Ronit Singh still remembers feeling caught off guard after learning the Fairfax County School Board voted to change the cellphone rules in the Northern Virginia district.

The agency is investigating the Montgomery, Prince George's and Frederick County school districts and Maryland's education agency in the Trump administration's latest challenge of the region's school policies regarding transgender students.

Blake High School had an outright ban on food deliveries. But students told drivers to meet them at the bottom of a nearby hill instead of driving onto school property. So this fall, staff set up a table to facilitate all of the deliveries made on any given day.

The Education Department says Fairfax County Public Schools may have violated the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment after reports a social worker arranged an abortion for a student without parental notice and pressured another into having one.

Fairfax County Public Schools is the first Virginia district to adopt the FBI's Rap Back program, which provides continuous background checks on employees. The move replaces one-time fingerprinting with real-time alerts, aiming to strengthen student safety.

When D.C.-area school systems welcome students for the fall semester, teachers will be expected to offer alternative reading options if parents have religious objections to books chosen for a particular unit.

In response to recent high-profile tragedies nationwide, Fairfax County Public Schools plans to enhance security by hiring an "executive protection agent" to safeguard Superintendent Michelle Reid. The role, managed by the Office of the Chief Safety and Security Officer, includes year-round duties across school campuses, events, travel, and private residences.

School resource officers, or SROs, were once common throughout the country. But many areas, primarily liberal leaning ones, began to question whether they were necessary. After lots of discussion around the region, some schools decided to move ahead and try something different.