s/o - How many students in 2026 were removed due to FRMs review? Did TJ review 2025 students?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone FIOAed the TJ Admissions and free meals verification process yet? Two things that I’m curious about.

1) It appears that the TJ Admissions office, while trying to fix this predictable problem, created another loophole. Parents who were willing to submit the FRM application to their middle school via the FCPS online portal did not have to provide *any actual documentation*. Make no mistake, this was fraud. But the parents who were willing to misstate their income and click submit would pass the FRM review. There has been discussion on this board that some of the prep companies may have coached parents about this loophole.

How many parents “passed” the June FRM test in this manner? How many kids were actually removed?

2) Did TJ ever go back and review the 2025 applicants who checked yes to free meals? If so, what was the result?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone FIOAed the TJ Admissions and free meals verification process yet? Two things that I’m curious about.

1) It appears that the TJ Admissions office, while trying to fix this predictable problem, created another loophole. Parents who were willing to submit the FRM application to their middle school via the FCPS online portal did not have to provide *any actual documentation*. Make no mistake, this was fraud. But the parents who were willing to misstate their income and click submit would pass the FRM review. There has been discussion on this board that some of the prep companies may have coached parents about this loophole.

How many parents “passed” the June FRM test in this manner? How many kids were actually removed?

2) Did TJ ever go back and review the 2025 applicants who checked yes to free meals? If so, what was the result?

Also curious. No dog in the fight, but it’s a huge misstep for TJ.

[Anonymous]

The meal question was a stroke of genius since it enabled them to identify and disqualify the most toxic applicants easily!

[Anonymous]

Do waitlisted kids get any further notifications? Is there still a glimmer of hope? We are waitlisted and haven’t heard anything from TJ in June or July.

[Anonymous]

I thought the “FMV” was because, they, like most schools, had to start the paperwork process again- to see who qualifies for free or reduced meals since the federal funding of free meals to all students was ending.

I did not think it was tied to admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the “FMV” was because, they, like most schools, had to start the paperwork process again- to see who qualifies for free or reduced meals since the federal funding of free meals to all students was ending.

I did not think it was tied to admissions.

The verification was to check and make sure that kids who got the experience points for being lower SES were actually lower SES. They gave those points to kids who checked that they had received free meals at school. In a normal year th eonly kids who could check yes would be kids on FARMS which can be verified. Last year all kids were able to receive free meals because of COVID funds. Some families choose to check the box because of that reason and were improperly award experience points for being lower SES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the “FMV” was because, they, like most schools, had to start the paperwork process again- to see who qualifies for free or reduced meals since the federal funding of free meals to all students was ending.

I did not think it was tied to admissions.

The verification was to check and make sure that kids who got the experience points for being lower SES were actually lower SES. They gave those points to kids who checked that they had received free meals at school. In a normal year th eonly kids who could check yes would be kids on FARMS which can be verified. Last year all kids were able to receive free meals because of COVID funds. Some families choose to check the box because of that reason and were improperly award experience points for being lower SES.

FCPS school board is not just racist but stupid racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The meal question was a stroke of genius since it enabled them to identify and disqualify the most toxic applicants easily!

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the “FMV” was because, they, like most schools, had to start the paperwork process again- to see who qualifies for free or reduced meals since the federal funding of free meals to all students was ending.

I did not think it was tied to admissions.

The verification was to check and make sure that kids who got the experience points for being lower SES were actually lower SES. They gave those points to kids who checked that they had received free meals at school. In a normal year th eonly kids who could check yes would be kids on FARMS which can be verified. Last year all kids were able to receive free meals because of COVID funds. Some families choose to check the box because of that reason and were improperly award experience points for being lower SES.

FCPS school board is not just racist but stupid racist.

I love how this person doesn’t think the liars are stupid, but instead the people they lied to.

[Anonymous]

TJ admissions removed less than 20 kids from the original May offers.

There absolutely were families who just submitted false information vi the online FRM form instead of submitting paperwork. No one cared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the “FMV” was because, they, like most schools, had to start the paperwork process again- to see who qualifies for free or reduced meals since the federal funding of free meals to all students was ending.

I did not think it was tied to admissions.

The verification was to check and make sure that kids who got the experience points for being lower SES were actually lower SES. They gave those points to kids who checked that they had received free meals at school. In a normal year th eonly kids who could check yes would be kids on FARMS which can be verified. Last year all kids were able to receive free meals because of COVID funds. Some families choose to check the box because of that reason and were improperly award experience points for being lower SES.

FCPS school board is not just racist but stupid racist.

I love how this person doesn’t think the liars are stupid, but instead the people they lied to.

Liars and cheaters can absolutely be very smart people, which is why you need to design systems to account for that. And not doing that design work is one reason the current fad for negligible slaps on the wrist for being a cheaty mccheatypants is so awful - very smart people in the habit of cutting ethical corners are dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Filling out the application online as a workaround- if anyone did this, it's because they read about it on this site.

[Anonymous]

TJ did not reevaluate the rising sophomores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Filling out the application online as a workaround- if anyone did this, it's because they read about it on this site.

It actually was right on the original email from the TJ Admissions office to get verification from your middle school! How do you get verification in FCPS? Submit the online form.

This entire scandal is 100% on the TJ Admissions staff and their incredible incompetence.