Fairfax County Public Schools approved scant changes to the academic calendar this week despite a growing movement among parents demanding that the northern Virginia school district cut down on its exorbitant number of days off for cultural observances.
FCPS has the highest volume of days off in Virginia and among the largest public school systems nationwide. In fact, Fairfax County, a majority-white liberal suburb, dedicates more days off from school to cultural holidays than the demographically diverse city schools in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
The district’s 12-member school board deliberated Thursday on motions to eliminate some of the 40 total off-days, voting after over four hours of debate to make Veterans Day a school day and keep Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a student holiday, which FCPS honors as a Native American counter-celebration to Columbus Day.
Critics see converting Veterans Day, an existing federal holiday, into a school day as counterintuitive to the goal of easing families’ child care concerns, since it is one of the only days that most parents have off anyway. Many working-class FCPS parents have struggled to arrange for child care services during designated days off and early release times, as they have to coordinate their rigid work schedules around irregular school pickup periods and nontraditional off-days.
Sandy Anderson, chairwoman of the Fairfax County School Board, mentioned a similar issue with mandating that students go to school on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, given that Columbus Day is an officially recognized federal holiday.
“If the day is off, then kiddos are already at home with parents,” Anderson said of Indigenous People’s Day.
‘Equity and inclusion’ at the center of academic calendar fight
During the meeting’s public comment period, Fairfax County mother Stephanie Lundquist-Arora urged a less chaotic calendar to improve academic outcomes.
“Half of our school weeks aren’t five-day weeks, like this one: a three-day school week for no apparent reason directly after spring break,” Lundquist-Arora said.
FCPS has the lowest known percentage of full school weeks compared to surrounding school districts and the largest school systems in the country. Only 52% of Fairfax County’s 2025-26 school year consists of five-day weeks — the others are fragmented by mid-week early release days and religious holidays, which are often scheduled near each other.
Most recently, FCPS had a three-hour early release day on March 25, a two-hour early release on March 27, spring break from March 30 to April 3, followed immediately by a day off on Easter Monday, and another student holiday on April 10 for Orthodox Good Friday. The consecutive school closures meant students were only in school three days in the week following spring break.
“Aside from the learning disruption, forcing low-income families to pay for more childcare is regressive and inequitable,” Lundquist-Arora told the school board. “You claim to believe in the concept of ‘equity,’ but what about the children from low-income households? Where’s their proclamation? What are you doing for them?”
The school board meeting had opened with an Arab American Heritage Month “proclamation.”
“April is the time to celebrate Arab American heritage and culture and pay tribute to the contributions of Arab Americans and Arabic-speaking Americans,” the proclamation declared in part. “This year’s theme — Many Voices, One Community — underscores the idea that diversity is not a weakness, but a strength, one that enriches American society, deepens our collective story, honors our differences, while affirming our unity.”
DIVERSITY ISN’T STRENGTHENING FAIRFAX COUNTY SCHOOL SCHEDULES
Lundquist-Arora argued that the current calendar especially disadvantages children from families with less financial means to pay for private tutoring or babysitting on off-days, dubbed a de facto “child care tax,” and that those disruptions to the school schedule, which cut into instruction time, are reflected in academic performance.
Virginia Department of Education data shows that roughly half of FCPS students from low-income households last year failed their Standards of Learning exams, the state’s standardized testing in core subjects. According to the 2025 test results, 42% of “economically disadvantaged” students failed the English reading SOLs, 95% failed English writing, 41% failed math, 46% failed science, and 70% failed history.
Faith Mekonen, a student representative invited to speak, argued against entirely removing from the school calendar less-popular holidays, such as Diwali and Eid al-Fitr, that are celebrated across the district for the sake of multiculturalism.
“Eliminating these accommodations could create the perception that some religions or cultural practices are being prioritized over others, which would go against the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion that the division strives to uphold,” Mekonen said.
Veterans Day draws debate over its observance
As for Veterans Day, observed annually on Nov. 11, several school board members acknowledged that it is of great importance to military families in Fairfax County.
Virginia, ranking second among U.S. states with the most military personnel, is home to nearly 120,000 active-duty service members, many of them living in the commonwealth’s northeastern counties near the Pentagon.
Canceling the district’s observance of Veterans Day would “come as a lack of respect for military-connected families,” Emily VanDerhoff, president of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, argued at Thursday’s school board meeting.
Board member Ricardy Anderson, a veteran who had introduced the motion to designate Veterans Day as a standard instructional day, proposed that FCPS implement a districtwide Veterans Day-themed curriculum on that day of mandatory classes.
Anderson pointed out that FCPS policy already stipulates that the district not treat Veterans Day as a school holiday, but instead as a day of lessons teaching students about the sacrifices of military service. According to the policy, “School personnel shall … provide students with instructional activities that honor veterans and recognize the role of the military in American democracy [on Veterans Day].”
“This is essentially correcting a policy that we have not been observing and are not in compliance with,” Anderson said. “That’s what this is. Point blank.”
Anderson, a former Loudoun County Public Schools principal, said that when she worked in the neighboring jurisdiction, school was in session on Veterans Day “with the expectation of activity as described here in the policy.”
“Because I’m a veteran, we kind of put a special oomph in our activities,” Anderson said. “It was such a proud day for these kids to walk down whatever space we were using, whether it was a multi-purpose room or the gym, with their veteran parents to be highlighted in service.”
“And of course, afterward there was cake,” Anderson added.
Sandy Anderson, the school board chairwoman, said the parent community is split over Veterans Day. Some veterans want their kids in school so they can come in and show students the importance of military service in a classroom setting, while other veterans would rather have the opportunity to take their children to their units and show them first-hand what it means to be a member of the military.
FAIRFAX COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT BUCKLES AMID SCANDALS, FURIOUS PARENTS, AND BUDGETING CRUNCH
Ricardy Anderson conceded that parents who want to celebrate Veterans Day with their children however they see fit “should be allowed to do that.”
“But I will tell you from having done this for so many years, these kids are so proud to have their families come to the school in uniform and be introduced by them: ‘My mom, my dad, my aunt, my grandfather,’” Anderson continued. “Multiple generations come when you have the opportunities for them to come and be celebrated.”
“It is not a diminishing idea to the service of those individuals,” she said. “It is an honor and recognition of their service. And kids, they love it when other kids see how great their parents are.”
As a separate solution, Sandy Anderson suggested classifying Veterans Day as a cultural observance day, a technical designation that would allow students to miss school voluntarily. Student absences on that day would not be considered unexcused, nor would absent students be penalized. No new assessments, tests, or quizzes are scheduled on cultural observance days, per FCPS policy.
“Instruction is intentionally limited so that students observing the holiday do not fall behind,” explained Mekonen, the student representative to the school board. “While this approach is rooted in inclusivity and respect, it often resulted in a full day where little to no learning took place. Over time, these lost instructional opportunities added up.”
Board member Matt Dunne agreed that Ricardy Anderson’s motion was “simply intended to ensure conformity with existing regulations,” which require Veterans Day to be a regular school day. The school board did not clarify if truancy rules would apply, meaning any child pulled out by a parent would be marked as an unexcused absence.
FAIRFAX COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT BUCKLES AMID SCANDALS, FURIOUS PARENTS, AND BUDGETING CRUNCH
Ultimately, the school board voted 8-1, with three members abstaining, to make Veterans Day a normally scheduled school day, and voted 5-1, with six members abstaining, in favor of limiting the number of early release days for elementary school students from 12 to eight.
The proposal to make Indigenous Peoples’ Day a school day failed by a vote of 7-4, with one member’s abstention.
