Parents, teachers and students urge Fairfax school board to preserve elementary special‑education chairs, AARTs and monitors amid FY2026 budget shortfall

Dozens of teachers, parents and students told the Fairfax County Public Schools board on the record that reducing full‑time elementary special‑education department chairs, Advanced Academic Resource Teachers (AARTs) and classroom monitors would harm students and increase legal and operational risk.

The public hearing on the fiscal year 2026 proposed budget drew more than 80 speakers who said the county’s underfunding of FCPS left the school system facing roughly a $120 million shortfall that the division is attempting to close while preserving a negotiated 6% pay increase for many staff. Speakers repeatedly flagged proposals to convert dozens of school‑based full‑time roles to half‑time as the largest classroom‑facing cuts in the superintendent’s package.

Why it matters: School leaders and special‑education advocates said the positions targeted for reduction are attendance‑critical at the elementary level — the point where many students are identified for special services and where early intervention is most effective. They warned that splitting or sharing department chairs and AARTs across schools would reduce direct student supports, increase teachers’ noninstructional workloads, and could expose the division to compliance problems under federal special‑education law.

At the hearing, Joanne Walton, a special‑education teacher at a Title I elementary school, said, “These proposed cuts to elementary school staff are unacceptable.” Amanda Campbell, president of Fairfax County SEPTA, told the board: “Mentoring, coaching, and training are not optional. They are critical to ensuring our students’ access to a free and appropriate public education.”

Speakers described how department chairs coordinate IEP timelines, conduct educational testing, run local screening and reevaluation meetings, mentor provisionally licensed teachers, and provide immediate responses to behavioral crises that allow classrooms to continue instruction. Janan Hawthorne, an elementary special‑education department chair, summarized the staff view: “Full‑time department chairs are not a luxury. They are a necessity.”

Advanced academic staff also drew sustained defense. Several AARTs and parents described AARTs’ role in identifying and nurturing young scholars, collaborating with classroom teachers, and delivering school‑wide enrichment and equity‑focused outreach. One teacher said reducing an AART from full time to part time would restrict the position to pull‑out compliance duties and eliminate the coaching, family outreach and schoolwide curriculum adaptations that make rigorous instruction accessible countywide.

Budget context and figures: Speakers cited a county funding shortfall that FCPS must absorb and identified line‑item savings in the superintendent’s package. Multiple commenters said the draft budget would save about $5.9 million by reducing AART staffing and about $9.3 million by reducing elementary special‑education chairs. Several witnesses urged the board to seek non‑personnel reductions instead, or to consider delaying administrative raises rather than cutting student‑facing positions.

Legal and operational risk: Melanie Bird, who described herself as a former special‑education director and an attorney, warned that IDEA — the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — requires a free appropriate public education and that reducing school‑based special‑education leadership could increase procedural errors and litigation risk. Other speakers made similar points: they said that decreased capacity for timely IEP meetings and evaluations could lead to compliance failures and higher long‑term costs.

Calls for alternative savings and next steps: Many speakers asked the school board to reallocate or find other reductions, pointing to central office projects and administrative compensation increases cited in the budget discussion. Emily Vanderhoff, an FCPS teacher and union leader, urged the board to “demand to see a full line‑item budget and find non‑personnel cuts.”

Superintendent Reid and board members did not make any policy votes at the hearing; the clerk reminded speakers that the board had scheduled a budget committee meeting for 05/20/2025 and would take action on the FY2026 budget at the regular meeting on 05/22/2025. The only formal votes recorded in the public hearing itself approved two trustees’ requests to attend virtually that evening.

Many speakers closed their remarks by urging the board of supervisors — the county’s funding authority — to restore the transfer that would allow FCPS to preserve school‑based roles. Until then, parents, teachers and advocacy groups said, the board should not accept proposals that would reduce full‑time student supports at the elementary level.

The board will take up the superintendent’s budget recommendations at the scheduled meetings in late May; members indicated they will hear continued public comment before finalizing the adopted FY2026 budget.