Fairfax County Public Schools
Fairfax County, VA · Suburb · grades PK–12 · 179,323 students across 223 schools
- Spends $20,064 per student in operating costs — $18,427 once local price levels are accounted for.
- 68.9% of every operating dollar reaches instruction.
- 68.3% of revenue is raised locally, mostly from property tax.
The money
| Per student, as reported | $20,064 |
|---|---|
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local BEA price level, so it can be set against a district anywhere else. | $18,427 |
| Per student, excluding transport | $17,484 |
| Capital spending per student Buildings and land. Lumpy by nature. | Locked |
| Total revenue | Locked |
| Total current spending | Locked |
| Local price level (US = 100) Metro-area index. | 108.9 |
Where the money goes
- Instruction 59.9% Locked
- Instructional staff support 9.0% Locked
- Student support 6.1% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 8.5% Locked
- Transportation 5.1% Locked
- Food service 3.8% Locked
- School administration 5.7% Locked
- District administration 0.7% Locked
- Other support 1.3% Locked
- Other current 3.8% Locked
What the money buys
| Students per teacher A staffing ratio, not an average class size. Real classes are larger than this everywhere. | 13.3 |
|---|---|
| Students per counsellor | Locked |
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms | 68.9% |
| Administration share | 6.4% |
| Child poverty rate Census SAIPE estimate for children 5–17 inside the district boundary. | 6.1% |
| Enrolment change, 5 years | -5.1% |
Stability and risk
- Declining enrollment Enrolment fell more than 5% over five years. Enrolment decline is the single best predictor of school closures and programme cuts.
Against the rest of VA
| Fairfax County Public Schools | VA average | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $20,064 | $16,709 |
| Reaching classrooms | 68.9% | 64.4% |
| Local share of revenue | 68.3% | 37.4% |
Average across 131 VA districts we hold scores for, unweighted by size.
Districts most like this one
Nearest neighbours on size, setting, poverty and grade span — not on spending. These are the fair comparisons, so we made each one a link.
Enrolling a child
Read off this district’s own enrolment page. Every “required” below links to the sentence it came from.
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction, and we have read only a fraction of the ones that do. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
- This is the district’s own published wording, not our summary of it. Policies are rewritten between enrolment seasons and a page can be out of date the day after we read it — the school office is the only authority on whether a particular grade at a particular school is full right now.
- A warning here is about capacity, not about your address. It does not mean your child will be moved; it means the district has told you in writing that it may move them.
- Required the page says so, and the sentence is quoted.
- Mentioned only it comes up, but not as a requirement — often a sentence saying the district cannot demand it.
- Not mentioned we read the page and it was not on it. That is not the same as "not required".
- Page not read we have no enrolment page for this district.
Documents to bring
How enrolling works
Locked 11 steps of the enrolment process — deadlines, appointments, proof of residency — are not shown. What to bring is above, and stays free.
- A blank row means the requirement did not appear on the page we read. It does not mean the district will not ask for it — published lists are routinely incomplete, and the registrar has the final word.
- Requirements change every enrolment season. Check the district’s own page, linked above, before you gather anything.
- A district cannot condition enrolment on your child’s immigration status: under Plyler v. Doe (1982) every child resident in the district is entitled to a free public education. If a district asks for something that would reveal status, you are not obliged to provide it.
- If your family is in temporary or shared housing, the McKinney-Vento Act lets a child enrol immediately without the residency and records documents listed here. Ask for the district’s homeless liaison by name.
Who decides, and what it costs you
Every band above this one asks what this district spends. This one asks who chose to.
Fairfax County Public Schools
The county or town levies it, not the district
This school system reports no property tax of its own. It is a dependent system: the county or city levies the tax and appropriates money to the schools. You still pay school property tax — the school board simply is not the body that sets it, and the appropriation is argued out at the county or city council.
| Fairfax County Public Schools | |
|---|---|
| School property tax levied, per student Only for districts that levy in their own name. Blank where the county or town levies instead — see the cards above, and read the next row. | — |
| Appropriated by the county or town, per student What the parent government handed the schools, for dependent systems. This is a general appropriation, not solely property tax. | $13,827 |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | — |
| Long-term debt already owed, per student The balance at the end of the year, for scale. Repaid over decades, so it is a commitment made by earlier boards rather than a bill arriving now. | Locked |
| Debt service as a share of spending Interest plus principal repaid this year, against total spending. This is the part of the debt that is being paid now, out of money that would otherwise reach a classroom. | Locked |
| New long-term debt issued, per student Money borrowed during fiscal year 2024, as reported to the federal survey. What this figure does and does not tell you is set out under the table. | $1,035 |
- A figure in the borrowing row is not a bond voters approved. The federal survey records debt issued, and that includes refinancing existing debt at a new rate — which changes nothing about what a district owes — as well as certificates of participation and lease-revenue debt, which in many states a board can issue with no referendum at all. To find out what was actually on a ballot, check the county election office.
- Debt is repaid over decades. A large balance per student is a commitment made by earlier boards and earlier voters, not a bill arriving this year. The debt service row above it is the part being paid now.
Who sits on the board
Fairfax County Public Schools board of education
- Robyn Lady — Chair
- Kyle McDaniel — Vice Chairman
- Ryan McElveen — Member
- Ilryong Moon — Member
- Members are elected: “The 12 School Board members are elected for four-year terms;”
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-25. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
What this band does not answer yet
Unlock every figure for Fairfax County Public Schools
The verdict, the headline dollar, the funding shares, who is served and every comparability caveat are free above, and stay free. What is behind the lock is the detail you would want before acting on any of it:
- capital spending per student, total revenue and total current spending
- the ten-line per-student breakdown of where the money goes
- counsellor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the enrolment process — deadlines, appointments and proof of residency
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
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