After hearing hours of testimony from as many as 50 people, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to allocate $707,908 to keep crossing guards at 11 high schools for the remainder of the 2026-2027 school year.
Before public hearing testimony began, Supervisor James Bierman told the crowd at Tuesday’s meeting, “Spoiler alert folks, you’re going to get your crossing guards back, in about an hour and a half.” That comment prompted loud applause.
The start of the school year in Fairfax County was marked by several cases of students being hit by cars on their way to or from school. In one case, a 13-year-old was killed.
Witnesses during the public hearing made frequent references to that incident, including Sandy Anderson, a Fairfax County School Board member said, “We have had multiple students hit by cars, and we have tragically lost someone’s child.”
Fairfax County may restore dedicated high school crossing guards after budget cuts
Crossing guards are back at Fairfax County high schools. How long will they remain there?
Her voice breaking, she continued: “We need drivers to slow down, and we need them to put their phones away.”
At one point during the meeting, Supervisor Walter Alcorn said, “You know, the elephant in the room here is money,” pointing out that the county was running out of its $100 million in active transportation funding.
Supervisor Rodney Lusk took exception to that, insisting, “This is not a money issue,” and saying that he had fought to keep the funding for crossing guards. In the end, Lusk said, “This board did not fund the crossing guard program when we should have. Period.”
Joy Jiandani, a candidate for the Board of Education, told the supervisors, “I want this Board to maintain funding for high school crossing guards permanently. But I’m also asking for something equally as important today. Please show us the data that justified removing them in the first place.”
“Basic solutions are not available because the Board of Supervisors defends the status quo and the status quo endangers children, School Board member Meleni Meren told the board. “But I’m here to protect children, and I’m not going anywhere.”
Along with restoring funding for crossing guards for the rest of the year, Supervisor Chairman Jeff McKay moved to create a joint task force that would include members of the school board. “I think we’ve all seen with the numbers of accidents that have happened in the county — around schools or not around schools, that there’s a lot of work to continue to be done in this space.”
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