Maryland has more than 50. Virginia has just four. And Fairfax County has none at all. But if a group of area educators is successful in their bid to the state Board of Education, the county could become home to Northern Virginia’s first charter school by 2013. The teachers and administrators behind the proposed Fairfax Leadership Academy — almost all current employees of Fairfax County Public Schools — are set to submit their charter school application to the education board within the next week. The schools’s aim, backers say, is to provide at-risk students in Fairfax with resources they might have trouble accessing at a typical public school, like year-long classes, longer school days and specialized career and college-prep counseling.

“To be honest, a lot of programs in Fairfax exist like that. But it’s not trickling down to the at-risk kids. It’s used by the kids who are already excelling,” said Eric Welch, a J.E.B. Stuart High School social studies teacher who would be the charter school’s executive director.