The FCPS AAP Checklist: What to File Before December 15

What closes on December 15, 2026, is the Full-Time AAP referral window in Fairfax County. It is the door for grade 2 students the Universal Screener does not put forward, and for students in grades 3-7. If you know this door as "Level IV," that is its retired name, and our guide to how FCPS AAP works explains the old numbering. One document must be in by then: the Full-Time Referral Form. It goes to one person, the Advanced Academic Resource Teacher (the AART) at your child's school. Optional materials can go with it. FCPS makes no exceptions to the deadline.

One earlier date might matter first. If your child already has an ability test score and you want the single retake FCPS allows, your request must reach the AART or the assistant principal by September 30, 2026.

This page is the to-do list. The calendar around it - committees, decisions, appeals - is our FCPS AAP referral timeline. What the program is - levels, screener, doors - is our guide to how FCPS AAP works. Below is only what a parent does, in order.

The checklist

1. Now: one call to your child's school, three questions. Almost every filing on this list lands on the AART at your child's school: the form, the optional materials (at the middle school, the Director of Student Services takes those), and any retake request. Ask the front office all three questions in one call. Who is our AART? Does my child already have an ability test score on file? Is my child already in any AAP service? The first answer tells you where everything goes. The second decides whether step 2 applies to you, and push on it if you have to: the FCPS pages we checked name no score report, no portal and no notification a parent could use to look this up alone, so the school is the only route those pages leave you. The third matters because a child who is already centrally eligible for Full-Time services - meaning eligibility settled by the district's central screening committee rather than by the child's own school - sits outside the October testing group in step 3. Bookmark the FCPS testing and identification timeline while you are there.
2. By September 30, 2026: request the retake, only if it applies. This line is only for a child who already has an ability test score on file. FCPS permits one retake of one ability test per student and words it as a one-time retest; ask the AART or the assistant principal. Here is what the request buys, and it is the link to step 3: the October testing list includes "Select students who are requesting a one-time retake," so the September 30 request is the thing that puts your child into that October window. For a child with a score already on file, nothing else does. And there is no later retake window to fall back on: FCPS says no parent-elected retakes are available in its March testing window. A first-time tester has nothing to retake and skips this line.
3. October: file nothing for the test. On its own, FCPS tests every grade 2 student and every student in grades 3-7 who has no score on file and is not already centrally eligible for Full-Time services. The child only needs to be enrolled in and attending FCPS. The same October window also covers select students who requested a one-time retake in step 2. One group does file in October: students new to FCPS (enrolled after January 2026, grades 3-7) have their own referral, due to the AART by October 15, 2026.
4. Now through early December: decide, download, and gather what you send. Decide whether you are referring. Download the Full-Time Referral Form from the FCPS AAP forms page; the PDF comes in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and other languages. Then gather any of the four optional attachments FCPS lists: the Parent/Guardian Questionnaire, Student Work Samples (two-page limit), Achievement Test Scores (SOL Scores Already Included), and Private Ability Test Results.
5. Early December: the screener announcement is not everyone's gate. Universal Screener referral candidates are announced in early December, and a candidate is automatically referred, so that child needs no form. But read who the December 15 line actually covers: "students in Grade 2 who are not Universal Screener referral candidates and students in Grades 3 to 7." The candidate carve-out is grade 2 only. If your child is in grades 3-7, that announcement is not your gate. Nothing in it excuses you from the form, and waiting on it is how a grades 3-7 family runs out of days. File by December 15 whatever early December brings. If your child is in grade 2, this is your one branch. Named a candidate means no form to file. Not named means file in the days that remain. Whether a grade 2 family should file early instead of waiting is a question the FCPS pages leave open; our guide to how FCPS AAP works weighs it.
6. By December 15, 2026: hand the form to the AART, then run three checks. Submitting is the act the whole list exists for, so do it with days to spare. Then check: the form is with the AART. The materials you chose to send are in too, by the same deadline. And you hold your own proof that both went in. FCPS describes no receipt step anywhere on the pages we checked, so hand the form over in a way you can point to later, ask the AART to confirm it is in, and keep copies of everything.

Three standing cautions

• No exceptions. FCPS's words: "No exceptions to the referral deadline are made."
• The March window rescues a missing score, not a missed referral. March 2027 testing is only for students with no score who are already going through central screening. A child with no referral is not in screening, so March cannot undo a missed deadline.
• Every date here is pending school board approval. FCPS prints that banner over its schedule. Check the FCPS timeline page once before any date you count on.

FAQs

Can I submit the form before I have all the materials together?

Yes, by FCPS's own structure. Its screening steps list the form and the additional information as two separate steps, the materials step marked optional, with its own submission by the same deadline. A form filed early waits on nothing - but no page says materials may follow later, so December 15 closes both.

We are moving into Fairfax in November. Which deadline is ours?

December 15. The fall cycle for students new to FCPS closes October 15, 2026, so a November arrival misses it - but that cycle is an extra early door, not the only one. The December 15 row carries no enrollment-date condition; file with the AART once your child is enrolled. A child with no score can then be tested in the March window as part of screening.

Is December 15 also the deadline for Part-Time or Subject-Specific AAP?

No. Those decisions are made at your child's own school, and every student is evaluated for them in the May spring screening - no December deadline exists for them. December 15 is the Full-Time door only; our guide to how FCPS AAP works covers the difference.

What happens right after December 15?

For a parent, nothing - the file is closed and FCPS works it from there. The committee dates, the decision letters, and the appeal route all sit on our FCPS AAP referral timeline, date by date.

Can outside test results replace the FCPS test?

No - they join the file instead. One ability test score is required for screening. FCPS administers that test in its own windows, and the Universal Screener runs on FCPS-administered scores. Private Ability Test Results are one of the four optional attachments: attach an outside score if you have one, and let your child take the FCPS test all the same.

FCPS named my child a screener candidate. Is there anything left for me to do?

No form - a candidate is automatically referred. Two things still matter: candidacy is not eligibility (FCPS says candidates "are not guaranteed eligibility"), and the optional-materials step sits after both referral routes, so a candidate's family can still send the questionnaire, work samples, scores, and private results to the AART by December 15.

How do I actually hand the form over, and what if December 15 passes?

The FCPS pages we checked name no mechanism. They say to submit the form "to the school" and that it is "due to Advanced Academic Resource Teacher (AART)," and nothing on them names email, a portal, an upload, or dropping it off in person. So ask your AART how they want it, and run step 6's three checks whichever way you send it. On a missed deadline, those same pages leave no route back inside this cycle. FCPS's words are "No exceptions to the referral deadline are made," and the March testing window serves children who are already in central screening. The pages do carry one sentence about referring "during the next screening cycle," but it is written for a family whose child was screened and found ineligible, not for a family that missed the door. They publish only this cycle's window, so we cannot point you at a dated next opening: ask the AART when the next referral cycle opens.