World Language transfer request for HS

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02/05/2026 19:33

Subject: World Language transfer request for HS

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I emailed Gatehouse (student transfers) about this issue (I have a high schooler who needs to stick with a language she started but wants to switch to AP, her language not available at closest AP school.) and they were completely dismissive. Basically too bad, so sad, go talk to your school counselor (who had already advised us to email Gatehouse)

Who can I escalate to?

I don't think it is going to change. They realized that kids are using languages to transfer out of lower ranked schools to higher ranked schools. It will be interesting to see how the number of transfers drop at Langley, Oakton, WSHS, and the like. I know people used language to transfer from Herndon to Langley, those kids will have to stay at Herndon unless they transfer to SLHS for IB. SLHS sent kids to Langley, Westfield, and Oakton for AP and language, I would guess that those kids will now be told they have to go to Herndon.

The point is to decrease the number of students at schools close to capacity and stop kids from transferring out of lower ranked schools. They did not close the IB to AP loop hole but removing the language alters what schools can move to from IB for AP, no idea if that will make transferring less interesting.

But students haven't been allowed to transfer to schools at or exceeding capacity in the past either.
If a school has capacity, who cares if students are transferring in? Is it worth punishing some 15 year old?

This is completely untrue.

WSHS is at well over 100% capacity and closed to transfers. WSHS has been closed to transfers for over a decade.

Since returning from covid, 50-60 students transfer into that school each year over the past few years, in violation of FCPS written policy.

At the rezoning meetings, Dr. Reid and other FCPS staff alluded that a large number of those 50 to 60 transfer students into WSHS are language transfers.

The policy is that those students should not have been given the option to transfer into WSHS as the entire school has been closed to transfers for years, and every grade is currently over capacity, including the giant senior class which is around 140 students over capacity. The rest of the grades are around 50 students over capacity.

Those 50-60 transfers into WSHS for mostly language transfers are roughly equal to the number of students from both the Sangster neighborhood and the Shannon Station neighborhood, both of which were marked for rezoning.

Basically, FCPS goal for WSHS was to transfer out to Lake Braddock 50 to 60 students whose parents purchased homes to WSHS, to accommodate those 50-60 students from other high schools who are transferring into WSHS using the language programs to transfer into a closed over capacity high school. They never should have been allowed to attend WSHS based on FCPS own written long established policy that used to be enforced pre covid.

Naturally, FCPS ignoring the written transfer policy while planning to rezone residents, was a HUGE point of contention at every community meeting in the WSHS pyramid.

FCPS being FCPS (#equity) rather than enforce the written transfer policy as they used to do pre covid before equity became dogma, FCPS has apparently decided that if one school can no longer accept language transfers, then no school can accept language transfers.

The smart and fair thing to do would be to enforce the transfer policy like they did before "Equity" became the most important thing above all else, and just say no transfers are allowed into WSHS, McLean, Chantilly, Edison and Centerville, while allowing the 20 other high schools to accept transfers

But FCPS of course decided that if one kid can't have nice things then no kids can have nice things.

This all could have been avoided if FCPS would just enforce its own policies. Making equity the bar that everything is lowered to is doing nothing but tripping people.