Chapter 9: District of Columbia

The District of Columbia basically operates two public school districts. The DC Public School System (DCPS) operates what would be considered more traditional public schools, while the DC Public Charter School District (DCPCS) provides funding to public charter schools. Although charter schools are required to be managed by private nonprofits, they are considered public for purposes of funding. Although both the DCPS and DCPCS are fiscally dependent on the District for funding and both budgets are set by the mayor and city council, they function as two separate Local Education Agencies (LEAs) with separate budgets, boards, and accounting standards. The Deputy Mayor for Education’s (DME) office contains the State Education Agency (SEA) and has a separate office of the State Superintendent. DCPCS was created with the enactment of the DC School Reform Act of 1995, which was later amended in 1996 to create the DCPCS School Board, acting as an independent school board and as sole authorizer of charter schools.¹ The Act also required that the District provide a uniform dollar amount per resident pupil for both the DCPS and DCPCS.²