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School board adopts 2026 legislative priorities, urging funding for COCA, SOL interventions and mental-health services
Summary
After debate and language edits, the Stafford County School Board unanimously adopted legislative priorities asking the General Assembly to implement JLARC recommendations, seek full COCA support for Stafford, fund interventions tied to new SOL accountability rules, and address mental-health, technology and school-construction funding.
The Stafford County School Board voted unanimously to adopt its legislative priorities for 2026 after a lengthy work-session review and edits to the draft language.
The priorities ask the Virginia General Assembly to implement the 2023 JLARC recommendations for K-12 funding and to address Stafford's unequal Cost of Competing Adjustment allocation (COCA). "We received 25% and they received a 100%," the legislative committee presenter said, arguing Stafford competes with Northern Virginia labor markets but receives a smaller COCA allocation.
Trustees debated whether to ask the General Assembly to eliminate COCA statewide or to continue requesting 100% for Stafford; they removed language calling for elimination after members warned that would likely reduce overall state allocations. The final text asks the General Assembly to provide Stafford with 100% of COCA where possible and to support the Board of Supervisors' efforts to address the county's financial impacts from disabled-veterans tax exemptions.
The board also adopted language asking that accountability changes and higher SOL cut scores be implemented within a "reasonable accountability system" that recognizes student growth and includes funding for required interventions. Presenters warned the newly adopted cut scores will increase the number of students needing reading or math interventions and that statewide implementation will create pressure for additional staffing and courses.
Other adopted priorities instruct the board's delegate to request that the General Assembly:
- Fully fund the local cost of federal mandates (Title I, IDEA, 504, ESSA) and support mandated reporting/compliance costs; - Address the fiscal and logistical impacts of the new telehealth law and update SOQs to better reflect school-based mental-health staffing needs; - Allow Stafford to seek a local sales and use tax by referendum for school construction and renovation; - Provide a funding mechanism for school technology infrastructure tied to CPI adjustments; - Enhance Standards of Quality for staffing ratios in targeted positions and reconsider the sixth-grade class-size cap; and - Balance community notification requirements (notably a new Narcan/"suspected overdose" notification rule) with student privacy protections.
A motion to approve the proposals "with the language changes that were discussed during the work session" carried without opposition.
Trustees asked staff to finalize the written priorities document for the board delegate and to provide supporting cost estimates where possible before advocacy begins with the General Assembly.
