Adoption of Fairfax County Educational Equity Policy:

Important Unanswered Questions (Expanded and Revised)

[Author’s Explanation: On July 15, 2023, The Bull Elephant posted my article.  After it had been submitted and posted, I found a School Board document that I had missed in my initial research.  It contained relevant information about the identity of the participants in the focus group sessions, and meetings held by the Equity Policy Steering Committee.  In fairness to the Fairfax County School Board and the readers of the article, I asked The Bull Elephant to remove the original article so that it could be expanded and revised to reflect the additional information that I had found.  The additional information requires me to revise the sentences in my article which had stated that School Board needed to disclose the identities of the participants of the focus group sessions and the group sessions of the Equity Policy Steering Committee.  The original article posted on July 15 may have been read, copied, printed out, or quoted in social media before it was removed at my request.  I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience caused by the need to revise the article.  Any criticism should be directed at me, not The Bull Elephant.]

On June 14, 2023, the Fairfax County School Board (“School Board”) posted its proposed Educational Equity Policy (“Equity Policy”) on its website.  At a public meeting on June 26, 2023, the School Board voted to adopt the Equity Policy.  A video of that School Board meeting is available here.

At least two of the people making statements during the public comment section of the meeting complained that the School Board failed to provide a meaningful opportunity for public vetting and public comment about the Equity Policy.  Also, various other individuals and groups claimed surprise and concern about what they perceived to be a lack of transparency and community participation.  See, e.g., “New ‘Equity’ Policy — FCPS Schedules Key Vote with No Time for Public Engagement!” (June 16, 2023) here.“School Board Wants to Ram Through a New ‘Equity Policy’ Without Public Engagement” (June 25, 2023) here and “Virginia school district under fire over controversial new equity policy” (June 30, 2023) here.

After the adoption of the Equity Policy, the School Board posted a summary of the Equity Policy, which included a section entitled “Policy Adoption Process.”  That summary is available at https://www.fcps.edu/node/47853  A close look at the timeline set forth in the Policy Adoption Process section raises questions about the transparency and openness of the process used by the School Board to develop the Equity Policy.  To understand the reasons for questioning the transparency and openness of the process, it is crucial to start with the verbatim text of the timeline posted on the Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) website:

“July 2022: School Board approves Equity Policy work.

August – October 2022: The Equity Policy Work Group launches the project.

November 2022 – March 2023: Focus groups were conducted to gather initial impressions and feedback about the proposed Equity Policy. Participants included FCPS associations, student groups, and community organizations.

January – February 2023: The Equity Policy Steering Committee held small group sessions and one full committee meeting to collect big ideas and suggestions for added language. Stakeholders included employees, students, parents, community members, and organizational representatives. 

June 20, 2023: School Board work session

June 26, 2023: School Board vote

School Year 2023-24: Policy implemented”

The timeline reference to July 2022 approval of development of the equity policy probably refers to the July 12, 2022 School Board Work Session.

The timeline entries for November 2022-March 2023 and January 2023-February 2023 indicate the Equity Policy process was not conducted by the School Board in a purely in-house fashion.  But a closer reading of those entries raises serious questions about the transparency and openness of the process used by the School Board.

The timeline contains references to the “Equity Policy Work Group” and the “Equity Policy Steering Committee.”  When I searched the FCPS website using the terms “Equity Policy Work Group” and “Equity Policy Steering Committee,” I found no results identifying specific documents with those terms. 

The FCPS website has a list of Standing Committees of the School Board, Citizen Advisory Committees, and School Board Liaisons to Other Organizations posted at https://www.fcps.edu/school-board/school-board-committees   Neither the Equity Policy Working Group nor the Equity Policy Steering Committee appear in that listing.  Why not?

Documentation and videos of meetings of the School Board and School Board Committees are available here.

Searching that webpage, I found no specific references to documentation or videos linked to meetings of either the Equity Policy Working Group or the Equity Policy Steering Committee. But I did find various references and documentation about the Equity Policy associated with the meetings of the Public Engagement Committee of the School Board.

What is the Public Engagement Committee?  The Committee’s webpage at 

https://www.fcps.edu/committee/public-engagement-committee includes the following language: “Committee Charge  To plan strategies, topics, timelines, and other matters related to Board/community dialogue and to coordinate physical logistics related to the Board’s outreach to stakeholders.”  The language of the charge to the Public Engagement Committee — its references to strategies, timelines, Board/community dialogue and Board outreach to stakeholders — indicate the Committee should have had some kind of role in the adoption process of the Equity Policy.  Research of the agendas of Public Engagement Committee meetings shows that it was involved with the Equity Policy public engagement process, even though the School Board timeline quoted earlier does not mention the Public Engagement Committee.

References and documentation pertaining to the Equity Policy can be found in connection with the following meetings of the Public Engagement Committee: (1) March 29, 2023; (2) April 19, 2023; (3) May 10, 2023; (4) May 17, 2023; and (5) June 28, 2023.  Because the June 28, 2023 meeting occurred after the Board adopted the Equity Policy, it is not relevant to understanding what information was available to the general public about the development of the Equity Policy before the Board’s adoption of that policy.  Although I summarize portions of that documentation, I strongly urge people to read the documentation themselves.

The Agenda Item Details for the March 29, 2023 meeting include a link to a document captioned “Equity Policy Communications-Engagement Plan 2022_3-28-23.pdf.”  Page 1 of the document includes the following sentences: (1) “Note: Board requested that the process does not go through governance (a smaller group), to make sure the entire board is involved and the process is transparent.” (italics in original) and (2) “The Equity Policy is being developed by a collaborative working group championed by Iona Spikes, director equity; Kim Amenabar, manager equity and closing achievement gaps; and Alisha Martinez, project manager.”  Page 3 of the document includes the sentences: “August 2022-October 2022 – Equity Policy Work Group launches project and develops structures for stakeholder engagement” and “November 2022-February 2023 – Public Engagement and Feedback.”  Page 4 of the document indicates: (a) the focus groups were facilitated by the Equity Policy Working Group; (b) participants in the focus groups included “FCPS associations, student groups, and community organizations”; (c) the Equity Policy Steering Committee held 6 small group sessions in January 2023 and a full committee meeting in February 2023; and (d) “Stakeholders included employees, students, parents, community members, organizational representatives.”

The Agenda Item Details for the April 19, 2023 and May 10, 2023 meetings contain the phrase “Review Equity Policy Community Engagement Plan.”

The Agenda Items Details for the May 17, 2023 meeting contains the phrase “Review and discuss Equity Policy Engagement Plan”.  The Agenda Item Details also include a link to a document captioned  “Equity Policy C&E Plan 2022_5-16-23.pdf.”  The contents of that document largely duplicates the information contained in the document captioned “Equity Policy Communications-Engagement Plan 2022_3-28-23.pdf (discussed above).

The School Board held a work session on June 21, 2023.  According to the Agenda Item Details for that working session, there was an item “5. Educational Equity Policy Work Session.”  In the Agenda Items Detail there is a link to a document captioned “SB Equity Policy Work Session 6_21_23.pdf.”  That document provides information about the focus groups sessions, and meetings held by the Equity Policy Steering Committee.

Page 13 of the document is captioned “Spotlight Stakeholder Engagement” followed with ‘

the words “311 Touchpoints,” and has a timeline which includes the following information:

November 2022 — Focus Groups, ISD Equity Leads (22)

December 2022 — Focus Groups, Interfaith Council (20), MSAOC (47)

January 2023 — Equity Policy Steering Committee, 5 sessions (54) and Focus Groups, FAESP (12) and AEA (15)

February 2023 — Equity Policy Steering Committee, whole group session (52) and Focus Groups, TPAC (43)

March 2023 — Focus Groups, HEA (9), FABSE (5), SEPTA (12), FCCPTAs (15), SHAC (2), FAESP (3), MSPA (4), HSPA (5) and SEALS (5)

Page 14 of the document is captioned “Focus Group Participants,” the next line states “18 sessions from November 2022 through March 2023″ and lists the following organizations:

Asian Educators Association (AEA); Family Liaisons; Fairfax Association of Black School Educators (FABSE); Fairfax Association of Elementary Principals (FAESP); Fairfax County Council of PTAs; High School Principal Association (HSPA); Hispanic Educators Association (HES); Interfaith Council; ISD Equity Leads; Middle School Principal Association (MSPA); Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee (MSAOC); Special Education Parent Teacher Association (SEPTA); Student Equity Ambassador Leaders (SEALs); and Title I Parent Advisory Committee.

Page 15 of the document is captioned “Equity Policy Steering Committee Participants,” followed with the words “6 sessions held between January & February,” and lists the following participants:

FCPS Employees; FCPS Students; Parents; Community Members; and Organizational Representatives from: Fairfax County Council of PTAs; Fairfax County Government; Fairfax County NAACP; Fairfax County Parent Association; FCPS PRIDE; FAM; Houses of Worship; Interfaith Council; JCRC; Moms for Liberty; MOMNetwork; MSAOC; SEPTA; TPAC, and Trauma Informed Community Network.

The School Board Working Session document provides information about the participants in the focus group sessions, and the participants in the 6 groups sessions with the Equity Policy Steering Committee.  But it does not provide information to the following questions:

With respect to the focus groups: What criterion was used to select participants for the focus groups?  Who decided which individuals and organizational representatives were selected for the focus groups?  Why were the particular organizations selected to have representatives participate in the focus groups?  What efforts were made to include other organizations and members of the Fairfax County general public in the focus group process?

With respect to the Equity Policy Steering Committee’s small group sessions and full committee meeting:  Were the small group sessions and full committee meeting of the Equity Policy Steering Committee open to the public or closed to the public?  Who selected the participants for the small group sessions?  Who selected the participants for the February 2023 whole group session?  What criterion was used to select those particular stakeholders?  What efforts did the Steering Committee make to include other organizations and members of the Fairfax County general public in the small group sessions and the full committee meeting?

Finally, the timeline on page 12 of the School Board Work Session document has an interesting entry: “Equity Policy Update for Cabinet —— November 15, 2022.”  Where in the table of organization of the Fairfax County School Board or Fairfax County Government is the “Cabinet” located?  Who are the members of the “Cabinet”?  What are the duties and responsibilities of the “Cabinet”?  Why is the School Board reporting to the “Cabinet”?

Returning to the language of the Equity Policy timeline posted on the FCPS web page, several additional questions come to mind.

Who are the members of the Equity Policy Working Group?  How were those members selected?  What are the duties, responsibilities, and authority of the Equity Policy Working Group?  To whom does that Group report?  Does the Equity Policy Working Group coordinate or interact with the Public Engagement Committee or the School Board as a whole?  Does the Public Engagement Committee or the School Board direct or supervise the Equity Policy Working Group?  What is the relationship, if any, between the Equity Policy Work Group and the Equity Policy Steering Committee?

Who are the members of the Equity Policy Steering Committee?  How were those members selected?  What are the duties, responsibilities, and authority of the Equity Policy Steering Committee?  To whom does the Steering Committee report?  Does the Equity Policy Steering Committee coordinate or interact with the Public Engagement Committee or the School Board as a whole?  Does the Public Engagement Committee or the School Board direct or supervise the Equity Policy Steering Committee?  What is the relationship, if any, between the Equity Policy Steering Committee and the Equity Policy Working Group?

The School Board timeline posted on its website indicates that focus groups were conducted during November 2022 – March 2023.  A document associated with the March 29, 2023 meeting of the Public Engagement Committee notes: (1) the focus groups were “Facilitated by the Equity Policy Working Group,” and (2) “August 2022-October 2022 – Equity Policy Work Group launches project and develops structures for stakeholder engagement.”  Did the Equity Policy Working Group just develop the stakeholder engagement or did it also execute or implement it?

The School Board needs to answer fully and candidly many significant questions about the Equity Policy’s development and its efforts to engage people and groups outside the School Board and FCPS.  Without such answers, how can the people of Fairfax County have confidence that the School Board has been operating with meaningful openness and transparency while developing the Equity Policy?  Although this article suggests some of the questions that need to be answered by the School Board, it is possible that other members of the general public looking at the documentation referred to in this article may think of other, additional relevant questions that the School Board should answer about its development of the Equity Policy.

Under the Virginia Constitution (Article I, Section 2), government officials are accountable to the people.  The School Board is no exception, and it is accountable to the people of Fairfax County — not just to stakeholders it chooses to select, consult with, and rely on for advice.

Under Virginia Code, § 1-240.1 (Rights of parents), “A parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.”  Such a fundamental right would be impaired if parents with children in FCPS: (a) are deprived of reasonable notice and a meaningful opportunity to be consulted and heard from during the development of significant school policies that directly affect the education of their children; and (b) are not given reasonable notice and a meaningful opportunity to review draft policy proposals and to submit comments about them before the School Board votes to adopt significant school policies that directly affect the education of their children.

In the upcoming November 2023 election, Fairfax County voters should demand that any School Board member running for reelection explain: (1) how and why the development of the Equity Policy occurred as it did; and (2) explain how the public engagement process used by the School Board provided the openness and transparency necessary to give the general public and parents with children in FCPS a meaningful opportunity to (a) participate in the development of the Equity Policy and (b) have a meaningful opportunity to comment on the draft proposed Equity Policy before the School Board voted to adopt it.

(photo above is Fairfax County School Board)