As part of its ongoing process to update school boundaries, Fairfax County Public Schools launched a new online Boundary Explorer Tool. The tool allows you to input your address and see how you would be impacted by three potential boundary changes. Online input through the tool will be accepted until July 18 at 5 p.m.
The school board began the process of updating boundaries in 2024. It has held several community meetings and solicited feedback from a consulting firm. Three early-draft scenarios represent potential changes to the boundaries.
Three School Boundary Scenarios
These three potential boundary changes are cumulative, meaning that each scenario builds on the changes from the one before it.
Scenario 1, Neighborhood Connectivity, impacts the fewest families. It focuses on “clear geographic irregularities,” such as attendance islands or scenarios where a school building is located outside of its own attendance zone.
Scenario 2, Cohort Continuity, includes all changes from Scenario 1. It also addresses split feeder patterns where students from the same school would be divided into multiple middle or high schools.
Scenario 3, Comprehensive Balance, includes all changes from Scenarios 1 and 2. It also applies division-wide changes that would address overcrowding and “balance school capacitates over the long term.” This scenario would impact the most families.
Boundary Explorer Tool input will be shared with the Superintendent’s Boundary Review Advisory Committee. Then, there will be another round of community boundary review meetings.
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
