As DC schools balance a number of pressing issues–nurses, ICE, student attendance at sporting events, more ICE (see here for a helpful review from SHAPPE)–the DC council has scheduled fall oversight hearings on public education. Read on for publicized events (and others less publicized):

October 1, 9:30 am: Holding school budgets harmless

Two bills, aiming to ensure stability in individual DCPS school budgets, are the subject of this hearing:

B26-0072: Holding School Budgets Harmless During Modernizations Amendment Act of 2025
B26-0327 Schools First Amendment Act of 2025

October 15, 12 pm: Chronic absenteeism and truancy

Really, is there anything new about this topic here in DC (well, besides ICE)? It is not just the many, many words spoken over the course of many, many years; it’s also what is not said.  [Update 10/11: Forgot to include the cute little denial kids got when trying to access Union Station metro at the start of school.]

Take the most recent charter school attendance and discipline report.

Like the report from last year, it cites bits and pieces graphically without sharing a complete picture of discipline data. While noting that the data show some positive and negative trends, the report made no mention of this item, from the charter board’s (PCSB) August 6 Wednesday Bulletin (specifically, #5 therein, boldface mine):

“PCSB will not enforce the Attendance and Truancy Policy during School Year 2025–26—meaning we will not issue Notices of Concern related to attendance during this period. This pause reflects our collective recognition that the current policy needs to be revised to better align with today’s realities. Look out for opportunities in the coming months to engage with DC PCSB staff on the policy revisions.”

October 22, 9:30 am: Charter school review and renewal in DC

Given that the charter board recently approved the renewal of the Bethune school contract mere days before this happened, it seems that having a hearing about how charter schools are reviewed and renewed seems, uh, timely—if for no other reason than to help the public understand why the charter board’s cycle of oversight is often (always?) accompanied by closed door meetings (no fewer than six in 2025) to deliberate on reviews.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the charter board is embarking on revisions to its review processes. Here’s what a recent Wednesday bulletin noted about financial oversight (#8):

“The DC Public Charter School Board’s School Finance Team, in partnership with Yield Creative, is launching a comprehensive review of our financial oversight standards and practices. We are seeking input from LEAs and key partners to ensure our approach is clear and supportive of schools’ long-term sustainability. Our shared goal is to strengthen the policies and practices that guide how DC PCSB monitors charter school financial health—setting clear expectations, engaging effectively with schools, balancing autonomy and accountability, and ensuring the sector is well-positioned to serve DC students for years to come.”

Here’s what that same bulletin noted about charter “mergers and acquisitions” (#9):

“DC PCSB is launching the development of a new policy outlining how we will review requests for mergers and acquisitions. The policy provides clear definitions, criteria, and processes for three pathways: mergers, standard acquisitions, and emergency acquisitions. . . . As DC’s school-aged population shifts, we are committed to supporting sustainability, efficiency, and quality in the charter sector.”

October 28, 9:30 am: Beating the odds

For invited witnesses only, this hearing on “standout schools” purports to find a (the?) secret sauce for student success, especially for students from low-income households. 

The only problem is how such success is defined—and by whom—for the purposes of this hearing. As a result, there is a (much) >0% chance that this hearing will function as a multi-hour infomercial. (One can hope it beats those odds.) 

October 29, 9:30 am: Academic achievement in DC

For everyone to testify at; as with the hearing above, expect plenty of discussion of this year’s CAPE test results. 

November 5, 11 am: OSSE & student transportation

OSSE (the office of the state superintendent of education) has botched student transportation for years. (See here as well.) Perhaps best to not invest much hope for less heart-breaking testimony than in years past.

November 20, 2 pm: Adult workforce education

December 9, 2 pm: School improvement in DC

Ostensibly focusing on measures like CAPE, the hearing will also explore the School Improvement Amendment Act of 2023 law and OSSE’s Accelerate DC: A Vision for School Improvement.

January 21, 2:30 pm: Teacher retention hearing

The crisis continues (now with ICE!).  [Update 10/11: DCPS has officially killed the educator green card program.]

January 22, 10 am: Teacher retention, government witnesses

No Word On The Following Items As Of This Post:

–The 2024 supplement to the master facilities plan (MFP) recently came out without much fanfare. Like its predecessors, it has capacity and condition assessments for most (but not all!) of DC’s publicly funded schools, alongside constant digs about underutilized DCPS schools (without a trace of irony about causes). As far as I could see, the supplement makes no mention of charters having lots of facilities funds; unused real estate (see here and here); and capacities and utilizations between sectors being two entirely unrelated things. 

–The general silence continues around DCPS’s agreement this month to expand dual language instruction to Jefferson MS, presumably for inclusion in the FY27 budget. [Update 10/11: Well, silence no longer: here is a link to the feasibility study.] There is also general silence around how the deputy mayor for education will use $50K (allocated per p. 37 of the FY26 Budget Support Act) to conduct by January a feasibility study around dual language feeders. This is generally not a pretty picture. For instance, Ward 7 residents have demanded for years a middle school feeder for dual language programming at Houston, so now there will be one . . . in Ward 6. The general silence extends also to the closed Winston for this (or frankly any) purpose. (In fact, that poor neglected hunk of masonry garnered only one sentence in the most recent MFP supplement: “As of SY24-25, there is one remaining vacant school facility in the District’s inventory: the Martha H. Winston education campus located in Ward 7, which closed at the end of SY12-13.”) 

–There are also a few as yet unscheduled (as of this blog post) potential hearings, including the following:

Possible 11/10 hearing on legislation to simplify education reporting

This legislation appears to undo things that the council itself once embraced, like regular reporting of a draft tech plan for DCPS. Weirdly, such an effort seems on brand for the current political moment.

Possible 12/10 special education hearing

AFAIK special education has never been handled with uniform grace in DC. For instance, emergency legislation was recently enacted to ensure incarcerated young adult students have access to special education services. The previous legislation apparently *expired* at the end of SY22-23.