Fairfax County Public Schools said Monday it won’t share the full investigation into delays in notifying students of a National Merit Scholarship Corporation recognition with the Virginia attorney general.
The state’s largest school system cited attorney-client privilege and concern for staff safety as the reason for not sharing the full report.
In a statement, Fairfax County schools said Attorney General Jason Miyares sought to subpoena a production of the report, crafted by the law firm Sands Anderson PC, and witness interview materials.
In a video message shared with the school community, Superintendent Michelle Reid said the county has filed papers in court opposing the request “because we strongly feel this is unjustified.”
Miyares is investigating delays in notifying Northern Virginia students of their “Commended Students” recognition by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Since December, several school systems have announced that some high school students hadn’t been notified of the honor.
In March, Reid hosted a town hall to share the key findings of the Sands Anderson investigation. The investigation unveiled a series of miscues and lack of countywide procedures for informing students of the honor. The summary, however, didn’t include any formation about students, teachers or staff.
In its statement, the school system said the attorney general’s office doesn’t have any need for the information because FCPS “has fully cooperated with the AG’s investigation and has provided to the AG the same documents and data that were reviewed by Sands Anderson.”
It also said that Miyares is seeking to have a court put aside the school system’s attorney-client privilege, which could result in the report and interview materials being made public.
“As the AG is fully aware, FCPS administrators have already been threatened and harassed relating to this issue,” the statement said. “FCPS will not voluntarily agree to take any step that could cause our teachers and staff to be placed at risk.”
In a statement, a Miyares spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita said Monday’s statement from Fairfax County schools “made clear that it believes it is immune from Virginia’s anti-discrimination laws.”
“FCPS now confirms it will only comply with the law when politically convenient. No school system is above the law,” the statement said. “If the report shows no wrongdoing, then FCPS should release it.”
In response to the Sands Anderson report, Fairfax County crafted a new regulation detailing the process high schools will follow in informing students of National Merit Scholarship awards moving forward. The report found eight of 28 high schools in the county didn’t tell students about the award by Nov. 1.
Some 50,000 students with the highest PSAT scores are identified as “Commended Students,” but only about 16,000 of them are semifinalists and able to compete for scholarships.
The Sands Anderson report also found the delays “had nothing to do with race or any effort to downplay students’ achievements,” refuting accusations that the school system faced of deliberately not telling students about the honor based on race.
Schools in Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford counties also said there were delays in recognizing their “Commended Scholars.”
