Student Who Uses a Letterboard Wins Rare Due Process Case Against Fairfax County Public Schools (VA)

A Virginia hearing officer found Fairfax County Public Schools denied FAPE after failing to timely implement the student’s communication access.

May 23, 2026, Virginia special education Hearing Officer Polly Chong issued a decision in VDOE Case No. 26-016 finding that Fairfax County Public Schools denied a student a free appropriate public education, or FAPE, under IDEA. It’s a significant win for the student, parent, and larger community of similarly situated students who are nonspeaking and who communicate by spelling on a letterboard or keyboard with support from a trained Communication and Regulation Partner (CRP).

The decision is significant in Virginia, too. A 2025 external review of Virginia’s special education dispute resolution system reported that, between school years 2015-16 and 2019-20, parents fully prevailed in only four of 47 fully adjudicated due process hearings, with split decisions in four more. JLARC’s 2020 report similarly found that, between school years 2010-11 and 2019-20, parents fully or partially prevailed in only 17 percent of fully adjudicated due process hearings.

The decision states that the student is eligible for special education under Autism and Significant Communication Needs. It also identifies diagnoses reported in the amended due process complaint, including ADHD, autism, apraxia, sensory processing disorder, and anxiety. The June 1, 2023, IEP stated that, because of the student’s disability-related needs, his primary preferred communication method required a letterboard to spell his communication, and that his fluency required support from a trusted and familiar individual trained in that communication method.

That language became the center of the case.