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One FOIA Request, Two Responses: Office for Civil Rights Provides Redacted Records, Fairfax County Public Schools Refuses and Claims Exemptions
Southern Atlantic and Southern Central States

One FOIA Request, Two Responses: Office for Civil Rights Provides Redacted Records, Fairfax County Public Schools Refuses and Claims Exemptions

FCPS continues its practice of refusing access to records under the guise of student privacy.

Callie Oettinger
Jun 24, 2025
∙ Paid

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Special Education Action
Special Education Action
One FOIA Request, Two Responses: Office for Civil Rights Provides Redacted Records, Fairfax County Public Schools Refuses and Claims Exemptions
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June 23, 2025, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) refused to release documents that U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) had already made public—raising serious concerns about transparency, records access, and overreach in the name of student privacy.

The story begins October 6, 2023, when I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with OCR. My request was simple and specific:

"1) Please provide all letters issued from OCR to Lisa Coons and/or Jillian Balow between Jan. 1, 2020, and today.
2) Please provide all findings OCR has issued on Fairfax County Public Schools between Dec. 1, 2022, and today."

After over a year and a half of waiting, OCR provided a response June 4, 2025. Its FOIA response included several documents, notably a PDF copy of the July 27, 2023, letter of findings for OCR Case No. 11-23-1168, addressed to FCPS.

I responded to OCR, asking for missing documents and filed a FOIA request to FCPS for the following, just in case OCR took another year and a half to respond:

“This is a FOIA request regarding Office for Civil Rights Case No. 11-23-1168. Please provide me the notification letter, the findings letter, and the resolution agreement.”

Later that day, OCR responded via email, with a public link to the corresponding resolution agreement for Case No. 11-23-1168 and with a public link for a separate resolution agreement (with VDOE).

June 23, 2025, FCPS responded via email, denying access to the records for OCR Case No. 11-23-1168 in their entirety:

“Please be advised that the records requested are exempt from release, either in whole or in part, because they contain information related to other students that is uniquely identifying. Specifically, the records that are being withheld relate to the personally identifiable information of individual students and there are approximately 10 pages being withheld in their entirety. These records are being withheld pursuant to Va. Code § 2.2-3705.4(A)(1) and the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).”

June 23, 2025, Letter from FCPS
155KB ∙ PDF file
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This exemption claim raises red flags, especially considering that OCR had already disclosed redacted versions of these records to the public. OCR, like FCPS, must comply with FERPA and routinely redacts personally identifiable information before releasing documents. That begs the question: why is FCPS claiming it cannot release records that OCR has already determined can be released?

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