Problem with select query that includes a date

I've been fighting with this for about 4 hours - yes, quite literally... I've never been good with date stuff. I have a brain block.

Anyway, here's the situation:

I have an Access database that has a time/date field. There are no times, just a date in mm/dd/yyyy format.

That table is a list of classes held for the past three years. I want to make a query that only shows the classes that have ended after January 1 of this year. I don't want to put 01/01/2010 in the query itself because I want it to still work next year.

This is the current query:

<cfquery name="classes" datasource="#DSN#" dbtype="ODBC">

SELECT classesTitles.ClassTitle, classesTitles.ClassDesc, classCatagories.catagoryName, classes.classStart, classes.classEnd, classes.classNotes, owners.fName, owners.lName, classTime.timeSlot, classes.classID, classes.classLimit

FROM classCatagories INNER JOIN (((classes INNER JOIN classesTitles ON classes.classTitle = classesTitles.classTitleID) INNER JOIN classTime ON classes.classTime = classTime.timeID) INNER JOIN owners ON classes.classInstructor = owners.ownerID) ON classCatagories.catagoryID = classesTitles.ClassType

WHERE  classes.classEnd <  01/01/#DatePart("yyyy", now())#

ORDER BY classes.classStart, classCatagories.catagoryName, classTime.timeSlot, classesTitles.ClassTitle

</cfquery>

I don't get any results, but I should get a list of every class that has an end date before January 1 of this year - about 200 records.

When I swap around the where clause to:

<cfquery name="classes" datasource="#DSN#" dbtype="ODBC">

SELECT classesTitles.ClassTitle, classesTitles.ClassDesc, classCatagories.catagoryName, classes.classStart, classes.classEnd, classes.classNotes, owners.fName, owners.lName, classTime.timeSlot, classes.classID, classes.classLimit

FROM classCatagories INNER JOIN (((classes INNER JOIN classesTitles ON classes.classTitle = classesTitles.classTitleID) INNER JOIN classTime ON classes.classTime = classTime.timeID) INNER JOIN owners ON classes.classInstructor = owners.ownerID) ON classCatagories.catagoryID = classesTitles.ClassType

WHERE  classes.classEnd > 01/01/#DatePart("yyyy", now())#

ORDER BY classes.classStart, classCatagories.catagoryName, classTime.timeSlot, classesTitles.ClassTitle

</cfquery>

I get EVERY class in the database, and I should only be getting about 50

The classes are about 8 weeks long, the begin date and end date are in the database as date/time fields, so I need to show everything that ended in 2010, regardless of when it started.

I'm sure it's something glaringly obvious, but it's escaping me.

THANKS

Michelle