Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) serves over 186,000 students and employs 24,000 staff, making it one of the largest and most diverse school districts in the United States. With more than 200 schools and centers, FCPS plays a vital role in providing equitable education and resources to its community. A robust digital presence is critical to supporting this mission, connecting families, students, and staff with essential tools and information.

Forum One has proudly partnered with FCPS since 2015, guiding the modernization and expansion of its digital platform. This long-term collaboration has not only enhanced the district’s web infrastructure but also set a high standard for how technology can drive accessibility, engagement, and efficiency in educational institutions.

Powering websites for scale and ease

The scope of FCPS’s digital needs is immense, covering 200+ websites, multilingual content, and localized school branding. Forum One’s scalable Drupal 10 platform meets these challenges with a shared template system, ensuring consistent functionality district-wide and enabling centralized updates that automatically sync across all school sites. Automatic feeds, such as district-wide announcements and weather alerts, enhance communication and timeliness.

Built for FCPS’s diverse community, the platform supports multilingual content, ensuring essential information is accessible to all families. Over 300 content curators use streamlined tools to efficiently manage updates, maintaining accuracy and relevance throughout the system. This centralized approach reduced mobile bounce rates by 20% and improved content findability by 11%, delivering a seamless and inclusive experience for families, students, and staff.

Building blocks for design

Forum One’s design approach for FCPS combines modular flexibility with intuitive tools to equip schools with impactful, accessible websites. Using Storybook and reusable components, FCPS staff can easily create visually engaging pages while maintaining a cohesive look across the district. Schools have the creative freedom to personalize their sites with local themes, photos, and content, highlighting their unique identities.

A mobile-first, responsive design prioritizes accessibility, ensuring users can find vital information anytime, from any device. This focus on usability has simplified the editing process, empowering over 300 content curators to efficiently manage their sites. Post-redesign, usability testing showed an 11% improvement in content findability, further enhancing the user experience for all stakeholders.

With complexity comes opportunity

Faced with the intricate task of managing such a large web presence, FCPS partnered with Forum One to streamline workflows and improve usability. Through stakeholder workshops, we identified priorities and implemented advanced features like Solr search for quick, accurate access to information. WCAG 2.1-compliant accessibility updates ensure that all users, regardless of ability, can benefit from the platform. Ongoing training and support empower FCPS staff to maximize the platform’s capabilities, enabling fast, intuitive website management across the district.

Leading the Way in Public Education Digital Transformation

The partnership between Forum One and FCPS demonstrates the power of strategic collaboration and innovative digital solutions. By addressing the complexities of managing one of the nation’s largest public school districts, Forum One delivered a modern, scalable, and inclusive platform that meets the needs of an increasingly diverse community. Together, we’ve established a foundation that will support FCPS’s mission to educate, engage, and inspire for many years to come.