At least ten public high schools in northern Virginia, including seven in Fairfax County and three in Loudoun, either delayed or avoided notifying families about their students' having won National Merit recognition.
Parents said key deadlines came and went for college and scholarship applications before they learned that their students had won the coveted recognition; some say they learned about it only much later.
At high-ranked Thomas Jefferson, it is alleged that the lapse was one part of a wider school policy aimed at downplaying accolades to high-achieving students, on purported equity grounds.