One of the nation’s largest school districts will soon allow students one day to participate in “civic engagement activities,” such as protests.

Starting next month, public school students in northern Virginia’s Fairfax County will be permitted one day per school year to attend demonstrations, meet with lawmakers, or otherwise engage in civics.

School board member Ryan McElveen told the Washington Post that the new policy for Virginia’s largest school district may be a first for the entire country.

“I think we're setting the stage for the rest of the nation with this,” McElveen said. “It's a dawning of a new day in student activism, and school systems everywhere are going to have to be responsive to it.”

As part of the new policy, students must notify their school two days before the planned excused absence. They also must have permission from a parent or guardian and fill out paperwork describing what civic activity they are participating in and why they need to miss school. Additionally, participants must visit their school at least once on the day of their absence to avoid issues with accreditation.

“The school board felt that this was something that could be formalized and wanted to put it in writing,” district spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell told WTOP-FM. “There were many students who were engaged and have been engaged and it was decided that it was time to go ahead and put into place.”

Thai Jones, a lecturer at Columbia University, said that the policy could be more geared toward students on the left of the political spectrum, as protests are often associated with liberal causes.

“People who call themselves conservatives probably do still count respecting authority, staying in school, as a crucial and central tenet of the social order,” Jones said.

Oakton High School senior Wendy Gao, 18, praised the policy. She said she has been active in climate change demonstrations and hopes that the change will increase numbers at the events.

“Skipping school and business as usual is to show that there's no point in going to school if we are having our future taken away from us,” Gao said. “There's not a point to our education if we're not going to be alive in 10 years, 20 years, the end of the century.”