Expanding access to in-demand public schools holds the promise of advancing equity and improving student outcomes in DC’s public schools. In 2020, leaders in the District pursued this promise by including a priority for “at-risk” students in the common lottery used for public school enrollment.¹ This priority is known as the Equitable Access (EA) option. Schools can opt in to Equitable Access, which either offers at-risk applicants a space before other applicants according to the school’s preference order or reserves designated seats for students who are at risk that remain open longer. Families enter the lottery for DC Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter schools when they want to enroll in prekindergarten at any public school; for kindergarten through 12th grade, they may enter the lottery for DCPS schools outside a student’s attendance boundary or feeder pattern, DCPS schools that serve the entire city, DCPS selective high schools or programs, and any of the city’s public charter schools.

This brief, a collaboration with the D.C. Policy Center, shows how the EA option could increase access and diversity at certain schools, explores how participating schools’ demographics changed after the first year of implementation, previews the second and third years of implementation, and offers system-wide implications. Findings document whether and how the promise of EA is being realized in DC's public schools.

Key Findings

• Thirty-two of the 232 PK–12 public schools with data in 2022–23 enrolled a student body where no more than 20 percent of students were designated as at risk, even though 52 percent of all public school students are designated as at risk. These 32 schools tended to have the longest waiting lists in their entry grade, with an average of 207 applicants on a waiting list compared with an average of 27 applicants on a waiting list for other schools.
• Scenarios for implementing an at-risk preference show that EA can improve at-risk students’ chances of matching at ranked schools and improve socioeconomic diversity at schools with low shares of at-risk students over the status quo.
• In 2022–23, 25 DCPS and public charter schools opted in to the EA option. Compared with all public schools, these 25 schools tended to serve a smaller percentage of students designated as at risk (38 percent versus 52 percent), enroll a higher proportion of English learner students (19 percent versus 13 percent), operate as public charter schools (62 percent versus 46 percent), be in Wards 4 and 5 (63 percent versus 34 percent), have longer waiting lists (averaging 128 applicants versus 70 applicants), and be elementary or early childhood schools with an entry grade of PK3 (68 percent versus 57 percent).
• At the time of the 2022–23 lottery, there were 400 matches through the EA option, which was more than double the number of matches in 2021–22 and accounted for 2 percent of all 16,279 matches system-wide. Applicants matched through the EA option matriculated at their matched schools at higher rates than all applicants (59 percent versus 55 percent).
• EA increased the shares of at-risk students at most participating schools. For example, out of 14 EA schools with fewer than 10 at-risk students in their entry grades before EA, 8 schools increased the share of at-risk students in their entry grade to an average of 29 percent (approximately 16 at-risk students). For the 7 schools with more than 10 at-risk students in their entry grades before EA, the share of at-risk students increased from 44 percent to 47 percent.
• There were 683 EA matches at the time of the 2023–24 lottery, a 56 percent increase over the prior year. An additional 18 schools are implementing the EA option in the common lottery for 2024–25.

Implications

Momentum is building around DC’s EA option. EA is increasing access for a growing number of applicants and increasing diversity at a growing number of schools. There is the potential for further expansion, as the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education has recommended that all DCPS and public charter schools with less than the city-wide average of at-risk students (52 percent in 2022–23) set aside existing lottery seats for students meeting the at-risk criteria. As implementation continues, it will be critical to track how at-risk students fare at EA schools and how socioeconomic integration increases over time.

¹ Students are designated “at risk” if they meet one of the following criteria: experience homelessness, are in the foster care system, qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or are at least one year older than the expected age for their high school grade.