D.C.’s Equitable Access Preference Helps At-Risk Students Compete for School Seats. Here’s how it works.

D.C.’s Equitable Access Preference Helps At-Risk Students Compete for School Seats. Here’s how it works.

This article was produced as part of Humanities DC’s Community Journalism Program. As nearly 100,000 D.C. youth finished their enrollment in May for the upcoming 2025–26 school year, certain at-risk students got a step up in gaining admission to 37 public schools and 31 charter school campuses through the D.C. school lottery’s Equitable Access Preference program. In D.C., about half of the students in the 2023–24 school year were considered “at …