School Board Delays In-Person Return For Fairfax County Students

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — On Tuesday, the Fairfax County School Board opted to not begin the return to in-person instruction for groups of students.

After winter break, Fairfax County Public Schools kept all student groups in virtual education during the week of Jan. 4 to 8. Under Superintendent Scott Brabrand's return to school plan, the first four groups would have returned on Jan. 12. That included some career and technical education and special education students.

Group 5, which includes PreK, kindergarten and more special education students, would have returned on Jan. 19. FCPS delayed the return of its group 5 students on Nov. 16 and moved group 4 back to virtual learning on Nov. 23.

Other return dates would have been Jan. 26 for Group 6 (grades 1 and 2) and group 8 (grades 7, 9 and 12 and grade 6 at Poe, Glasgow and Holmes), Feb. 2 for group 7 (grades 3 and 4), and Feb. 9 for group 7 (grades 5 and 6) and group 8 (grades 8, 10 and 11 and grades 7 and 8 at Poe, Glasgow and Holmes).

Brabrand will present another return to school proposal to the school board on Feb. 2.

Before the school board met, one of Fairfax County's teachers unions reiterated its stance against the return to in-person instruction. The Fairfax County Federation of Teachers cited rising coronavirus cases and urged FCPS to adopt its 11 Pillars of a Safe Reopening. Under those pillars, the positivity rate would be below 5 percent, there would be a decline in new cases for 14 days, and the transmission rate would be below 1.

"We all want nothing more than for students and staff to return to school for face-to-face instruction, but right now, it just is not safe," said Tina Williams, president of Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, before Tuesday's school board meeting.

The school district has been using two core indicators identified by the CDC for school reopening decision-making: the number of new cases per 100,000 people within the last 14 days and the regional percentage of positive PCR COVID-19 tests within the last 14 days. FCPS tracks this data daily on its health metrics dashboard. As of Jan. 5, the cases per 100K residents are 510.1, and percentage of positive tests is 12.5 percent. Both are classified as having the highest risk for transmission in schools.

In December, FCPS announced safety teams to conduct checks of how schools are implementing five mitigation strategies for COVID-19, the CDC's third core indicator for reopening decisions. The strategies include consistent and correct use of masks, social distancing to the extent possible, hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, cleaning and disinfection, and contact tracing in collaboration with local health department. During the week of Dec. 14, FCPS gave itself a score of 3.9 for ability of schools to implement mitigation strategies, which is considered having moderate risk for transmission in schools.

From Sept. 8 to the present, FCPS has reported 649 total coronavirus cases — 461 among staff, 116 among students, 51 among multi-site staff and 21 among visitors. According to FCPS data, one school has had two coronavirus outbreaks between Sept. 8 and Jan. 2. There have been 17 schools with one outbreak and 181 schools with no outbreaks.