Information for Parents!

Final BOE Flyer for Parents 2025.pdf

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Academic Failure

In 2023–24, 68.2% of FCPS graduates failed their College and Career Readiness tests — yet FCPS forced teachers to graduate them anyway.

In 2022, the state lowered the standards for the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) by shortening test times and introducing computer-adaptive testing, which adjusts the difficulty of questions based on previous performance. Even with these lowered standards, the 2024 results were alarming: 40% of students failed English Language Arts, 68% failed Math, and 67% of 8th graders failed Science.

FCPS received nearly a billion dollars in funding for 2023–24, and County Executive Jessica Fitzwater raised our property taxes to give even more money to the schools — while holding no one accountable for failing our children. Our community deserves better!

Critical Gender Theory in Classrooms

Since 2018, FCPS has embedded Critical Gender Theory into the Family Life Curriculum for middle and high school students. In March 2022, the Frederick County Board of Education (BOE) adopted the Maryland Comprehensive Health Education Framework for elementary schools, which also incorporates Critical Gender Theory. They added a second semester of Health as a requirement for high school graduation.

This framework originated from the National Sex Education Standards, created by activist groups Advocates for Youth, SIECUS (Sex Ed for Social Change), and ANSWER — all partners of Planned Parenthood.

Gender Identity Policies Without Parental Consent

FCPS Policy 443 requires staff to ask every student their pronouns and to use them in every interactions. Students may use bathrooms and locker rooms, participate in overnight stays, and join the sports teams of their choosing. They can also socially and medically "transition" at school, and teachers and staff are prohibited from informing the students’ parents or guardians.

Mental Health Programs Undermining Parental Rights

 In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice found FCPS guilty of illegally secluding and restraining 125 students with disabilities 7,253 times over just two and a half years. Yet no one was held accountable.

Since October 2021, 12-year-olds have been allowed to consent to mental health treatments without their parent's knowledge.

In 2024, FCPS launched Basecamp, a digital mental health platform offering behavior support, self-guided resources, and unregulated chat rooms. Students as young as sixth grade are able to sign up without parental consent. Basecamp is funded by the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a multi-billion dollar plan to transform schools into "community schools" with health-based centers that cannot share certain medical information with parents. It will remove local control and parental rights, all while costing the tax-payers billions of dollars.

Your Tax Dollars Fund Abortions and Gender Surgeries

Maryland law allows minors to access abortions and contraceptives without parental consent. Tax dollars fund gender treatments for minors and adults — including puberty blockers, chemical castration, fertility preservation (denied to many cancer patients), plastic surgery, and voice training. In 2024, the "Reproductive Freedom Amendment" changed our constitution, making Maryland a Sanctuary State for taxpayer-funded abortions and gender surgeries for out-of-state minors.

Planned Parenthood Influence in Schools

FCPS approved a Planned Parenthood educational video, complete with advertising, for seventh graders. FCPS school nurses are employees of the Frederick County Health Department, a Planned Parenthood partner, embedding the organization’s influence deeper into our school system.

Obscene Books in School Libraries

Despite strong public opposition, FCPS libraries still carry obscene and explicit books. Two years ago, 35 books were challenged, but Superintendent Dyson approved all but one — and only because it was factually incorrect. A Frederick News Post survey showed that 70% of residents disapprove of these books being available to students.

For change, please VOTE for Board of Education candidate Heather Fletcher in the Primary Election on June 30, 2026 (Early voting is from June 18th-June 25th). 

Heather supports proven curricula that focuses on academic excellence; parental rights; fiscal responsibility; safety (including School Resource Officers); school choice; and local control!

Sources: tinyurl.com/23mrbrdz