The lawsuit alleges Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology that discriminated against Asian American students.
The Department of Education is launching an investigation into Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) concerns about admission policies at famous high schools that have been illegally discriminated against Asian American students.
The Department’s Civil Rights Office (OCR) said the investigation was prompted in 2020 in response to a change in the admissions policy of Thomas Jefferson’s Admissions Policy (TJ) for Science and Technology (TJ).
McMahon added that the decision of FCPS to “race” in TJ’s admissions decision “seems to violate the basic principle that students should be evaluated on their own merits, not on their skin color.”
This change eliminates standardized testing and application fees.
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Instead, the review process was based on four empirical factors, including student achievement, problem-solving essays, a “portrait sheet” of skills, special educational status, eligibility for free or low-cost meals, whether they were English learners, and whether they attended a historically underrated public middle school.
Additionally, student names, races, or other demographic information remained anonymous to the admissions rater.
According to a February 2024 statement from FCPS, the move led to enrollment of more economically disadvantaged students and Black and Hispanic students.
The Coalition of TJ, an advocacy group for parents at Fairfax County public schools, called for change in March 2021, claiming it was at the expense of Asian American students who had lost the number of schools.
Therefore, the coalition alleged that changes to the hospitalization process were in violation of the Equality Protection Clause.
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According to a February statement from FCPS, in the final group of freshman class offers attended in the fall of 2023, Asian American students accounted for 61.6% of the offers, with black and Hispanic students receiving 6.7% and 6% respectively.
However, the coalition in its lawsuit argued that unless hospitalization policies change, the number of Asian American students in the next TJ class in 2025 “is likely to be cut in half” not because of the decline in the number of qualified Asian American applicants, but rather because of the defendant’s stated desire to manipulate TJ demographics.
The Department of Education investigation, released a day after the office of the Republican Jason Miyares Department of Virginia Attorney General’s Republican, concluded its own investigation into revisions to FCPS’ TJ admissions policy, finding it “discriminates based on race.”
Miyares’ office then introduced the complaints to the Education Department.
McMahon thanked Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, as well as Miyares for his “hard work” of “documenting patterns of practices relating to practices at TJ.”
She said the department plans to further investigate the complaints and ensure that all students () are evaluated fairly in accordance with benefits and achievements.”
The school district said it will review documents released by the state attorney general.
“This issue has already been fully sued,” Fairfax County Public Schools said in a statement. “The federal Court of Appeals has determined that the Thomas Jefferson High School’s admissions policy for science and technology discriminates against groups of students is without merit.”
The Epoch Times reached Fairfax County Public Schools for further comment.
