Fairfax Supervisors Signal Crossing Guards Will Return To High Schools

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — High school crossing guards appear headed back to Fairfax County schools as Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay introduced a measure Tuesday to create a joint county-school task force charged with finding longer-term solutions to pedestrian and traffic safety problems around schools.

Several supervisors signaled during discussion of McKay's board matter that the county would restore the high school crossing guards eliminated during the fiscal 2027 budget process.

Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman drew applause from people attending the meeting when he made the clearest prediction.

"I think spoiler alert, folks: you're going to get the crossing guards back," Bierman said.

Braddock District Supervisor Rachna Sizemore-Heizer offered a similar assessment later in the discussion.

"Honestly, as a spoiler alert, you know, we're going to put crossing guards back in," she said, while arguing that the guards represented only one piece of a larger student transportation safety problem.

Task Force Would Examine Broader Safety Problems

McKay's proposal came before supervisors were scheduled to consider the county's fiscal 2026 carryover package, which includes the possibility of permanently restoring funding for high school crossing guards.

The chairman proposed establishing a joint task force with the Fairfax County School Board to examine pedestrian, bicycle, scooter and traffic safety in school zones.

McKay said the beginning of the 2026-27 school year exposed gaps in coordination, information and infrastructure. Fairfax County Police and school officials have conducted reviews of school sites, while a Fairfax County Public Schools Safe Routes to School assessment identified overloaded kiss-and-ride areas as one of the school system's most significant operational concerns.

The proposed task force would review recommendations from police, the FCPS Office of School Security and Safe Routes to School. It would also involve the Virginia Department of Transportation, members of the county's General Assembly delegation and other stakeholders.

Among the issues the task force could consider are deployment of crossing guards and other public safety personnel, funding and cost sharing, road design, criteria for determining where additional safety resources are needed, public education campaigns and possible changes to state law.

McKay nominated Vice Chair Kathy Smith (D-Sully) and Bierman to represent the Board of Supervisors and asked the School Board chair to select two School Board members.

"This is simply to set up the task force to improve communication," McKay said. "There are a lot of people working on public safety issues in Fairfax County. But unfortunately, there is not as much conversation as I think many of us would like to see, and certainly not as much collaboration as many of us would like to see."

McKay said the task force should work quickly enough for its recommendations to be considered during development of the county's next budget.

Student Crashes Put New Focus On Crossing Guards

The debate over crossing guards intensified after a 16-year-old student walking to South Lakes High School in Reston was struck by a vehicle shortly before 8 a.m. Aug. 31.

The student suffered minor injuries. Police later charged the driver with failure to stop before entering a highway.

Hunter Mill District School Board Member Melanie Meren, who opposed eliminating the high school crossing guards, subsequently organized Tuesday's Rally for Safe Roads and School Crossing Guards outside the Fairfax County Government Center.

The county temporarily returned crossing guards and police officers to 11 locations serving 10 high schools after the South Lakes crash while officials considered a permanent response.

Concerns intensified further Wednesday, when three FCPS students were involved in separate incidents with vehicles.

A 13-year-old Frost Middle School student riding a bicycle was killed after being struck by a large truck in the 3900 block of Pickett Road in Fairfax City at about 2:30 p.m. The student was commuting home from Frost Middle School.

Fairfax City Police said preliminary information indicated the truck was leaving a shopping center when it struck the student. The child was pronounced dead at the scene.

An 11-year-old riding an electric scooter was involved in a minor incident that morning on Lees Corner Road in Chantilly, although police said she was not injured. Later that afternoon, a 13-year-old bicyclist suffered minor injuries in a crash at Toll House Road and Country Lane in Annandale.

Another student suffered minor injuries the following day in a bicycle crash near Lake Braddock Secondary School.

At the beginning of Tuesday's meeting, McKay addressed the Frost Middle School student's death, saying the crash had "grabbed everyone's attention, as it should have."

"As a parent and father, it's unimaginable for the family involved," McKay said. He urged drivers to put away their phones and pay attention to pedestrians and bicyclists.

"We share the road in Fairfax County, and we all have the responsibility to do that," he said.

Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik also raised the fatal crash during discussion of the task force and asked that Fairfax City officials be included in its work because FCPS students travel across jurisdictional boundaries.

Bierman said the county needs data-driven criteria for determining where crossing guards, police officers, infrastructure improvements or other measures are warranted rather than treating every school identically.

"We need to identify the locations with documented safety and risk, and we need to set up that criteria and those assessments," he said.

He also defended the county's previous pedestrian-safety efforts, pointing to speed cameras, school bus stop-arm cameras, traffic-calming measures and a commitment to spend $100 million over six years on pedestrian and bicycle improvements.

Meren Questions Need For Another Task Force

Meren was less enthusiastic about the proposal after listening to supervisors discuss it.

Before speaking with Patch, Meren talked with a group of high school students who had come to the Government Center for Tuesday's meeting. FCPS policy allows secondary students one excused absence each year to participate in civic engagement, and Meren had encouraged students to attend.

"I think a task force is more of the same," Meren told Patch afterward. "The county already has loads of data, and unless we bring in different people who understand things like Vision Zero and how to provide education, enforcement, and engineering, nothing will change in this county."

Meren also criticized supervisors for spending so much time talking before members of the public had an opportunity to address them.

"I don't see the Board of Supervisors prioritizing listening to public input today," she said. "I see a priority on the supervisors listening to themselves."

Meren said students who attended the meeting expressed frustration with what they saw.

"The feeling that I just heard expressed by students right now was frustration and feeling disrespected," she said. "So that is what students learned today sitting at a Board of Supervisors public meeting."

Meren said holding government meetings during the workday and school day already makes public participation difficult.

"It's difficult for the public to engage when meetings are during the workday and school day, and then don't stay on time," she said. "It's just basic courtesy to keep to an agenda."

For Meren and other advocates who rallied outside the Government Center Tuesday morning, restoring crossing guards is an immediate step. The larger question now is whether the proposed joint task force can produce broader changes to the roads, school transportation systems and safety policies students rely on every day.