Contact Person: Joanne Chen
Program Overview:
Within the Office of Operations and Strategic Planning, Student Registration is comprised of four subsections: Registration Services, Language Services, Home Instruction, and Student Transfers. These programs are strategically placed together for the purpose of providing parent services and satisfaction allowing students to effectively access enrollment in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).
Registration Services is committed to offering parent services and providing parent satisfaction with regards to the enrollment of students to attend school as soon as possible in accordance with compulsory attendance laws in the Code of Virginia 22.1-254. In 1981 a centralized student registration office was opened in Falls Church to facilitate the enrollment of students with a language other than English or in addition to English. Over the years, additional centralized registration sites were opened to accommodate parents and families living in different regions of Fairfax County. Today, three Student Registration sites strategically located within the county are open year round at: The Dunn Loring Parent Services Center, South County Government Center in Alexandria and in the Lake Anne-Reston area. Registration services at temporary sites are opened during the busiest season in August and September to accommodate parents and increased registrations during that time. Each site is co-located with the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Assessment Center and a Community Liaison Office. This allows students and families to have the ability to complete the registration process, the ESOL assessment process, and to work with the community liaison to access community resources.
Language Services
Language Services came into existence due to the phenomenal increase in the growth of the language minority student population in the 1980’s. As a result, a pattern of a yearly increase of parent services and satisfaction was provided to continue to support the ongoing increase of the language-minority student population and the school communities. Currently this office has over 200 interpreters in over 30 different languages and translators in the seven major top languages represented in Fairfax County.
The importance of this service is reinforced by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, which requires that each school and school division “ensure that information related to school and parent programs, meetings, and other activities is sent to parents of participating children in a format, and to the extent practicable, in a language parents can understand .”
Although a student is expected to attend the school that serves his or her attendance area, student transfers make it possible for parents to request their student attend a school other than their base school. FCPS approves a transfer request for very specific reasons as outlined in Regulation 2230 Exceptions for Attendance at Other Than Base School and Procedure for Applying for Intracounty Exceptions. Student Registration processes all applications centrally creating greater consistency and efficiency for parent services and satisfaction.
In accordance with Section 22.1-254.1 of the Code of Virginia “Any parent who elects to provide home instruction in lieu of school attendance shall annually notify the division superintendent in August 15 of his intention to so instruct the child and provide a description of the curriculum…” Student Registration services parents by processing notices of intent from parents who choose to provide home instruction for their school aged children. As required by law, FCPS reports to Virginia Department of Education the number of students receiving home instruction and those students religiously exempted from school attendance.
Budget Information is available at:
http://www.fcps.edu/fs/budget/documents/approved/FY13/FY2013ProgramBudget.pdf.