Monday, May 13, 2013
Some school board members say "disconnect," mistrust still exists between principals, parents.
As the Fairfax County School Board prepares to vote on another round of changes in a years-long push for reform of its discipline policies, board members are struggling to find common ground on when parents should be notified if their child could be suspended or expelled. Fairfax County Public Schools staff returned to the school board Monday with a number of proposed changes to the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, some of them based on a list of 52 recommendations to overhaul discipline practices systemwide a community committee put forth earlier this spring. See all proposed changes here. But parental notification — an issue on which there has been little agreement since the push for reform began following the suicide of two…
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Debate heats up as school board weighs community and staff recommendations before coming school year.
Two weeks after a community committee detailed 52 recommendations to overhaul discipline practices systemwide, Fairfax County Public Schools staff has presented its own proposal for policy changes. But the plan leaves out two programs some see as key to a years-long push for reform — sparking a debate Monday on what role both groups would play in how the system moves forward. Staff leaders backed many of the ideas put forward by the 40-member Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights and Responsibilities, including initiatives to make the discipline handbook easier to understand, keep students in school as they appeal a suspension and give principals tiered, age-specific approaches to a range of offenses. But staff members said they …
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Eyes turn to the Fairfax County School Board as it weighs how to move forward in an overhaul of its disciplinary process.
More than two years after parent advocates rallied for widespread reform to Fairfax County Public Schools' disciplinary procedures, a community committee has made more than 50 recommendations to overhaul the system's practices. Among them: creating a "second chance program" for first-time drug and alcohol offenders, requiring schools in most instances to notify parents before students are questioned and establishing a standing committee to oversee reform. Committee members told the school board Wednesday the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook should also include a separate section for students with disabilities — who make up about 14 percent of the system's population but comprise about 40 percent of suspension and expulsion …
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Meetings across Fairfax County continue years-long conversations on Student Rights and Responsibilities.
Four months after the Fairfax County School Board named members to a committee tasked with reviewing the system's student rights and responsibilities handbook, the group is seeking input from residents on what changes it should consider moving forward. The Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights and Responsibilities (SR&R), created by the board Sept. 20, has traveled across the county this week and will continue to do so through Feb. 23, seeking parent, student and community member feedback on how to improve Fairfax County Public Schools' disciplinary procedures. The meeting closest to Vienna will be held Thursday at McLean High School. The 40-member group — which includes representatives appointed by the county's three major teachers…
Friday, October 12, 2012
Forty-person group charged with reviewing FCPS discipline policies will meet Oct. 24.
The Fairfax County School Board unanimously appointed 40 members Thursday to a newly-created committee tasked with reviewing the system's student rights and responsibilities handbook, putting the body in place to begin its work by the end of October. The Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights and Responsibilities (SR&R), created by the board Sept. 20, includes representatives appointed by the county's three major teachers unions, high school and middle school principal associations, as well as the county's associations for school social workers and psychologists. It also includes Bob Bermingham, Director of the county's Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court, Hearings Officer JD Anderson, and two students. Among the committee'…
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Newly-approved committee charged with reviewing Fairfax County school discipline policy should research prevention, intervention, rehabilitation and restoration, community member says.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
To the Editor: The Fairfax County School Board recently voted to create a 40-member Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights & Responsibilities (SR&R). The group will be comprised of principals, teachers, counselors, and psychologists chosen by their various professional organizations; a representative selected by the county government; an employee from the FCPS hearings office which administers student appeals of expulsion recommendations; and 24 individuals appointed by the school board members from within their magisterial districts. I watched the various discussions and debates over this issue with great interest. I heard several comments about school board members feeling bullied, intimidated and/or threatened by community …
Friday, September 21, 2012
Fairfax County School Board will charge group with reviewing policies, handbook.
The Fairfax County School Board unanimously approved the creation of a 40-member committee charged with reviewing its student rights and responsibilities handbook Thursday, moving forward a months-long reform of its disciplinary process. Members had discussed the makeup of the committee since late last month, falling on opposite sides of debates on whether a list compiled by staff was a good starting point, how many community members should be appointed to the group, who should lead the committee and what kind of message its membership would send to the greater Fairfax County community about both the board and the issue, which has polarized residents in the past few years. While the board spent much of its Thursday meeting discussing what …
Friday, September 7, 2012
Fairfax County School Board to discuss issue further at Monday work session, will vote Sept. 20
Saying they felt they had not yet had a "full, robust" discussion on the makeup of a committee charged with reviewing the system's discipline policies, Fairfax County School Board members delayed a vote Thursday that would have established the 29-member group, pushing discussion to a Monday work session and a final vote to later this month. Though the creation of the committee — the latest of several changes the board has made to its discipline policies during the past year-and-a-half — has been on the table since July, board chairman Ilryong Moon (At-large) said perhaps the board had "not paid [the committee] the close attention it needed to have," particularly with the "number of amendments just proposed in the last few days." Along with…
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Twenty-nine appointees will recommend changes to student handbook
The Fairfax County School Board is scheduled to vote Thursday night to establish a special committee charged with reviewing and recommending changes to the system's Student Rights and Responsibilities (SR&R) manual, continuing a broader reform of its disciplinary process that began nearly two years ago. The 29-person committee — whose members will range from citizens and judicial representatives to administrators and students — will be charged with slimming the 44-page document, making it easier to understand and ensuring it reflects the "community's values, School Board policies and Virginia laws," according to school board documents posted in advance of the meeting. It will deliver its recommendations to the board by March 2013, …
Friday, June 8, 2012
School board approves special committee to launch study of issue and others, present recommendations next year
The Fairfax County School Board made several adjustments Thursday night to its Students Rights and Responsibilities handbook, adding synthetic marijuana to the list of substances that result in a five-day suspension and mandating principals immediately notify police after alcohol, assault, firearm, bomb threat and certain drug violations. But a discussion around whether administrators are required to notify parents at the beginning of a process that could result in a student's suspension or recommendation for expulsion — one of the driving issues behind a push for reform a year-and-a-half ago — was put on hold, a decision praised by some who wanted to "take a step back" for a broader discussion about the board's values but criticized by …
Michele Menapace
11:09 am on Wednesday, May 15, 2013
It seems the best solution to this issue is for parents to be informed before any "investigation" or questioning of any student in any school by any administrator takes place. Parents can be educated about their children's constitutional rights. It would then be incumbent on parents to direct their children to respectfully decline to answer questions or write any statements until a parent is … more ›