Virginia Department of Education's Inaction Hurts Students
After VDOE ignored systemic noncompliance in 2018, a student in 2024 was restrained and suspended due to the same noncompliance at the same Fairfax County Public Schools high school.
In 2018 a parent filed a complaint with Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), alleging South County High School (SCHS) in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), Virginia failed to implement her child’s individualized education program (IEP) on the first day of school. The noncompliance centered on the student’s flash-pass accommodation. A flash pass is a pass that lets a student leave immediately without explanation when the student needs medical attention, is overwhelmed, needs to speak with a trusted adult, and so on.
In FCPS’s response to the complaint, SCHS’s special‑education director admitted the school’s practice was to hand out flash passes by the end of the first week, not on day one of the school year. VDOE nonetheless found the school in compliance, concluding that issuing the pass on the third day satisfied the requirement to implement the IEP “as soon as possible”.
In 2024 another freshman entered the same school without receiving a flash pass on the first day or any training on how to access a trusted adult. Within days he became dysregulated. Because he had no pass and did not know how to request a break, the situation escalated until staff restrained him, a school resource officer removed him to the office, and he was suspended. He ultimately missed 5½ weeks of school.
In February 2025, after the student’s mother filed a complaint, VDOE found FCPS out of compliance and determined that the student had been denied a free appropriate public education (FAPE).
At the beginning of the 2025‑26 school year, SCHS finally issued a flash pass to the 2024 student on day one of the school year—seven years after the 2018 parent first alerted VDOE to the systemic delay. However, another FCPS high school still failed to provide a flash pass on day one to a different freshman. The parent for this third freshman declined to file a complaint for fear of retaliation. It remains unclear whether SCHS corrected its practice for all students or only for the student involved in the 2024 case.
Below you’ll find more details about what happened in 2018 and 2024, the striking similarities between the two, and the glaring systemic noncompliance VDOE and FCPS failed to stop.