The Advisory Committee on Student Assignment Policies and School Boundaries recommended that DCPS reserve at least 10 percent of their 6th and 9th grade available seats at DCPS comprehensive middle and high schools for out-of-zone students who do not have a right to attend the school through geographic or programmatic feeder rights. This was recommended in order to:

• Give families increased access to schools that may better fit their children’s needs or that may be more convenient for those families;
• Increase and preserve socioeconomic diversity in DCPS neighborhood zoned schools;
• Provide “at-risk” students better access to high demand public schools; and  
• Ameliorate travel burdens on students and families.

The Advisory Committee reviewed the technical team’s feasibility analysis based on SY2013-14 student enrollment patterns and identified a few middle and high schools where implementing this policy now could be a challenge due to limited capacity. The Advisory Committee recommended implementing this policy in SY2018-19 after the phasing in process has been in effect for a few years. The Advisory Committee also recommended that DCPS reanalyze the feasibility of implementing the policy taking into account the latest information about the number of students living in each attendance zone, boundary participation rates, out-of-boundary participation rates at 6th and 9th grades, facility capacity, and population projections.