A new rebate program that starts next year would give thousands of dollars to Virginians who buy or lease an electric vehicle.

But it’s not funded.

Fairfax County officials said the Virginia House of Delegates sought to put $5 million into the program, which awards $2,500 rebates and more, but that money wasn’t included in the General Assembly’s budget.

“Until the General Assembly funds the rebates, there won’t be any rebates,” said Tarah Kesterson, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy.

Her department is tasked with establishing a website to administer the program that includes weekly updates about the availability of funds.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam approved HB 1979 — the bill that created the program — on March 31, and it went into effect July 1. It stated that the rebates depend upon available funds.

The rebates would cover vehicles that must use electricity as their only source of power. They’d cover two categories:

• new and leased vehicles that have a base price of $55,000 or less
• used vehicles that cost $25,000 or less

Introduced by Loudoun County Del. David A. Reid, the legislation was intended to encourage greater adoption of electric vehicles in the Commonwealth. About 7% of U.S. adults have an electric or a hybrid vehicle, an adoption rate that lags behind China and Europe, according to the Pew Research Center.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ legislative committee, which tracks state bills and determines the county’s policy positions and priorities, discussed the matter during a meeting on Tuesday (Sept. 21).

Board Chairman Jeff McKay, who serves as vice chair of the committee, suggested that the state should also modify a second rebate that was included in the bill.

Under the law, an additional rebate of $2,000 could be used for people whose household income is 300% or less of the federal poverty level, which currently equates to $38,640 for a single adult or $65,880 for a family of three.

McKay said that threshold would shut out many people in Fairfax County, even though they would be more likely to buy an electric vehicle than residents of some other parts of the state.

“This is really important from an equity standpoint,” McKay said. “Those can be affordable vehicles with these [types] of rebate programs.”

A business acting as a trading post for outdoor gear is ramping up for a big unveil in Herndon.

The newly formed Good Wolf Gear looks to buy and sell camping goods, pet products and other items at Herndon’s Sunset Business Park (287 Sunset Park Drive);

The business is focused on backpacking, camping and hiking gear and features brands such as Arcade Belts, Cotopaxi, Gregory, National Geographic Maps and Rumpl.

It’s been operating by appointment only but will have its grand opening from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 16. Once open, it will have store hours fr0m that same timespan Tuesdays through Saturdays.

“When people ask why we decided to open Good Wolf Gear, the truth is that we were inspired by our friends: they helped set up our first tent; they shared their scary stories around the campfire; and they let us dig into their Dutch Oven breakfasts while we struggled to get our contacts in,” owners Margaret Kim and Tana Sarntinoranont say on the Good Wolf Gear website.

The owners say   they created Good Wolf Gear for those friends and anyone else willing to share those experiences while helping people become better stewards of nature. That’s why they prefer reselling items — to keep them from landfills.

“I hope we can inspire people to connect with a part of nature they never even knew existed,” store manager Spencer Horn says in a news release. “Ultimately, we’re storytellers, and we want to inspire others to become storytellers as well.”

Resellers can get 25% of the resale price in cash or 50% of the resale price in store credit.

“Good Wolf Gear’s goal is to build community through sustainability,” the company says. “Has your toddler outgrown her kid carrier? Trade it in for credit towards her first pair of hiking boots, and tell us about the adventures you’ve shared. Has your family pup learned to stay on the trail? Stop by for a local trail map and get advice on favorite hikes from other dog owners.”

Photos via instagram.com/goodwolfgear

Fairfax County Public Schools has asked a federal appeals court to postpone an ordered retrial of a former Oakton High School student’s sexual assault lawsuit, setting up a possible escalation of the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The school system plans to file a petition for a writ of certiorari requesting that the Supreme Court take up the case, according to Public Justice, the nonprofit legal organization that represents the student, who has only been identified as Jane Doe.

Public Justice told FFXnow that it learned about those intentions Monday morning (Sept. 20), though it’s still holding out hope that the Fairfax County School Board will opt not to file the petition.

The law firm warns that, if FCPS files a petition and the appeal is accepted, it could set the stage for a reevaluation of Title IX protections against gender discrimination, which have traditionally been used to address school-based sexual violence, by the same court that allowed Texas to essentially ban abortions earlier this month.

“Fairfax would be asking them to severely undermine students’ civil rights,” Public Justice staff attorney Alexandra Brodsky, the plaintiff’s counsel, said. “I think there’s a real question for Fairfax families whether they want the legacy of Fairfax schools to be undermining equality and safety for students.”

Filed in May 2018, the lawsuit argues that FCPS violated Doe’s Title IX rights by failing to ensure her safety and provide support after she reported that an older, male student sexually assaulted her when they were on a bus during the five-day school band trip.

The school board’s Sept. 9 regular meeting agenda includes a closed session to consult with legal counsel about the case, known as “Jane Doe v. Fairfax County School Board et al.”

FCPS confirmed that it has requested the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to stay its June 16 ruling ordering a new trial in Doe’s lawsuit over school officials’ response to her report of being sexually assaulted by a fellow student during a band trip in 2017.

With one judge dissenting, the three-person panel reversed a U.S. District Court jury’s verdict in favor of FCPS, arguing that the lower court had failed to accurately define for the jury the legal standard to determine if the school system had “actual knowledge” of the reported assault.

“As the divergent opinions of the Fourth Circuit show, the issues in this case could have nationwide and potentially far-reaching implications,” FCPS spokesperson Julie Moult said in a statement. “For that reason, we have asked the court to stay or suspend the effective date of its ruling, pending further review.”

FCPS said it had no further comment at this time, including on whether it plans to petition the Supreme Court.

According to Doe’s original complaint, school officials ignored multiple reports from other students about her assault, never offered medical attention or counseling, discouraged her from reporting the incident to police, and imposed no consequences on her assailant, who continued attending their shared band class.

The district court jury in Alexandria affirmed in August 2019 that Doe had been sexually assaulted and deprived of educational opportunities as a result, but they found FCPS couldn’t be held liable for its response because they didn’t have evidence that officials knew for a fact that the assault had occurred.

Jurors’ reported confusion over whether reporting sexual harassment can be considered giving school officials actual notice or knowledge of an assault formed the basis of Doe’s appeal to the Fourth Circuit, which held oral arguments in January before ruling that the jury had used the incorrect legal standard.

FCPS later requested a rehearing en banc, which would bring the case in front of the full appeals court. The 15 appellate judges denied the petition 9-6 on Aug. 30, a close decision that inspired two judges to release dissenting opinions — a rare move, according to the Associated Press.

According to Brodsky, FCPS currently has 90 days from the date of the rehearing denial to file an appeal to the Supreme Court, but that would change if the stay of the new trial is granted.

“The next step should be to take this case back to trial and for a jury to hear our client’s story and have the opportunity for the first time to rule on it under the correct legal standard,” Brodsky said, adding that Public Justice is “confident that that’s where this case is headed” after the rehearing petition was denied.

Brodsky says she’s less surprised by FCPS seeking a delay than by the argument it’s using to do so.

As stated in the majority opinion written by Judge James Wynn, the school board’s rehearing petition included a new argument that “Title IX does not make clear that schools may be held liable for their response to a single instance of sexual harassment, no matter how egregious.”

In other words, schools can’t be held legally responsible for reported sexual harassment under Title IX if it doesn’t recur, since they couldn’t have prevented the initial incident.

While the position found support among the dissenting judges, who expressed concern that “retroactively” imposing liability could open schools to “a deluge” of lawsuits, Wynn rejected it as a “strawman” that would amount to giving schools a “free rape.”

He stated in his opinion that Doe’s lawsuit seeks to hold FCPS liable for its response to her assault, not for the assailant’s actions. He also noted that the stance is “at odds” with the case that the school board presented during oral arguments.

“When a student’s education is disrupted because of their school’s failure to address sexual assault, that’s enough to state a Title IX claim. That’s what the Fourth Circuit said,” Brodsky said. “That’s what the majority of appellate courts across the country have said, and if the Supreme Court were to adopt the alternative rule, that would really give schools an excuse to withhold the support that students need in the wake of violence.”

Fairfax County Public Schools is revising a number of procedures around COVID-19 contact tracing, quarantining, and pausing, even as it maintains that case numbers remain proportionally very low in schools.

School officials are actively exploring their options for expanding student vaccination requirements, including a possible mandate once the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorize it for kids 5 and older, which could happen as early as the end of October.

However, FCPS would have to wait for the Virginia General Assembly to act before it can require COVID-19 vaccinations for all students under state law, which gives authority for determining mandatory school immunizations to the legislature and a state health regulatory board.

“If I had [the power to do this], I’d recommend right now to this board mandatory vaccinations for our students upon full authorization from the FDA,” Superintendent Scott Brabrand said at a school board work session yesterday (Tuesday). “If we have the burden of educating kids, it should be determined by officials closest to schools who should be vaccinated and not vaccinated and not wait for the state to give us permission to do so.”

At the moment, officials said they are in talks with legal counsel about expanding the existing vaccine mandate for high school student athletes to other secondary school extracurricular activities, such as theater programs.

According to Brabrand’s presentation to the school board, 0.33% of staff, students, and visitors — 677 individuals in total — reported testing positive for COVID-19 from Aug. 13 to Sept. 15. Only 24 cases involved transmission within one of the 198 schools and offices in the county, Brabrand said.

Since Aug. 1, 936 cases have been reported to FCPS, according to the school system’s case dashboard. Fairfax County Health Director Dr. Gloria Addo-Ayensu told the Board of Supervisors at a health and human services committee meeting yesterday that the county is seeing 30 to 40 cases among students per day on average, with some days going as high as 50 cases.

While Addo-Ayensu also said the majority of transmission has occurred in the general community, not in schools, each case has a ripple effect as additional staff and students who might have been exposed to the virus have been subjected to isolation, quarantine, or in-person learning pauses.

Between Aug. 13 and Sept. 15, 2,905 students — or 1.6% of the student body — have been paused, meaning they were COVID positive or a potential close contact and had to remain out of school during contact-tracing investigations. Nearly half were elementary school students.

1.8% of staff, or 502 individuals, have been paused as well during that time period.

“We know the impact of the pause…is significant,” Brabrand said. “We are working with health partners and the Fairfax County Health Department to minimize the length of time that students are out, while maintaining a safe environment.”

In addition, the time it takes to complete contact tracing and “close” a case has increased significantly over the last month as more cases have come in, keeping more students out of school longer.

In mid-August, most cases were closed within four days with an average of 2.5 days. Now, in mid-September, the average duration has jumped to nearly 10 days, with 78 cases taking 12 days or longer, according to data provided by FCPS.

To speed up the process, FCPS has instituted several measures, including hiring individuals to help with COVID management and implementing a vaccination verification survey intended to let students who are both asymptomatic and vaccinated return to classes sooner.

Schools no longer need to provide seating charts and other information to the county health department, which has also started notifying families about pauses via both email and phone after communication issues led some students to break COVID-19 protocols.

FCPS officials also confirmed that they’re developing new methods to support students when they are being paused, including one-on-one check-ins every 48 hours and live streaming lessons.

A number of school board members raised concerns about the extra work this will create for staff and teachers on top of the other challenges that have emerged with the resumption of five days of in-person  learning.

Brabrand responded that these processes should hopefully be only temporary as school and health staff work to shorten the length of contact-tracing investigations.

“If we are in the situation we are [currently] in at the end of the calendar year, then we will need to revisit our assumptions about how we are operating as a school district,” he said when asked about calls for more virtual learning. “We are back in-person and we are doing all we can to stay, but we need to see about the results over the last few months to inform additional General Assembly action.”

In terms of vaccination rates, 87% of staff responded a survey from FCPS about their vaccination status. 96.8% of respondents said they are vaccinated.

FCPS is requiring all employees to get vaccinated by late October.

About 83.5% of residents 12 to 17 years old have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to health department data, but FCPS confirmed to FFXnow that it doesn’t currently have statistics specifically for its students.

FCPS didn’t immediately respond when asked if it plans to survey parents and students like it did for staff.

“Education as we know it will forever change if we can’t get our kids and staff vaccinated,” Brabrand said at the work session.”I strongly believe that vaccination is going to be the way out of this pandemic.”

Fairfax County Public Schools is conducting the first public review of its special education services since 2013 after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted traditional learning with remote classes that disproportionately affected students with disabilities.

Presented to the school board at a work session yesterday (Tuesday), findings from the first year of the review highlight families’ frustrations with the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process and suggest the school system disproportionately disciplines special education students, especially Black and Hispanic children.

Requested by the school board in December 2019 and officially launched on Nov. 10, 2020, the interim report states explicitly that the review “does not address special education programming during COVID-19.”

The contracted firm — the Arlington-headquartered nonprofit American Institutes for Research — said FCPS decided to focus on collecting data for normal school operations.

On the positive side, surveys of both staff and parents found that 87% of the over 18,500 parents who responded “agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with the quality of teaching staff in their child’s school,” frequently noting the caring nature of instructional staff and expressing appreciation for employees.

The review showed that, from 2016-2021, FCPS had about nine or 10 students per special education teacher, a lower ratio than the state average of 15-to-1. The district has also taken steps to improve communication with school staff, including by appointing an assistant ombudsman for special education in 2019, the report said.

While researchers stressed that this is an initial update and the conclusions aren’t final, the report found several areas of concern:

• Families voiced a lack of transparency and accountability about Individualized Education Program goals and progress
• Suspension and expulsion rates were higher for certain races than others
• Parents suggested that the IEP process for getting student input on post-high school transition plans “may be driven by compliance rather than student needs”
• Novice teachers lack preparation to work with students with disabilities, an area that researchers are investigating further
• Staff reported feeling overwhelmed by case management, paperwork, and meeting duties, affecting FCPS’ ability to effectively recruit and retain teachers
• The amount and quality of communication between parents and staff varies by school
• A sampling showed more than a third of IEPs had no written evidence of parent input

“‘It’s so sad.’ That’s what I wrote all over this document,” Mason District Representative Ricardy Anderson said.

In addition to discussing how to address the issues raised by the report, school board member after school board member raised concerns about the review process, urging researchers to be specific in their recommendations by looking at subgroups and other factors. Officials suggested broad takeaways could dilute matters and not help families.

“My fear overall about this is that this is a one-sized-fits-all special ed audit,” Laura Jane Cohen, the board’s Springfield District representative, said.

Researchers responded that they used a random sampling to collect their preliminary findings. They also noted constraints with interviewing kids, while expressing a willingness to consider changes.

The firm said it will go more in-depth during the second year of a $375,000-plus contract issued in October 2020.

FCPS Auditor General Esther Ko reminded the board that it has a fixed contract and the firm will work at no cost for three more months after its second year. If the board wants more changes, though, it could amend the contract or open another bidding process to look at other topics.

The board requested that Ko to evaluate possible changes to the review with American Institutes for Research for its audit committee to go over later.

Currently set to be completed next summer, the review will make recommendations to FCPS for how to improve services for students with disabilities and their families.

The widening of Elden Street from four to six lanes  — a roughly $40.6 million project — is expected to begin in late 2022.

The Virginia Department of Transportation plans to widen the street between Herndon and Fairfax County parkways. Along the street, bike lanes are planned from Monroe Street to Herndon Parkway, in addition to cycle tracks from Herndon Parkway to Fairfax County Parkway.

VDOT will also replace culverts over Sugarland Run with a new bridge to improve stream flow and reduce flooding. Overhead utilities along Elden Street will be buried between Monroe Street and Fairfax County Parkway.

Right-of-way acquisition kicked off in 2019 and is expected to wrap up by the end of the fall, according to Murphy.

Construction for the underground utility duct bank will begin in late 2022. But the actual widening, bicycle improvements, and construction of the bridge won’t kick off until early 2025, according to Mike Murphy, a spokesman for VDOT.

“The costs and schedules are estimates and subject to change as the design progresses and schedules are refined,” Murphy wrote in a statement to Reston Now.

Most of East Elden Street is a fore-lane undivided road. Few dedicated left-turn lanes result in major backups and traffic congestion. Changes are expected to improve access to businesses and the future Herndon Metrorail Station.

A host of other pedestrian and road improvements are planned in the Town of Herndon. In May, the town council awarded a contract to the Ashburn Construction Corp. for a new signal and sidewalks at the Elden -Monroe Street intersection.