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Fairfax County Schools start later, risk commuter woes

WASHINGTON – The region’s largest school district returns to class Tuesday morning with a schedule change that could impact traffic.

Most Fairfax County Public High Schools will start the day at 8:10 a.m. this school year, almost an hour later than last year.

FCPS decided to shift the schedule in response to research from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

It found improved outcomes when bell schedules more closely correspond with biological sleep rhythms of adolescents.

The outworking of the schedule change remains a question.

Buses and parents will be chauffeuring students to class when many commuters are heading to work.

District wide, FCPS uses more than 1,600 buses. Enrollment is estimated at 188,545.

Va. health dept. improves nursing home inspection backlog, reforms sanction criteria for facilities

Stories of neglect in care or unsanitary living situations have plagued several of Virginia’s nursing home facilities in recent years and data backs up a lapse in oversight by state agencies.  With reform efforts underway, the Virginia Department of Health officials said they aim to adopt sanction criteria by the end of the year to rein in bad actors and get troubled facilities back on track.  As of July, 58% of Virginia’s nursing homes were overdue for inspections and 68 of Virginia’s 289 nursing homes were found to have serious deficiencies, according to ProPublica. Several of the state’s flagged facilities with numerous deficiencies also had high staffing turnover rates.  The issue has been salient among various healthcare spaces, including VDH. 
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