Online Learning Paused At Fairfax Schools, Technical Issues Cited

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Fairfax County Public Schools has canceled teacher-led distance learning through Friday, April 17 due to technical issues with its online Blackboard 24/7 system. The school district, which serves approximately 189,000 students, encountered the problems as it kicked off its distance learning plan Tuesday, April 14.

The school district reported login issues with the Blackboard 24/7 system on the first morning of the distance learning plan. Teacher-led instruction was planned to resume Wednesday after a two-hour delay to allow teachers to activate security upgrades on Blackboard. However, FCPS decided Wednesday morning to cancel instruction due to ongoing technical issues.

"We sincerely appreciate your patience and share your frustration related to our distance learning challenges this week," Superintendent Scott Brabrand wrote in a message to families. "FCPS had worked closely with Blackboard’s technical team for several weeks prior to the launch of distance learning and there was no indication that the system would be unable to handle the volume of participating users or would be susceptible to the security issues that many of our schools encountered."

Upgrades to the Blackboard system will begin Wednesday and run through Thursday. Staff will be trained on the system upgrades Friday, and FCPS will give an update to the school community. FCPS is planning to resume teacher-led instruction on Monday, April 20.

Blackboard addressed the technical issues in a statement:

We encountered unexpected technical challenges over the past couple of days that caused some users to experience issues when logging into the FCPS 24-7 Learning site, and we are working closely with FCPS to resolve the issues as quickly as possible. In addition, we are working with FCPS to require students to log in to the FCPS 24-7 site and authenticate their identity before they are permitted to join a virtual classroom.

The school district is allowing students to complete work assigned before March 13, but work assigned after this date won't be graded. Teachers will be contacting students by phone or email about third quarter work. Students not contacted by their teacher should contact the principal.

High school and middle school students will receive a "no mark" for the fourth quarter, and any assignments done in the fourth quarter can only positively impact a student's final grade. Elementary school students won't receive fourth quarter grades.

FCPS urged families to access other instructional programming on cable channels and distance learning resources by grade level. The DC region's WETA public media station is broadcasting VA TV Classroom, or teacher-led instruction for grades K-10. Content for grades K to 3 airs from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., and content for grades 7 to 10 is available from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. During the week of April 27, the "AP Prep Week" special will air from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. with a different AP subject each day.

Fairfax County school district prepared its distance learning plan after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam ordered schools to close for the rest of the academic year. The plan is scheduled to run through June 8.