student Daniil Prokofev went for an 8-mile run from the Lincolnia school to his home. That run led to the development of a web-based app that will someday be able to help all Fairfax County Public Schools students find safe routes to school.
The route Prokofev took on his run in March, suggested by Google Maps, wasn’t particularly safe, as several sections had no sidewalks and there were busy intersections to cross.
Fairfax County Public Schools will examine its use of instructional apps and software, following two recent unanimous votes from the school board.
At its Oct. 8 meeting, the Fairfax County School Board, by an 8-4 vote, approved a carve-out in the division’s digital device restrictions to allow kindergarteners in need of additional reading support to use the literacy program Lexia during this academic year — a move that affects about 30% of kindergarteners.
Fairfax County Public Schools’ legal bid to restore funding withheld by the U.S. Department of Education due to its policies supporting transgender and other gender-expansive students has found new life.
A three-judge panel from the U.S. Appeals Court for the Fourth Circuit ruled 2-1 yesterday (Thursday) to send the lawsuit filed by FCPS and Arlington Public Schools (APS) in August 2025 back to a federal district court that had previously dismissed the complaint.
Fairfax County Public Schools this week celebrated the launch of a new program to help young learners make safe choices in the water with an immersive “water safety festival” featuring visits from Olympic swimmers.
Students from grades 3-5 gathered at the Skyview High School swimming pool on Tuesday (Oct. 13) to try out the basics of swimming, paddle from inside an inflatable boat, and hear from two-time Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones. Maritza Correia McClendon, an Olympic silver medalist, also visited earlier in the day.
Fairfax County Public Schools has acquired a quantum computer, touted as the world’s first for kindergarten through 12th-grade students, for its new Skyview High School in the Floris area south of Herndon.
Roughly the size of a small refrigerator, the computer is expected to be installed in December and become available next spring to FCPS students, enabling them to explore quantum concepts, understand how the machine differs from a traditional computer, and test problems.
Fairfax County Public Schools leaders say they are making staffing adjustments in the wake of a year-over-year decline in student enrollment that seems to have caught them by surprise, though the downward trend isn’t new.
As a result, the school division will work to do better forecasting so there are fewer enrollment surprises in the future, Superintendent Michelle Reid told the Fairfax County School Board last Thursday (Oct. 8).
Members of Fairfax County’s General Assembly delegation are asking county supervisors and school board members to lower the rhetoric when it comes to state funding for local K-12 education.
“Be thoughtful about the way you talk,” Del. Laura Jane Cohen (D-16) told the Board of Supervisors during an Oct. 6 joint work session between the board and the county’s state legislative representatives.
The former principal of Hayfield Secondary School is accused of spending nearly $8,000 in school funds for personal expenses and has been charged with felony embezzlement, Fairfax County Police said yesterday (Sept. 30).
Darin Thompson, 51, of Lorton, turned himself in to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center yesterday after police obtained a warrant for his arrest. He was released on a $3,000 unsecured bond.
Some teachers at Lake Braddock Secondary School are pushing back against a relatively new job duty: weapons detection.
The staff members say that they are not qualified nor the appropriate personnel to screen for weapons as students pass through OpenGate security systems at the Burke school. As part of the ongoing dispute, the Fairfax Education Unions — a partnership between the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers and Fairfax Education Association, the labor unions representing non-managerial employees — has filed a formal grievance against FCPS.
The Fairfax County School Board voted unanimously Thursday (Sept. 24) to ban the use of Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers (ALPRs) on school property.
The motion, introduced by at-large member Kyle McDaniel and seconded by Springfield District representative Sandy Anderson, prohibits the “installation, procurement, or leasing” of ALPRs on property owned by the school board. It has no impact on the school system’s internal video cameras, speed cameras or school bus stop-arm cameras.
