Falls Church City Public Schools for non-residents

[Anonymous]

Just wondering if people in the Falls Church section of Fairfax County ever apply to send their kids to the Falls Church City Schools. Do non-residents get in? How much does it cost?

[Anonymous]

I think it's about $18,000 per year. Cal them to check for sure That doesn't include special services (GT, special ed, etc), which cost extra. There are a few every year that do this at the high school level. Not sure about elementary/MS level.

[Anonymous]

Can you just do this, or do you have to "qualify" through the same circumstances that you have to fulfill if you want to do an out of bounds transfer - i.e. aftercare in FCC, or special needs of some kind...

[Anonymous]

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for your interest in Falls Church City Public Schools.
Information concerning registering a non-resident student can be found in the following:

9.21 - Non-Resident Student Admission and Tuition - http://www.fccps.org/board/policies/9/9_21P.pdf - (Last Revised 10/27/09)
9.21R - Bona Fide Legal Residence; Non Resident Students - http://www.fccps.org/board/policies/9/9_21R.pdf - (Last Revised 08/21/09)

And our latest fee schedule, approved on March 22nd, can be found - http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fccpsva/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=8F6QDP67FBBB

Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

John Brett
Communications Specialist
Falls Church City Public Schools
703-248-5680
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

I am not anonymous from above looking into FCC schools, but I have to say I am impressed with Mr. Brett responding on here. Coming from a small school district in Pennsylvania, I appreciate the size of the FCC school district. I cannot imagine someone from Fairfax County School District taking the time to respond to an inquiry on dcurbanmom. Kudos to FCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not anonymous from above looking into FCC schools, but I have to say I am impressed with Mr. Brett responding on here. Coming from a small school district in Pennsylvania, I appreciate the size of the FCC school district. I cannot imagine someone from Fairfax County School District taking the time to respond to an inquiry on dcurbanmom. Kudos to FCC.

falls church city is its own district, separate from fairfax.

[Anonymous]

OP, why would you consider paying tuition to FCC? I know that FCPS in Falls Church aren't viewed as the best around, but they're certainly not awful. Have you had a bad experience?

[Anonymous]

Not OP, but I know of someone who paid for their kids to go to George Mason High School in FCC instead of going to McLean High School. They lived just over the city border and wanted the smaller class sizes, IB program, proximity to the school (he could walk to George Mason), and the neighbors just a few doors down were in FCC.

McLean has a good reputation, so there are reasons to choose FCC schools that don't have to do with bad experiences at other schools.

[Anonymous]

uum, yeah, I know. That's why I said I appreciated someone from Falls Church City posting. That would never happen from Fairfax County Public Schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not anonymous from above looking into FCC schools, but I have to say I am impressed with Mr. Brett responding on here. Coming from a small school district in Pennsylvania, I appreciate the size of the FCC school district. I cannot imagine someone from Fairfax County School District taking the time to respond to an inquiry on dcurbanmom. Kudos to FCC.

falls church city is its own district, separate from fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but I know of someone who paid for their kids to go to George Mason High School in FCC instead of going to McLean High School. They lived just over the city border and wanted the smaller class sizes, IB program, proximity to the school (he could walk to George Mason), and the neighbors just a few doors down were in FCC.

McLean has a good reputation, so there are reasons to choose FCC schools that don't have to do with bad experiences at other schools.

"Just over the city border" in walking distance of Mason shouldn't zoned for Mclean. Those neighborhoods (there aren't a lot of neighborhoods in walking distance of Mason because of all the commercial stuff and 66) are zoned for Marshall (which has an IB program as well). I can't imagine why anyone would bother because aside from an $18,000 price tag on one if you're out of bounds, the schools are pretty much functionally the same to me nowadays. Mason is smaller, but Marshall is small as far as high schools go anyway. It's not an $18,000 difference anyway. I find the whole notion kind of absurd. For $18,000, seriously.

Also, even if you want AP or IB, within Fairfax County if your base school is one and you want the other, you can transfer to another FCPS for free fairly easily(have to provide transportation). If they're really in walking distance of Mason then they're practically in walking distance of Marshall (I still can't think of any neighborhoods that would be zoned for Mclean so I'm kind of confused about what neighborhood this would be).

Also, with the FCC school system somewhat strained as it is (the HS and MS aren't even in the city borders, that land is Fairfax County) without much possibility of building more facilities (I know there was something about whether the city could limit the number of school aged kids moving into those condos that went up or something), I can't imagine they would accept many transfers from FCPS. Separating the MS and HS facility might have helped somewhat in that regard but it's not like significant amounts of people in Falls Church are just sending their kids to FCC schools out of boundary. I would guess it's not that easy a process even if you have the money.

[Anonymous]

The condos located next to the West Falls Church metro are about a block from George Mason but are zoned for McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The condos located next to the West Falls Church metro are about a block from George Mason but are zoned for McLean.

That's correct. Keep in mind that Mason, while an FCC school, is actually located in Fairfax County, not FCC. The Haycock/Idylwood area on the north side of Route 7 near the WFC Metro is assigned to McLean; the area across directly Route 7 and Mason is assigned to Marshall.

Personally, I would agree that it's bizarre for someone in the McLean district who wants an IB program to pay $18K to have their kid attend Mason, when they could pupil place to Marshall - which has the most successful IB program in Fairfax County - for free. But, to each his own. Some people really like the idea of smaller schools. Even though Marshall is one of the smallest schools in Fairfax (around 1575 students), it's still substantially larger than Mason.

[Anonymous]

Some of the homes that are pretty close to GMU's boundary area (and in the same zip code - 22046) are in Falls Church High School (Fairfax county) district, which has some of the lowest SAT scores in Fairfax County. I can see someone boundaried for FCHS wanting their kid to go to Mason instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but I know of someone who paid for their kids to go to George Mason High School in FCC instead of going to McLean High School. They lived just over the city border and wanted the smaller class sizes, IB program, proximity to the school (he could walk to George Mason), and the neighbors just a few doors down were in FCC.

McLean has a good reputation, so there are reasons to choose FCC schools that don't have to do with bad experiences at other schools.

"Just over the city border" in walking distance of Mason shouldn't zoned for Mclean. Those neighborhoods (there aren't a lot of neighborhoods in walking distance of Mason because of all the commercial stuff and 66) are zoned for Marshall (which has an IB program as well). I can't imagine why anyone would bother because aside from an $18,000 price tag on one if you're out of bounds, the schools are pretty much functionally the same to me nowadays. Mason is smaller, but Marshall is small as far as high schools go anyway. It's not an $18,000 difference anyway. I find the whole notion kind of absurd. For $18,000, seriously.

Also, even if you want AP or IB, within Fairfax County if your base school is one and you want the other, you can transfer to another FCPS for free fairly easily(have to provide transportation). If they're really in walking distance of Mason then they're practically in walking distance of Marshall (I still can't think of any neighborhoods that would be zoned for Mclean so I'm kind of confused about what neighborhood this would be).

Also, with the FCC school system somewhat strained as it is (the HS and MS aren't even in the city borders, that land is Fairfax County) without much possibility of building more facilities (I know there was something about whether the city could limit the number of school aged kids moving into those condos that went up or something), I can't imagine they would accept many transfers from FCPS. Separating the MS and HS facility might have helped somewhat in that regard but it's not like significant amounts of people in Falls Church are just sending their kids to FCC schools out of boundary. I would guess it's not that easy a process even if you have the money.

A large portion of the area south of I-66 and north of West Street is zoned McLean and is also walking distance to George Mason for a high school student. On those streets, some kids are zoned for McLean and some for FCC. The person I know of who opted to pay tuition for GM lived in that area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A large portion of the area south of I-66 and north of West Street is zoned McLean and is also walking distance to George Mason for a high school student. On those streets, some kids are zoned for McLean and some for FCC. The person I know of who opted to pay tuition for GM lived in that area.

Okay, I believe it, but it doesn't seem like $18,000 worth of difference to not just pupil place to Marshall for free (since Mclean is AP and Marshall is IB). Especially since even in relatively recent past years Marshall was smaller than it is now (it's probably gained more than a hundred kids per class since 5-6 years ago). I guess now I can see the argument about size but anyone making the decision awhile ago would have been facing different circumstances (especially since the Henderson building didn't exist yet). The class sizes in Marshall for the IB program are pretty small too, so if you're going to do that anyway you have to consider it's a smaller program within the school.

I mean if they have the money, to each their own, I just would never recommend it. Especially since within Fairfax County you can pupil place for free and it's a fairly easy process (easier than I would think, anyway). Also, I still don't see why FCC would accept any students out of bounds in their current situation (without some special circumstances like moving halfway through the school year or something). Maybe for the $18,000 per kid but it still doesn't seem like it would amount to be worth it overall. I'm always reading in the FCNP about how they can't build more elementary schools or whatever.