The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) is the local public school system for Washington, D.C. It is distinct from the District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (DCPCS), which governs public charter schools in the city.

It is the sole public school district in the District of Columbia.^[2]

As of 2013, the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) consisted of 111^[3][4] of the 238 public elementary and secondary schools and learning centers in Washington, D.C. These schools span prekindergarten to twelfth grade. As of 2000, kindergarten students entered at 5 years old.^[5] School is compulsory for DCPS students between the ages of 5 and 18.^[6] DCPS schools typically start the last Monday in August. The school day generally lasts for about six hours.^{[citation needed]}

The ethnic breakdown of students enrolled in 2014 was 67% Black, 17% Hispanic (of any race), 12% non-Hispanic White, and 4% of other races. As of 2014, the District itself has a population that is 44% White (includes White Hispanics), 49% Black and 10% Hispanic (of any race).^[7] Gentrification and demographic changes in many DC neighborhoods has increased the White and Hispanic populations in the city, while reducing the Black population. In 2008, DCPS was 84.4% Black, 9.4% Hispanic (of any race), 4.6% non-Hispanic White, and 1.6% of other races.^[8]

Facilities reform legislation in the District of Columbia has led to many school openings and closings.

As of the 2020–2021 school year, there were 49,896 students and 4,335.12 classroom teachers.^[1] As of 2020, the student-to-teacher ratio was 11.51, improved from 13.5 in 2006–07.^[1] Student enrollment had peaked at 72,850 students, with a staff totaling 12,000. This sudden DCPS enrollment drop resulted from the Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007, which separated District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (DCPCS) from District of Columbia Public Schools.

The District of Columbia passed charter school legislation in 1996, which went into effect in September 1999. The legislation gave the District the power to grant charters for 15 years. Although this is longer than the traditional 3–5 year term observed in 31 other states, a required review occurs every five years. 4.4% of public school students enrolled in a charter school for the 1999 academic school year; the 28 schools had a total enrollment of approx. 3,000 students. After the legislation was enacted in 2007, chartering authority was placed under the D.C. Public Charter School Board and disaffiliated from DCPS. The governance of DCPS was also restructured, and the District was placed under the control of the Mayor. In 2010 about 38% of Washington, D.C. public school students attended 60 charter schools.^[9] There are 52 public charter schools in the District, with 93 campuses and 30,000 students. The total number of public charter schools has been reduced from 60 schools on 96 campuses in 2008–09 to 53 schools on 98 campuses as of the 2011–12 school year. However, adding grades to the charter schools is still increasing enrollment and decreasing from DCPS' numbers.

Within DCPS, schools are classified as either a "neighborhood school" or a "destination school". Neighborhood schools are elementary or secondary schools assigned to students based on their address. Destination schools are feeder-schools for elementary or secondary institutions from a school a student is already attending. Since the fall of 2009, students may choose a destination school, regardless of their neighborhood location. Locations of all schools and the neighborhood divides can be found on the DCPS website.^[12]

For the school year ending in spring 2007, the DCPS was governed by the District of Columbia State Board of Education, with eleven members, including two students who had the right to debate but not to vote. Five members were elected, and the Mayor appointed four. The board established DCPS policies and employed a superintendent to serve as chief executive officer of the school district, responsible for day-to-day operations. Four board members represented specific geographical boundaries, and the Board President was elected at large. One condition of the District of Columbia Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007 was creating DCPS as a separate cabinet-level agency from the D.C. Board of Education. This moved DCPS within the executive branch of the District of Columbia government—specifically, under Mayoral control. Currently, DCPS is subordinate to District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty proposed putting the public schools under the direct control of the Mayor's Office upon taking office in January 2007. However, this reform to District of Columbia Public Schools was encouraged by his predecessor and constituents at large. It also placed all of the District of Columbia public charter schools under the care of a new board—the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board (PCSB). Although these schools were previously a part of DCPS, they are now considered a separate district controlled by the D.C. Public Charter School Board (PCSB).

The D.C. Council passed the Mayor's proposal into law, but since the change amended the Home Rule Act, the change needed to gain federal approval before taking effect. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced H.R. 2080, a bill to amend the D.C. Home Rule Charter Act to provide for the Mayor's proposal. H.R. 2080 was passed by the United States House of Representatives under an expedited procedure on May 8, 2007, by a voice vote. After three U.S. Senators (Ben Cardin of Maryland, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Carl Levin of Michigan) initially placed "holds" on the bill to prevent its consideration in the United States Senate, the Senate agreed to pass H.R. 2080 without amendment on May 22, 2007, by unanimous consent. On May 31, 2007, the bill was presented to the President, and President Bush signed H.R. 2080 into law on June 1, 2007. After the standard Congressional review period expired on June 12, 2007, the Mayor's office had direct control of the Superintendent and the school budget. On June 12, Mayor Fenty appointed Michelle Rhee the new Chancellor, replacing Superintendent Clifford B. Janey.

In accordance with Section 1116, a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), entitled "Academic Assessment and Local Education Agency and School Improvement", the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) of the District of Columbia oversees compliance with Adequate Yearly Progress Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (AYP). A large portion of meeting AYP is based on standardized-tests performance; the District used the summative assessment called the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System ("DC CAS") through the 2013–2014 school year, after which it switched to tools from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC).^[19][20][21]

Many schools fail to meet AYP, even though DCPS educators offer support and tools to students to be academically successful.^{[citation needed]} DCPS has created an evaluation tool to assess schools by more than their standardized test scores. They call this a Quality School Review, which uses the Effective Schools Framework^[22] to assess schools through rubrics on topics such as classroom observations, interviews with parents, students, teachers, and school leadership, staff surveys and reviewing artifacts (i.e., handbooks, student work).^[23] In 2007, Karin Hess of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment conducted an analysis that has also gone into the alignment of DCPS standards and the "DC CAS Alt", the assessment for students with cognitive disabilities.^{[citation needed]}

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, DCPS had a budget of $1.2 billion and spent $29,409 per pupil in FY 2009–10.^[24]

In 1989–90, DCPS reported spending $10,200 (1999 adj. dollars) per pupil. A decade later, in 1999–2000, its reported per-pupil expenditures had increased to $11,500. However, those figures likely underreport DCPS's actual total per-pupil expenditures. In 2012, the Cato Institute's Andrew J. Coulson showed that DCPS's reported per-pupil expenditures figures were based on incomplete data.^[25] That year, the U.S. Census Bureau had reported that DCPS's 2008–09 per-pupil expenditures were $18,181, but DCPS officials had neglected to include about $400 million in spending. Informed by Coulson's observations, the U.S. Census Bureau revised its data collection methods and reported that per-pupil expenditures were $28,170.^[26] Those revisions are reflected in the Bureau's 2009–10 reports. ^{[citation needed]}

In FY 2009–2010, the District received 6.7% of its total elementary and secondary education revenues from federal sources.^[24]

In 2008, in terms of testing 36% of students demonstrated proficiency in mathematics and 39% demonstrated proficiency in reading.^[27]

The average educator was paid $67,000 in 2010. A contract signed in 2010 was expected to raise that figure to $81,000 in 2012.^[28]

All DCPS schools are located in the District of Columbia.

Many of the District's public schools are undergoing evolving relationships with the central office as they seek to compete for students leaving the system for charter schools. According to school choice researcher Erin Dillon, "In its winning application for federal Race to the Top funds, DCPS, for example, touted its three models for autonomous schools: The aptly named 'Autonomous Schools,' which are granted autonomy as a reward for high performance; 'Partnership Schools,' which are run by outside organizations that are granted autonomy in the hope of dramatically improving performance; and the 'D.C. Collaborative for Change,' or DC3, a joint effort of some of the District's highest- and lowest-performing schools that have been granted autonomy as a tool for innovating with curriculum and professional development. (Meanwhile, highly autonomous charter schools, a growing presence in the District of Columbia, educate almost 40 percent of the city's public school students.)"^[29]

Alternative and citywide schools

This section does not cite any sources. (March 2011)

More information School name, Students ...

School name	Students	Low grade	High grade	Type
Ballou STAY	538	Adult	Adult	Alternative
Bard High School Early College		9	12	Early College Model
Capitol Hill Montessori School	361	Prekindergarten (3)	8th	Citywide
Children's Studio School	–	Prekindergarten (3)	Prekindergarten (5)	The arts, architecture
CHOICE Academy	5	6th	12th	Long-term suspended or expelled students
Dorothy I. Height Elementary School]	518	Prekindergarten (3)	5th	Citywide
Inspiring Youth Program	48	9th	12th	Incarcerated students
Luke C. Moore High School	266	9th	12th	Students who have dropped out of school
River Terrace Education Campus	131	3rd	Adult	Special education
Ron Brown College Preparatory High School	105	9th	10th	Citywide
Roosevelt STAY	268	Adult	Adult	Alternative
School-Within-School	307	Prekindergarten (3)	5th	Citywide
Washington Metropolitan High School	125	8th	12th	Alternative
Youth Services Center	88	7th	12th	Students charged with crimes

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Below is a partial list of superintendents and chancellors of the D.C. Public School system. The head of the school system was known as "Superintendent" until June 2007, when the post was renamed "Chancellor".

In 2018, WAMU and NPR reported that a reported increase in graduation rates had been inflated by high schools who granted diplomas to students who should have failed, according to city law.^[61] According to The Washington Post, only 46 percent of the school district's public school students were on track to graduate in 2018 after the school system began to adhere to stricter attendance policies.^[62]

• List of parochial and private schools in Washington, D.C.
• Susan E. W. Fuller, artist, first instructor of art in the District's public schools^[63]
• Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497 (1954); landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that held school segregation in the District of Columbia Public Schools to be unconstitutional