Fairfax Education Association

In 2020, the FEA drew attention for opposing any reopening of the Fairfax County Public School system in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization led a petition to keep schooling online until a vaccine or COVID-19 treatment is widely distributed and asked its members to call in sick as a form of protest. ⁴

FEA has promoted NEA professional development courses that provide resources on social emotional learning (SEL) and trauma-informed teaching practices hosted by NEA. NEA’s professional development promoted using trauma-informed teaching and SEL to affirm the sexuality and gender identity of LGBT students and to address societal race issues. It also promoted using the identity politics concept of intersectionality. ^{5 6 7}

The FEA has a political action committee, the Fairfax County Political Action Committee for Education (FEA PAC). ⁸

History

In 1920, the Richmond and Fairfax County school districts established the Fairfax Education Association as a labor union for teachers. The school districts required union membership for all public-school teachers in the county, taking union dues directly from teacher paychecks. ⁹

In 1946, the FEA separated from the school district and began to operate as an independent union under its first president, Katherine Hopper. In 1956, the organization established the Fairfax Association Education Federal Credit Union (now known as the Apple Federal Credit Union), which has grown to provide financial services to 89,000 union members as of 2026. ⁹

The FEA expanded considerably in the 1970s and purchased an 8.5-acre tract of land in 1970 to construct a headquarters. The organization negotiated for expanded healthcare benefits, maternity leave, a sick leave bank, duty-free lunch, and other benefits for its members. ⁹

In 1977, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled government-worker collective bargaining unconstitutional. FEA has blamed this decision and the political atmosphere cultivated by former President Ronald Reagan on alleged setbacks faced by the union throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including the evaluation of teachers and the implementation of performance-based pay initiatives. ⁹ In 2020, the state adopted legislation to reinstate government-worker bargaining with local governments. ¹⁰

Fairfax Education Unions

In June 2024, the Fairfax Education Association and the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers (FCFT) formed an alliance under the name “Fairfax Education Unions” (FEU).  FEU also serves as an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA). Fairfax Education Unions was formed after the Virginia state legislature passed laws in 2020 allowing collective bargaining within the public sector. The alliance allowed FCFT and FEA to co-represent FCPS teachers and staff in collective bargaining. ¹¹

As of July 2026, FEU remained the exclusive representative for the licensed instructional and separately included operational staff members, as outlined by the bargaining units, for collective bargaining under Fairfax County Public Schools. While FEU represents all employees covered under the bargaining units, union membership is optional for FCPS employees. ¹²

Collective Bargaining

In January 2025, the Fairfax Education Association’s collective bargaining arm, Fairfax Education Unions, representing over 27,000 FCPS employees at the time, had reached an agreement with FCPS that ratified its first collective bargaining agreement since bargaining had been banned by the Virginia Supreme Court in 1977. The agreement included seven percent increases to salary scales for fiscal year 2026, three percent increases for 2027 and 2028, mandated minimum planning time, three days of bereavement leave in addition to existing personal and sick leave, and the creation of a health care advisory committee to “consider affordable healthcare plans,” according to The Patch.  ^{13 14}

In May 2025, FCPS announced that due to failures to secure increased budget transfers, it had to reduce the salary increases from the bargaining agreement. To meet the remaining terms of the bargaining agreement, it also had to reduce staffing across the county by 275 positions to fund the salary increases. Additionally, FCPS announced it had to delay funding of social studies curriculum materials, reduce funding for electric buses, and to a lesser extent, reduce central office staffing to meet the remaining terms. ¹⁵

In 2026, FEA supported two bills that would have further expanded collective bargaining by public workers. The FEA supported rallies hosted by the Virginia Education Association, the International Association of Fire Fighters, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that called on Governor Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) to sign the bills into law. ¹⁶

Professional Development

In September 2021, the Fairfax Education Association promoted National Education Association (NEA) professional development training classes that taught how to use trauma-informed, social emotional learning (SEL) practices to accommodate for the alleged needs of LGBT students. The classes qualified for licensure points and included techniques for teachers to identify signs of trauma in students, topics on the impact of trauma on learning, and how to identify trauma related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  ^{5 17}

In July 2021, FEA advertised the NEA’s Center for Social Justice’s professional development courses that were created under its 2021 “Season of Justice” initiative that focused on racial equity and issues associated with the LGBT community. The NEA’s Season of Justice encouraged teachers to “affirm” the gender identity and sexuality of LGBT students to encourage social acceptance.  ^{6 7}

NEA’s Season of Justice also promoted the use of the identity politics concept of intersectionality and to proactively address racial issues before they could potentially present themselves. The courses were based on the idea that feelings of social acceptance are necessary for a student to be willing to engage in learning and that intervention of potential discrimination towards LGBT students and ethnic minorities is necessary for ethnic minority and LGBT students to feel accepted. ⁷

Response to COVID-19 Pandemic

Following the outbreak of COVID-19, the Fairfax Education Association supported keeping school online and limiting all in-person interactions. On June 23rd, 2020, after months of digital schooling, the Fairfax County Public School district announced its intentions to restart in-person schooling in the fall of 2020 and distributed a survey to parents and teachers asking for their preferences between in-person and online schooling. The FEA joined the two other Fairfax teachers’ unions, the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers and the Association of Fairfax Professional Educators, in condemning the district’s actions. The unions jointly issued a public statement demanding that the county negotiate with the unions on future reopening plans. ¹⁸

Early in the summer of 2020, Fairfax County announced plans to begin the 2020-2021 school year in a virtual-only manner but continued to push for in-person openings as soon as possible. The county made multiple proposals for in-person schooling guidelines, but they were resisted by unions several times over the summer. In September 2020, the county officially announced that guidelines would be drawn up for in-person schooling to be implemented after the start of the school year. Over the following month, Fairfax County received 2,200 requests by teachers and staff to remain out of school for health reasons and granted 1,000 of those requests. ⁴

On October 9, 2020, FEA president Kimberly Adams was quoted in the Washington Post accusing Fairfax County of “strongarming” teachers and being willing to “sacrifice staff” for the sake of in-person classrooms. Adams claimed that 50-100 teachers had already asked to resign or retire if in-person schooling returned, and that hundreds or thousands more could quit. ⁴

On October 19, 2020, Fairfax schools announced their guidelines for the return of limited in-person classes. All students and staff members would be required to wear masks, and students were asked to attend school only two days per week. ¹⁹ Teachers and staff members were asked to make a decision on whether they would be willing to work in-person by October 30th. ²⁰

A few days later, the FEA organized a petition among Fairfax County teachers, parents, and students asking the Fairfax Public School System to keep its classrooms closed at least throughout the entire 2020-2021 school year, if not until a COVID-19 vaccine or treatment became widely available and until all of the petition’s demands were met. If “very limited” in-person school continued and only for “high needs students and families,” the petition requested that air filters be installed in every room; that all staff members be provided with COVID-19 testing; that all staff be provided with medical grade personal protective equipment (PPE), including face shields, gowns, foot coverings, and laundry service; allowing staff who “feel unsafe” to not be required to return; and that all teachers, staff members, and students would have the option of continuing digital attendance. ²¹

On October 27, 2020, the FEA recommended that all of its members call in sick to take a “mental health day” to protest in-person schooling.  ²²

On October 28, 2020, it was reported that several hundred teachers called out sick in anticipation of the October 30 deadline to decide if they would resign, retire, or return to in-person instruction. Critics of the event equated it to a strike, leading to a group of parents of FCPS students to seek legal representation by the Liberty Justice Center, which sent a demand letter outlining why the “sick out” is legally considered a strike and therefore violated Virginia law. ²³

During the COVID-19 pandemic, FEA maintained a webpage listing various COIVD-19 policy resources for FCPS staff and included support for staff who feared for their safety, refused to go to school buildings, including for non-contact activities while students were prohibited from buildings. ²⁴

FEA encouraged members to attend a July 2021 town hall hosted by the Virginia Education Association to discuss how teachers and other school employees were “distressed” about having to pay back unemployment payments received during the COVID-19 pandemic. It advocated for school-system employees to not have to repay unemployment payments by those who applied for them after FCPS and other school system supervisors incorrectly advised them to do so. FEA argued that FCPS employees who were asked to pay back unemployment payments were unaware that they were not eligible for the payments and should be provided with waivers to forgive overpayments. ^{25 26}

Leadership

Natalie Cole was working as the executive director of Fairfax Education Association as of July 2026 after assuming the role in 2025. Previously, Cole worked as a government relations associate for the Virginia Education Association, as director of government relations for the Colorado Education Association, and as a managing partner for the 13th Project. She also worked as an independent contractor as a campaign consultant. ²⁷

As of July 2026, Carla Okouchi was president of FEA. ²⁸

Funding

In 2024, the Fairfax Education Association reported $789,056 in membership dues, $104,187 in investment income, and $98,005 in rental income out of its $1 million in total revenue. ²⁹