Every second grader in Fairfax County Public Schools will take a field trip to a Fairfax County Public Library branch this school year, Superintendent Michelle Reid announced last week.

The visits are part of the Library Equity Access Program, known as LEAP, which already gives all FCPS students in prekindergarten through 12th grade automatic checkout privileges at county library branches without a separate application. The new component adds a structured, in-person visit for second graders across the division, including students at Vienna-area elementary schools in the Madison and Oakton pyramids.

Reid shared the news with FCPS elementary librarians at their in-service workshop on Thursday, Aug. 20. "Our librarians were thrilled, and I was grateful for the opportunity to celebrate this important partnership with them," she wrote in her weekly reflections column published Aug. 24.

During each visit, second graders will hear a librarian-led story time, tour the branch, check out a book using their LEAP accounts and receive a keepsake LEAP card. The district ties the initiative to Goal 3 of its 2023–30 Strategic Plan: ensuring students read on grade level by the end of third grade.

The LEAP platform, administered by Fairfax County Public Library, was updated ahead of this school year. The library visits add a new in-person component to the program for an entire grade level.

Boundary committee also met

The same week, Reid met with the Superintendent's Boundary Advisory Committee on Wednesday, Aug. 19, to review revised draft scenarios for four ongoing boundary studies. The committee is a core group of community members who served on the Comprehensive Boundary Review that guided the district's first boundary overhaul in decades. As we reported Aug. 25, that review sent nearly 1,700 students to different schools this fall.

Senior FCPS leaders serve as "boundary champions" heading each of the four remaining studies, which are due to deliver recommendations to the School Board by January 2027. Reid did not name which attendance areas are under review, and the district's boundary committee webpage does not list the specific study zones.

The school year began Monday, Aug. 24. No timeline has been published for when individual schools will schedule their LEAP library visits.