Make a Difference for Your Child and Every Child
You can help make a difference for students with disabilities! Joining together with other parents as part of the Fairfax Alliance for Appropriate Public Education (FAAPE) gives you a wider voice and greater impact.
Parents face many barriers to being actively engaged in advocating for their children. This can be due to many reasons, including a lack of understanding of the process, the pressures of caring for a special needs child, reluctance to speak out about individual struggles or even the fear of retaliation. FAAPE works to help parents feel empowered to insist upon improved outcomes for their children.
Parents face many barriers to being actively engaged in advocating for their children. This can be due to many reasons, including a lack of understanding of the process, the pressures of caring for a special needs child, reluctance to speak out about individual struggles or even the fear of retaliation. FAAPE works to help parents feel empowered to insist upon improved outcomes for their children.
What YOU Can Do
FAAPE is committed to ensuring that Fairfax County School Board and school district staff understand the diverse needs of the children who attend FCPS. Here’s how you can work with FAAPE to ensure your voice is heard in the decision-making process on FCPS policies, programing and services that impact students with disabilities:
Click here for the VIDEO ARCHIVE of past School Board meetings.
- Join SpecialEdFairfax. Sign up to the SpecialEdFairfax countywide discussion group and connect with other parents. Get the conversation going about special education issues that matter to you and your child!
- LIKE the FAAPE Facebook Page! Check it frequently for up-to-date news and information.
- Attend a School Board meeting. Showing up is half the victory! Meetings of the School Board are held twice a month on Thursdays at Luther Jackson Middle School. In addition to these regular meetings, the School Board convenes work sessions (typically one Monday each month at Gatehouse Administrative Center) where topics and ideas are discussed in greater depth.
- Stay Engaged and Informed on Issues. If you can’t attend a School Board meeting, watch one on Channel 21 or archived on the FCPS website. Work sessions are also video recorded and accessible via the web.
Click here for the VIDEO ARCHIVE of past School Board meetings.
- Email the School Board. School Board members read their emails…and they count them! The more emails School Board members receive on a topic, the more they realize it matters.
- Testify at a School Board meeting. Nothing has more impact than speaking before the School Board and talking about how the decisions the Board has made affect individual children.
