Facing a nearly $300 million budget shortfall, Fairfax County is considering cutting 16 high school crossing guards positions in Virginia from its fiscal 2026 budget.
The change, included as part of a possible list of agency cuts to help address budget challenges, wouldn’t impact elementary or middle schools crossing guards, according to county documents.
The switch, the county said, would help save over $842,000.
The proposal comes as the Northern Virginia jurisdiction continues to grapple with how to handle safety needs near schools. Fairfax County’s police department oversees the crossing guard program, but county leaders have recently looked into the possibility of using a private company for those roles, citing police staffing shortages.
“Our intersections are busy at high schools with new drivers and pedestrians and parents,” school board member Melanie Meren said. “So there is no real data about usage in our crosswalks.”
One parent, who didn’t offer their name while waiting to pick up a student near West Springfield High School on Tuesday afternoon, said families “need crossing guards there for our safety, for our children’s safety.”
County documents say Fairfax County is the only “neighboring jurisdiction” where crossing guards are placed near high schools. But, Meren said, it’s an “urban school division, so it doesn’t matter much to me what some of the other divisions are doing.”
The cuts would remove 16 full-time crossing guard positions assigned to 22 county high schools.
In a statement, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said he’d never support “anything that could undermine the safety of our schoolchildren” and that the proposed reduction will “undergo thorough evaluation, and the decision for me will be based solely on safety criteria.”
The Board of Supervisors previously said community safety officers could step up in a new role to address the crossing guard cuts.
But, Meren said, there’s “zero data in the county executive’s proposed budget that suggests that we don’t need high school crossing guards.”
Supervisors will continue to work on the budget, which is scheduled for final approval in May.
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