Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Student Services Committee, Thursday, February 19, 2026

Date: Thursday, February 19, 2026
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 1h 6m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1166845527?rel=0

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-12. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] on i'll start over again good afternoon everyone i would like to call this february 19th 2026 meeting of the student services committee to order my name is john pepper and i am the new chair of the student services committee and i'd like to introduce my fellow committee members starting to my right hi i'm april chandler i represent algonkian district and serve as the chair of the school board and uh miss labelle is the other member on the school board of this

[00:00:30] committee and she could not be here this afternoon so the purpose of the meeting today is to discuss several information items including new policy 5340 a revision of policies 5310 5330 with a deletion of 5330 as well as two new policies and then to discuss the upcoming work of the student Services Committee for the remainder of the 2025-26 school year and into the 2026-27 school year

[00:01:05] before I begin though our first item on the agenda is public comment so thank you for those of you uh who wish to engage with the school board through public the public comment process the school board welcomes comments from Loudoun County residents and believes that a strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system speakers must limit content comments to the time allotted we have allotted at this meeting ten minutes for public comment we have two speakers so I'm going to give each speaker two minutes each to make their

[00:01:43] public comment to fit inside that window please be advised that any speaker who misses their time slot will not be called at a later time during public comment all audience members shall maintain civility decorum and respect for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times please remain seated unless arriving departing speaking at the table podium right there or during a break violations of civility decorum and respect include shouting heckling jeering applause or other noise which disrupts or delays the meeting obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board

[00:02:19] and vice versa interrupting speakers attempting to speak when not called to do so by the chair of committee, and approaching a speaker or otherwise attempting to intimidate, disparage, or distract a speaker, staff member, or other meeting attendees. Speakers themselves should refrain from vulgarity, obscenities, profanity, or other like breaches of respect, nor may speakers target, criticize, or attack individual students during public comment. Speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate school official. Additionally, complaints regarding division employees should be directed to the school principal or

[00:02:58] don't have the other page of my document which is great so let me pop in here one second i apologize should figure should communicate those concerns to school principal or an appropriate school official the school board requests that comments or on an individual student or employee related matter may not be shared at public meetings where the disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements speakers should face the school board and direct their comments to the school board per lcps policy 2520 members of the school board will not answer questions or

[00:03:37] respond directly to the public during the public comment period violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to remove the attendee from the remainder of the meeting repeated or persistent violations of decorum or civility by the audience may result in on the decision of the chair public comment being table until a later point in the meeting's agenda limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during public comment for safety reasons or the public comment period ending early for the evening copies of materials for school board members or committee members should be given to the public information officer just

[00:04:15] leave them on the table we'll take care of this meeting um please provide copies we'll need multiple copies it says 12 is for the full school board but please provide copies for everyone in the room we'll just leave it at 12. under nurse circumstances may a speaker approach the school board um this meeting is also being uh live stream audio live streamed online um so i appreciate hearing your comments and with that we'll begin public comment and our first speaker is ruth lee and please go out there and the microphone you can just turn on the little button you have two

[00:04:50] minutes everyone i'm ruth lee um i think i've spoken to some people on the phone but um quickly about my story this is my daughter she's in eighth grade and um a year and a half ago we moved Last year, we moved from Farmwell Station Middle School to Trailside Middle School.

[00:05:15] She was severely bullied. She went through suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression, self-harm, cutting. Kids were just horrid at the school, bullying her through social media and personal at Farmwell.

[00:05:36] My husband and I didn't feel like it was handled well at Farmwell Station, so we took her out. Since she's moved to Trailside, she's done so much better. And they moved her over by special permissions.

[00:05:53] And we filled out the special permission a few weeks ago, and it was denied. And the reason I'm here is our hopes were to let her continue on to Stonebridge High School. The reason I'm here is to plead with you guys. She feels safer at Trailside.

[00:06:10] She's done really well with homework, meeting with teachers. Everything has come up. Her mental state, her peers, she's making friends. Everything has just gotten a lot better. She feels safer and more secure there. Stonebridge has a lot of programs like the Bridge Program and a couple other programs for security and anxiety and things like that that I know that will help her out.

[00:06:38] She cannot go back to Broad Run. I cannot put her back through that again. I can't. She'll be starting all over in a new school. She's already created peers at Trailside Middle School. And just starting all over again would not be good to her mental state.

[00:06:57] I have text messages. Sorry. Is that my time? Thank you for your comment. Thank you. Our next speaker is Janie Villarin. For my child to attend Riverside High School.

[00:07:28] We understand and respect the purpose behind policy 8155 to prevent overcrowding. and that the percentage was recently reduced to 85%. Our request is not to challenge the policy, but to ask for thoughtful flexibility. Based on the numbers, Riverside High School is projected to have capacity for approximately 145 additional students.

[00:07:50] We also understand that our assigned school, Stonebridge High School, is projected to be over capacity as well. So the decision to deny our son special permission does not meaningfully alleviate overcrowding, overall crowding.

[00:08:05] In this case, impact of the decision falls primarily on our son rather than improving system level capacity. He spent the past three years as part of the Belmont Ridge Middle School, which feeds directly into Riverside. We asked for him to attend this because nearly all of his elementary school feeds into here, and we saw how difficult it was for our eldest child to essentially start over socially when he himself did not join his own peers.

[00:08:33] The transition is about continuity, stability, and belonging. Allowing our child to follow their peers supports their emotional well-being and confidence during a major life transition. Middle and high school is hard enough as it is. We would like him to continue to thrive academically and socially.

[00:08:52] Given that enrollment projections can shift, we respectfully ask the committee to consider whether having our son go from one overcapacity school to another overcapacity school actually helps the system. We're not asking for a broad change in policy, simply asking for thoughtful discretion in a case where the impact on our son is significant and the system impact is minimal.

[00:09:18] Thank you. - Thank you. Thank you for coming out today and providing public comment. This will conclude the public comment session of our meeting. next on the agenda we have item 3.01 which is the draft minutes of the december 18th 2025 committee and we will need a motion to approve these minutes knowing that

[00:09:54] i believe the members of the previous iteration of the student services committee have signed on to the authenticity of the minutes from the december 18th 2025 meeting that is correct i move that we approve the december 18th 2025 meeting minutes and i second that motion all in favor of approving the december 18th 2025 student services committee meeting minutes say

[00:10:25] aye aye aye the motion has passed uh two to zero uh with miss chandler and uh mr pepper in favor and Ms. LaBelle absent next item on our agenda is the approval of the minutes for tonight's meeting we did that right this is where it goes you're right sorry read that wrong all right next information is item four which is our information items we are going to start tonight with item 4.01

[00:11:04] which is new policy 5340 safe and supportive removal of students from the educational setting presenting this item will be miss richardson the assistant superintendent of student services good afternoon chair pepper mrs chandler thank you very much so just to give you an overview of the basis of this policy and mr pepper you're new to the board but mrs chandler you will recall this conversation this stems out of the re the revisions that the board did on policy 5345

[00:11:40] restraint and seclusion of students there was conversation about the acknowledgement that there are times within the educational setting where a student's behavior is in is just is disruptive or interfering but doesn't quite meet the level of restraint or seclusion and so the board directed staff to create a new policy that sort of captured those other circumstances for which students might need to be safely and supported in a removal a temporary removal from the educational setting it is also important to note

[00:12:19] that last spring the school board and when they revised policy 5345 that seclusion is a is a prohibited practice so before you you do have the red line copy and so the red line copy is reflective of the original red line and then the revised red line that came out of student services on December the 18th so you will see we define the purpose of this policy always wanting to respect the dignity and safety of our students there was some feedback from the

[00:12:54] committee to wordsmith some of the phrasing in the purpose section of this policy then we went on to the definitions section in our December meeting we received feedback on definitions to read to remove the definition of isolation as well as the definition of exclusion we maintained the definitions of safe and supportive removal from the school environment as well as defining accommodations and the designated supportive areas and

[00:13:33] and certainly making sure that we always remind everyone of what seclusion is and the fact that it is a prohibited practice in LCPS. The next section, we go over the conditions and use.

[00:13:49] And then the following section is expectations for professional learning. Language remained the same in Section C from our initial presentation in November to then our second re-review in December.

[00:14:06] But we did have feedback on Section D, and you can see that darker red language starting at line 56. That has been added that, in addition, training will address the importance of staff, mental health, and wellness, including strategies for managing stress, recognizing signs of compassion, fatigue, or secondary trauma, accessing available wellness supports to ensure staff are equipped to respond to

[00:14:39] challenging situations in a regulated and supportive manner next section E is the documentation requirements there were there was minor feedback from the committee in December you can see on line 67 we changed the word record to log and then on line 68 the committee had discussion about adding and copies of such

[00:15:13] communications section f is parent guardian notification you can see that there was some feedback and proposed revision starting on line 76 a meeting with the parent guardian will be scheduled instead of should as appropriate was stricken from the policy and then the final sections are supervision as well as review and monitoring there were no proposed changes to section G and section H at

[00:15:49] line 92 language was added that the reporting on this policy and how it's implemented will happen on an annual basis before the full board the final section is accountability there were no noted changes but really why why this is coming back is because on December 18th it was proposed and voted on by the committee that the Student Services Committee post two work sessions with

[00:16:24] the participation of board advisory representation and so at this time staff is seeking the guidance of the Student Services Committee on how you would like us to schedule those meetings and time day sort of mapping that out and then we will start the outreach to the advisories of the board. Thank you Ms.

[00:16:51] Richardson. Ms. Taylor. Okay so I have so many questions and as you know this is been an issue that i have been particularly interested in um so just in trying to understand how the document has been developed through the committee given that we're new to the committee could you tell me a little bit about how um the language under definitions at like i guess um line 28 and line 31 where isolation and exclusion were included in the draft but i'm seeing that they're

[00:17:28] now stricken from the draft could you give me some context around that sure so over the course of last school year so let me get my school years right that was 24 25 while the committee was working on 53 45 restraint and seclusion there was lots of discussion about what do you call those other removals that don't meet the criteria of seclusion and so during some of those work meeting that work sessions that we had we could sort of throughout the terms

[00:18:03] isolation and and exclusion once this was read for initial review in November of this year this school year there was feedback and the feedback was let's remove those terms and let's just define what that experience for students needs to be when their behavior does not reach the level of restraint but certainly it is safer for everyone for everyone to just kind of have it have a break so that was the discussion of the student services committee on december the 18th it was they voted to remove the definitions

[00:18:42] of isolation and exclusion thank you for that welcome in terms of so by definition and by policy the appropriate safe and supportive removal of students that will be allowable in lcps are safe in supportive removal accommodations and designated supportive spaces correct now I did notice that when isolation and exclusion were on the table and I definitely agree with the removal there were some timeframes are timeframes appropriate for these other categories or is there a reason is it even possible

[00:19:19] and and what conditions would we be seeking before we wanted to reintegrate integrate into the classroom? Certainly that's a great question. So when this was initially presented in November, there was discussion amongst the committee members to add a time frame. So certainly not wanting it to be hours, correct? But sort of giving people a parameter to work within.

[00:19:48] So when we came back in December, we did add those time frames. Well, of course, the feedback that was provided by our stakeholders was that you really can't put a time frame on it right so when someone is going through the crisis cycle you really have to let them move through that cycle maintaining their dignity and their safety in a supportive setting so the committee had D had the conversation about let's remove the timeframes and let's strike those those definitions thank you you're

[00:20:21] welcome. Thank you, Ms. Chandler. I do have a question going forward. I appreciate the clarification as to how a lot of this was developed. If we go to section F on parent guardian notification, I have a couple questions in there. First, in line 73, when it talks about if a student has been removed or excluded or isolated from the educational setting, And it's a planned part of their instructional day.

[00:20:57] I'm assuming that is because it's in a student's BIP or is there another reason that would be a planned part of the instructional day? Certainly. So if a student's individualized educational planning team has written that in as an accommodation, then that would be a planned break, section 504 plan, behavior intervention plan.

[00:21:19] So those would be planned breaks, but we still want to make sure that we are informing parents how students are accessing even those planned breaks. So thank you for the clarification, because that's exactly what I assumed it was. My question with this whole section F, though, is if this is something that's in an IEP or a 504 or a behavior intervention plan, the way that I'm reading this, and I might be reading this wrong and you can clarify me on this, But the way that I'm reading this is it seems that every time a student is removed from the instructional setting,

[00:21:56] it's going to require a notification of the parent or a meeting with the parent or guardian. Is there, am I incorrect in that? You are not. I can share that it was quite a passion point for our former committee.

[00:22:17] During the time frame where we were looking at the restraint and seclusion policy, there were lots of parents that had stepped forward, I won't say lots, but there were several, that had stepped forward sort of describing instances that had happened with their students that they were calling seclusion, but they weren't.

[00:22:35] And so that really was the impetus of this policy. And the biggest piece for them as parents was I was not informed in a timely manner of how long my student was out of the classroom, where my student was, who was with my student.

[00:22:54] So the former committee was very strong about parent notification every single time. Certainly, the policy is before you all now, and we know that we have a standing vote that we're going to have some work sessions with some more stakeholders joining us, so it's possible that this could change.

[00:23:18] I'm all for, you know, if you're removing a student and it's not a plan break, parents definitely need to be notified every single time. But if it's something that's in an IEP plan, we might want to look going forward as to, you know, probably the best way to communicate that the student is taking advantage of the accommodations afforded in their plan.

[00:23:37] And this might not be the best method. I also noticed that in F, we're still using isolation and exclusion, even though that was taken out of A. Is there a reason for that? Well, from my recall, I don't believe the committee had conversation.

[00:23:59] about removing references to the removed definitions throughout the policy. So that is something that we'll need to take a look at. And then my kind of third question on this, if you go back to the standing vote that came from the December 18th meeting to move this to work sessions, were the advisory groups that would be expected, were they identified, I'm assuming, that we'd want SEAC and MSAC and maybe GIAC?

[00:24:31] Yes, and GIAC. Were those the three that we wanted to know? So we are – Ms. Taylor, do you have anything? Thank you. Okay. Okay, please. Thank you, Chair Pepper. I'm so pleased to have the opportunity for a follow-up.

[00:24:49] I've just been looking at the parent feedback, and apparently we have feedback from an LCPS employee. And so just in terms of level setting for our conversation as we work to finalize this policy, Could you tell me a little bit about when that crisis cycle has been interrupted and the student has de-escalated and is ready to re-enter the classroom?

[00:25:16] What does that process look like, and how do we handle any – I can think of some situations that I've witnessed in my time subbing or in some of the experiences that my students, my children have had as students.

[00:25:33] How do you recover any loss of learning time, and how is that material reintroduced, or how do we ensure that students don't miss that material? That's a great question. And so, you know, we know that everyone experiences the crisis cycle differently.

[00:25:52] My crisis cycle could be I just need to take a walk around the building where yours might be. You need to be in a space for maybe 30, 40 minutes. So that's a solid chunk of time. So certainly this policy fully supports that the student is never penalized for missing any time away from class.

[00:26:13] And so is that that we have time at the end of the day to make that up with the student? Do we, in our communications with the student's parents, is it we're going to send this home? Or has there been a phone call or meeting to talk about how might we make this up?

[00:26:31] Whether it's over the next several days or, you know, could I pull little Johnny away from PE just for this one day to get him caught up one-on-one for what he missed. So that would really be handled on an individualized basis, but no student will be penalized for missed instruction.

[00:26:50] Thank you. So, I guess the discussion right now between Ms. Chandler and myself is how we want to proceed and schedule these two meetings or if we still want to hold these work sessions.

[00:27:10] So, I think the best place to start is are we still in favor of holding these two work sessions as a new committee. So, I'll start with that. I'm definitely in favor of holding the work sessions and would look forward to having the opportunity to hear from these advisory committees.

[00:27:27] Whatever scheduling needs you've done, I'll make myself available. I also am in favor. So I think the first thing we should do is put a motion to continue to support these work sessions. That need to happen because it was already approved.

[00:27:45] Since it's already been motioned and voted on at the previous meeting, the only action really that you would have to take is if you wanted to overturn that. But you both have said that you're in agreement with keeping them. So really it is just helping us as staff to map out the timeline.

[00:28:05] We know we all have pretty busy schedules, and so we would want to reach out to the chairs of all of the advisories and give them at least three weeks to four weeks before we schedule so that they can organize whether they are going to participate as the chairs or whether they would like to take this back to their committees and select people to participate.

[00:28:31] Also would like your guidance, are we looking at one representative from each or are we looking at two? um so we would need that feedback from you as well or is it one with at least an an alternate and then we would try to get these scheduled as quickly as possible so at least looking towards the end of march prior to spring break and then again in april so that then the work of those work groups can come back in the form of more policy revisions before the committee in may

[00:29:08] it was the desire of the former student services committee to have this in place by the start of next school year i believe the timeline that you suggested would allow that to happen um before we go any further let's start let's start with the time let's do this in pieces so let's start with the timeline uh miss chandler are you okay with that timeline i am definitely okay with that timeline so i i'm also in agreement that the timeline seems to work if we we're now in the middle of february so if we're looking towards a meeting perhaps sometime in the last week or two of march

[00:29:44] knowing that spring break lies around that time probably would want to avoid that it would give our committee some time so maybe if i'm literally just spitballing a calendar here i'm looking at a calendar i'm looking at march something in that week of around march 23rd that week before spring break looks as if there's time possibly do this meeting um knowing that the end of the month is

[00:30:20] usually a little lighter in terms of committees ish um so we can try that and then pick a time in april afterwards just so we have the first on the calendar um what are our thoughts in terms of the makeup of so if we had the three members of the committee and two members from each of the three subcommittees we would at least have nine members and then you wouldn't necessarily have to have a high vote right right so I mean I'm comfortable with that I am curious to

[00:31:00] hear with the chairs of the subcommittees would think about that I'm also curious meant I'm thinking about the retiree special committee that we had and and some other experiences that we've had would we have public comment at this work these two work sessions typically at the work sessions that we previously held we have not scheduled them with public comment good to know I i think the two from each of the three committees would be really helpful give us a wider range of perspectives so i'm actually okay with that makeup as well as what i was going to suggest

[00:31:38] as well um mr richardson is there anything else you need from us is there a vote we have to take or are we good to kind of move this forward to committee we are good to go thank you excellent thank you everybody the next item on our agenda is revised policy 5310 special education and deletion of policy 5330 special education student eligibility and transfer procedures

[00:32:13] and this time the presenter is dr page carter director of special education and dr carlin floyd the director of diagnostic and prevention services good evening chair pepper and miss chandler i'm paige carter director of special education i will be flying solo tonight with a little help from tedra when i need it i'm carlin is out today thank you for having us this policy is a little bit less complicated than the one we just talked about our our desire is to combine 5310

[00:32:46] special education and 5330 which looks at eligibility and transfer procedures basically this takes both of those things and streamlines them in a way that is in alignment with regulation so to bring clarity and reduce duplication across policies because certainly we have many of them and again it is in alignment with the way special education regulation is outlined um so um if um if when they are separate it does it doesn't work in alignment with the way it is in actuality

[00:33:23] for us because the eligibility process flows right into the iep special education process so combining these policies allows us to be in alignment with that this is um there are very few changes to the policies themselves we combined them and eliminated duplicate language so i really want to emphasize that being able to combine these also models the work that we do across the departments in student services because we are very much in alignment and work together

[00:34:02] through those processes and having separate policies um is counter to that so um if we could in the beginning it just has an introduction about special education and what it is and that we are in alignment with the regulations in virginia for implementing special education and the first section is about child find and if i'm over explaining um please let me know but um but our child find procedures really look at how we do find those children to then find eligible to then provide special education and we did a little clean up in the policy of just

[00:34:41] some grammatical things for the explanation of FAPE because it was now earlier in the policy on line 49 there is language there about the role of parents and guardians and also students in all of the processes across child study eligibility and IEP section D talks about the procedures for amending an IEP and then of course there is a a section at the bottom about that

[00:35:17] harassment is prohibited and the new language that you see in red was actually deleted from the previous lines when we combined the policy very much much easier to talk about but do you have any questions for me about the combining of these two policies No, I was going to say that the only thing I didn't see, and as an educator I'm well aware of the child find process, but the only thing I didn't see was the use of the term child find in the previous policy, but I'm sure it's just, it's definitely appropriate language and definitely belongs there.

[00:35:47] Is there anything I was missing on that?

[00:36:04] The reference to child crime from the previous policy is found in 5330. That's what I was looking for. Maybe I just missed it. But no, this seems pretty clear, pretty straightforward. We have no questions. Thank you.

[00:36:20] Ms. Chandler, do we want to make a motion to move this policy to action? Well, I'm curious, have we received any community feedback? This will go out for community feedback following this meeting.

[00:36:35] And we did give advance notice to SEAC for their feedback. And their initial feedback to me has been that they are very excited about combining them because they have been big proponents in the time that I've been here about streamlining the two departments, Diagnostics and Prevention and Special Education.

[00:37:00] So this, in policy, was something they're in favor of. And I'm sure they will provide more details for us when they meet. Item we don't have to make a motion on that. So this will come back as an act item Hopefully with some comments from SEAC or no comments if they're vastly in favor of this policy, which would make everyone

[00:37:36] All right, our next item on the agenda is new policy 4.03 supporting pregnant students Presenting this policy is Jennifer Evans our director of student mental health services Good afternoon. It's nice to be here with you Chair Pepper and it's good to see you Ms. Chandler.

[00:38:02] We want to introduce this policy because we currently do not have a policy and looking at other divisions Fairfax Prince William they do have policies so we wanted to propose a policy it is pretty straightforward I think but we would be open for feedback.

[00:38:19] I will break down kind of each section for you this policy was developed in collaboration with other offices and student services as well as Division Council so when you look at it if you look at the first section there's the introduction paragraph that just talks about why we want to provide a comprehensive supporting and nurturing environment for students who are suspect suspected to be pregnant who might be pregnant or who might be parenting and ensure that it doesn't interrupt their academics. The guidelines really we have received feedback from not only school counselors but our nurses

[00:38:57] and our administrators that they wanted something that gave them concrete guidance. So these are the guidelines that all of our staff will follow if we hear of a student who thinks they're pregnant or they share that they are pregnant and that's Section A. The first section is really about confidentiality and those that do learn of this information will keep that confidential with the exception of the parents the guardians and school staff who need to know for the planning purposes for the student two is parents and guardians oftentimes we want to be there to support the student in telling their parents we will offer

[00:39:35] to call the parents with them in the room we'll offer to schedule a meeting but ultimately if the student is uncomfortable sharing that they are pregnant and they're a minor we will tell the parent that they are counseling services our school-based unified mental health teams are available available to provide counseling around well-being and academic planning but any specific counseling around their pregnancy we would refer them to the public health department as in alignment with that any distribution of literature or resources we would we would refer them to the public health department too we

[00:40:13] want to make sure that all the students know of their rights under Title IX and our policies and that they will be free and protected from harassment and discrimination based on their pregnancy as a medical condition. Section six is really just about the academic accommodations and transition planning. All students will have an individualized learning plan will be offered homebound instruction. We could consider reducing their course load to keep them engaged but we want to make sure that we're welcoming them back and offering alternative pathways for them to continue their education.

[00:40:50] Thank you. Thank you, Chair Pepper, and thank you so much. I am very supportive of seeing this placed into policy.

[00:41:08] I will acknowledge, in general, across the nation, teen pregnancy has been in decline for over 30 years. Since, I guess, it peaked in 19, I guess it's been declining, with a peak in 1991, which is incredible because, of course, that's when I was in high school many, many years ago.

[00:41:35] But I'm curious if this is something, could you give us a data point on how often this occurs in LCPS? So the majority of the time it's a student who thinks they may be pregnant and they're ultimately not pregnant. but we do have students less than six right now who are and we also have about 20 or so parenting students so and some have multiple children it's good to know and it speaks to the reason why we need a policy thank you so the only first of

[00:42:12] all this policy is fantastic really like that we're supporting these students who really do need a lot of support and in a lot of ways I think we're doing a lot of the right things particularly with the referral to public health department and trying to handle any of that stuff on our own which is really important the one kind of thing that's a little bit contradictory for me is in guidelines one and two i like that you know we say that school staff are prohibited from promising to keep a student's pregnancy information confidential from parents guardians or appropriate school authorities i find that contradicts a

[00:42:45] little bit with students who are of 18 years of age um is that something that we have fleshed out uh or because if a student is not a minor um do we need to be communicating i understand the communicating with appropriate school authorities right that's something they might need to know but is that something that parents and guardians are we now required to communicate under section a1 so if a student is 18 and they share that information with us we will do everything

[00:43:21] the same process will happen but ultimately we will not disclose that to their parent if they are 18 years old but we will try to have those conversations encourage and support them in having that conversation but we cannot disclose that information to a parent of an 18 year old then advice is that we will probably need to clarify and amend section a1 in this policy to make a note for students that are minor or of legal so adding the sentence that's similar to two in one as well yes adding a sentence that says you know school staff i would leave

[00:44:01] school staff are prohibited from promising to keep a student's pregnancy information confidential from appropriate school authorities as well as parents or guardians if a student is under 18. because the school authorities i believe regardless of age it's a kind of a need to know situation right because where counselors might be making a transition plan or homebound plan, but parents, things change when students turn 18.

[00:44:30] That's my only suggestion. Taylor, do you have anything else on the policy? All right, so we will revisit this policy again at our next meeting, I guess.

[00:44:48] For clarity, would you like for it to come back as information again with the proposed revisions or as action with the proposed revisions? I think, and I'll let Ms. Chandler say, I was going to say action with proposed revisions. Okay, thank you for that clarity.

[00:45:04] Okay perfect even better our last information of the day is 4. 04 this is our mobile medical services update and our director of student services Mr. Dolson will be presenting this item good evening chair Pepper and Miss Chandler it is my pleasure to share with you an update about our mobile health centers with that provide really what that basically says which is mobile health access to students families and staff I'm going to be sharing

[00:45:43] some very exciting news with you that is just hot off of a partnership I will say it's been a dream of some people within the county that is coming true but I first want to define what a student a school-based health center is so you have some information that you can draw connections to so basically what a school based health center is is a center that provides health and mental care at or near schools.

[00:46:14] So the purpose of these is to help overcome the barriers such as insurance and access to transportation health care efforts that are tailored to the needs of the community to increase health care utilization increase immunization rates and also decrease absences.

[00:46:33] So all of those are very important pieces of why we provide these centers around Loudoun County. But we as a school division felt like we were really lacking some of the resources that other larger counties provide.

[00:46:49] So what I'm excited to share with you all is that through a partnership with Health Works for Northern Virginia what we are entering into a partnership to provide a federally qualified health Center, which will mean that one county public schools and health works is partnering to provide a student health services Related project to be able to provide mobile health services around Loudoun County We have had multiple collaborative conversations with Dr.

[00:47:23] Atkins who is the CEO of health works around our need and being able to provide LCPS students and families those that are specifically experiencing economic and health challenges, provisions to health care, which we know is important.

[00:47:40] In October 2025, we created an MOU, a memorandum of understanding with HealthWorks to bring comprehensive health care to LCPS students. And this January of 2026, HealthWorks was awarded a $1.7 million renewable grant from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental services to provide mobile health care mental health care vision and dental care to LCPS students families and staff and that project will be funded through 2031 and really what this looks

[00:48:18] like is a large RV that is equipped to be a doctor's office a dental dentist office and a optometrist or ophthalmologist office. I'm just going to shout out to our supervisor of Student Health Services Jeanne Coleman it has been her dream and her dream is coming true literally when I called her to let her know this dream was coming to you she dropped her phone so that is how important and meaningful this is to her and dr. Atkins it is it has been hard work but it's been truly heart work

[00:48:56] as a former principal I know the need that this is going to fill for many of our our schools many of our students that I really want to go back to the importance of the why because every school year we we have to say we can't allow your student to start school because you don't have the immunizations or you don't have your physicals and this is just another bridge to close that gap for our families and the other piece of this also is just and I want to really shout this out is the importance of mental health we all know how

[00:49:32] important that is and again the lack that there is not only in Loudoun County but across the nation and there is a component that we have to provide mental health services with this not only will it be for students but it's also for staff and students and their families so it is a win-win scenario across both

[00:49:58] Loudoun County government as well as Loudoun County Public Schools I know you can see on my face how excited I am so excited I am so pleased and happy to see that we're able to make this happen Dr. Dental ophthalmologist is beyond anything that we've ever been able to do before and I see it's funded through

[00:50:30] 2031 right so um we have I guess I was just quickly trying to look at I have been to the mobile um health clinic before but I know that really is focused on education and does some immunizations it's for our community and our community schools specifically yes right and that's through inova so this is going to supplement that effort yes ma'am and create more opportunities for families and be able to provide more care so great wow thank you So I'm gonna chime in this is fantastic love that we're doing I can see the excitement

[00:51:12] This is just so vitally important, you know, we in reading about, you know, kind of the mobile health clinics Visit some of the other regions of our state right down prickly in Southwest Virginia It's they often forget that we have needs like this up in Northern Virginia even in Loudoun County And so to ask something like this in Loudoun County is absolutely fantastic My I guess really my questions are more logistical, right?

[00:51:37] you know how many vans or is it just one RV that we're getting or is it multiple. So right now it is one however in a conversation that Jeannie and I had with Dr. Atkins the and the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services is so excited that Loudoun County is able to what we entered into an application process and they accepted our application they want us to be successful so we are likely going to be getting to the funding will be getting

[00:52:12] the funding for the second so one is just specifically for the health services and the other will be for dental and vision I guess I really want to know what this looks like right so is how do we know where the mobile health units so think of the largest RV that you see on like 81 going down like to Southwest Virginia and it would look like a so I would encourage you to go see our mobile health clinic that we have that works with our community schools it's it's very so I believe Jeannie how many does

[00:52:47] that yeah so miss Coleman and I were able with dr. Atkins to meet with one of the vendors that provides the builds these and it's it's pretty amazing what they can put on wheels that's that's amazing and obviously would travel all around Laudan County with a set schedule yes sir I'm just excited to come see one of these things in action so I appreciate this this is an amazing

[00:53:26] opportunity for our students and really our community at large particularly it's also addressing you know mental health too which is hugely important so thank you so much for this I don't think there's anything else I can say so that concludes our information items next up on the agenda are our discussion items starting with 5.01 the work of the student services committee and miss Richardson floor is yours thank you very much it has been requested by the chair

[00:54:02] of our committee that at least during the special permission window that we provide this committee a monthly update on our status and so mr. Dolson will be giving us an update and then following that I do have two other points of the work of the committee that we need to discuss but right now I'll turn it over to mr. Dolson for the update so far thank you mr. Richardson so before you have a chart that I'm just going to kind of walk everyone through and give a little bit of historical analysis so this these numbers that you have here

[00:54:41] represent all of the applications for special permission that we have received as of to thought I'm sorry February 18th which was yesterday be please be reminded that the window for special permission applications open January 20th for LCPS employees and it opened February 2nd or 3rd I can't remember the actual date but the first day of February for LCPS families we have already received a total of two thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight applications that encompasses both families and employees

[00:55:16] Per those applications we have approved 793 please also note that almost a thousand are at schools that are projected to be over enrolled or over capacity. The the pending applications are those what we are really doing we're first we're looking at the LCP employee applications all CPS employee applications first we're going through those slowly and then now slowly but surely we are getting to the actual applications that were submitted February 2nd and beyond so it is I think

[00:55:53] pertinent for conversation to notice the large number of of applicants that are applying for schools that are over capacity per the policy per policy 8155 those applications are voided so there is no appeal process they will not come to me they will not come to the board for any consideration because the policy states that there is no consideration for applications for schools that are at or above eighty five percent capacity. So that is something that I think

[00:56:33] again is important to consider as we move on and we and we look at further conversations. With that do you all have any other questions is there are there any other data points that you all as a committee would like moving forward and just historically when we did work sessions with the previous committee.

[00:56:55] These are the charts that we took. So these were charts that we used last year and the years prior just to give the committee updates on a regular basis and we will continue. We will just continue adding numbers to these charts. And again if you would like more information.

[00:57:14] Again these are all just based on level. So this includes this is inclusive of students with disabilities it's inclusive of EL students it's inclusive of all students we're not breaking it out by you know other than just level elementary middle and high thank you chair pepper and thank you so much for presenting this information I do find it helpful to be able to sort of see where we are in the process even though I know we're only 17 days actually accepting applications

[00:57:50] from families who are not employed with LCPS and then the here the special permissions application process closes April 30th April 30th okay so that's a good reminder for the community I wanted to ask two follow-up questions I know because of an action that taken by the school board there was a pause in some processes and we were worried at that time that there could be a delay so have Have we seen a delay in the processing in any meaningful way or are we on schedule.

[00:58:24] So the only added element that I think that really and again I think it's from processes within LCPS but also for you as a board was the addition of boundary changes adding some element of I guess as a constituent maybe confusion as well as decisions that you all had to make as a board.

[00:58:47] So if you were asking me my professional opinion, I would say that is the only real pause. And I think we had to wait for you as a board to make some decisions. And I think we all then were able to get an action.

[00:59:03] And I work very closely with Ms. Tate. And so I think that would be the only element. And I just want to say, again, from the three, this is my third time in this process, That is the only added element that I feel like is adding a lot of confusion and processing extra processing that needs to occur with this because the policy is what the policy is.

[00:59:30] I think the added element of the boundary changes was just a hurdle that I don't know that we were expecting. And it just added some extra talking points. And when so I'm looking at the list of schools that are projected to be over capacity.

[00:59:54] And when someone applies to one of these schools for special permission and their application is voided are they informed that they can then apply for a school that's not on this over projection list. How does that work. Yes so they get an automatic email that basically says you know per policy this is what the policy says.

[01:00:13] And if they would like to apply for another school they are encouraged to do so. So and that and again the list that is up on our website is updated.

[01:00:28] We're not there yet because the projections have not shifted in any way shape or form. When I speak to parents I explain to them that the options are to apply to a school that is not projected to be over enrolled. As you can see from your data points some of our schools are hovering at the 83 84 percent and they likely could be are added to our list that is projected to be over enrolled.

[01:00:56] So I think one of the high schools Heritage High School I think was very close at one point. So depending on how many special permit how many family special permission into Heritage it might at some point become over 85. DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you for that.

[01:01:14] DIRECTOR HARRIS: Thank you. So is this including students who are rolling over. Are these just new special. DIRECTOR HARRIS: So these would be new special permission applications. So what we do is when we we do the rollover those students are rolled up to the next grade level with the exception of fifth to sixth grade and eighth to ninth grade.

[01:01:36] The policy clearly states that if you change if you attend an elementary school it does not mean that you are going to be able to attend the middle school feeder because that school could be over capacity. Likewise the same is is written in policy about high school.

[01:01:55] just because you attend the middle schools as an eighth grader does not mean that you will have access to that feeder high school I appreciate I just want clarification these were not just rollovers or because it's a large number for just a short window of time. The other thing that I would be really curious to know kind of data wise is the number particularly at the elementary level of those students who recently were you know rezoned from one school to another and kind of went back.

[01:02:27] So I know that there were like three or four schools that had been subject to the last, the one we were talking about, the Ashburn Dulles North. I think there were some medicines and trust in Dominion Trail, Seldon's Landing, and there might be one other. So specifically just for clarification, because I definitely have information that would lead me to, but are you asking for, so the number of people that applied that were involved with the boundary changes?

[01:02:55] Yeah, so I would want to know who was applied that was involved in the boundaries. Okay. I know that's kind of hard data. It might be harder data to pull, but if not, you're shaking your head no. No, no. We haven't. Yeah, so I'm just curious as to how many people involved in a boundary change were interested in doing the special permission application.

[01:03:11] And this is really helpful right now, just kind of seeing a snapshot in time and how many of our students are asking to go to a school outside of their normal zoned attendance area. Thank you. Do you have anything else on special permissions? All right.

[01:03:26] So, Ms. Richardson, next couple items. Yes, following this, please know that proposed revisions of 8155 school assignment will be coming back to committee. That was a discussion and motion and approved vote coming out of the December 16th full school board meeting that we come back to this policy with more of a focus on instructional suitability and less of a focus on special permission.

[01:03:58] So that will be forthcoming in March and April and however long we need to work on that. And then lastly, Mr. Derek Ferry, the Director of Athletics and School Activities, will join us next month to present a brand new policy, 84-25, Student-Athlete Extreme Heat Safety and Protection.

[01:04:21] That is all I have for the work of the committee at this time. Thank you, Ms. Richardson. Our next item is new business. Ms. Taylor, do you have any new business for the committee? Seeing no new business, there is nothing else on the agenda.

[01:04:38] So at this moment, the Student Services Committee meeting for February 19, 2026 is adjourned. Thank you all for coming. Get home safely.

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