A Virginia public school system will become one of the first districts to grant students time off to participate in protests and marches. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Northern Virginia will allow students to take time off to take part in “civic engagement activities,” Fairfax County school board member Ryan McElveen wrote on Twitter on December 18. “I’m immensely proud that, beginning January 27, 2020, Fairfax County Public Schools will become one of the first school districts in the nation to allow excused absences for civic engagement activities,” McElveen wrote.