After nearly a year of controversy and a legal opinion that ultimately escalated the decision to its final outcome, the FCPS School Board voted to refund approximately $2 million in fees collected to cover IB and AP exams on March 25.
This decision was largely in response to Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli’s official opinion on Jan. 28 that charging students for an exam that is a required part of a course is illegal.
According to IB coordinator Carlota Shewchuck, Cuccinelli “works closely with the school board and all of Fairfax County’s affairs.”
Cuccinelli argued that FCPS’s imposed fee was a direct contradiction to the Constitution of Virginia, which stated that “local school boards are not permitted to levy fees or charge any pupil, except as provided in Title 22.1, or by regulation of the State Board of Education.”
As a result, the school board was forced to change its policy; Superintendent Jack Dale later proposed in a meeting with the school board on March 10 to eliminate the testing fees, but continue to require students to take AP and IB courses and their respective exams.
According to director of student services Cindy Blakeley, however, while parents of involved students are relieved with the exemption of this cost, the “cost of collecting fees and now the additional cost of returning them” is going to be “hard to work out.”
According to the FCPS press release, all families are expected to be refunded by the end of April.