Mayor awards millions to DC organizations at My School DC celebration

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the awardees of millions of dollars in grants for out-of-school programming on Friday.

The announcement was made at an event celebrating middle school students’ enrollment in their future high schools, following My School DC lottery results being released for the 2024-25 school year.

My School DC common application and public school lottery is a single, random lottery that determines placement for new students at all participating schools, according to a press release from the Mayor’s Office. Over 23,000 students participated in the My School DC lottery for the upcoming school year – 72% of them received an offer at a school they applied to.

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Though lottery results were announced on March 29, families have until May 1 to officially enroll at their matched schools to reserve their allotted seats.

“Today is an important celebration of our students and it is also a celebration of the many fantastic schools we have across DC that our students and families are excited to enroll in,” Mayor Bowser stated, in part, in a press release.

As announced during Friday’s celebration, more than $1.4 million in grants – called the Summer Strong DC Grants – are going to organizations supporting summer programming, and $27.3 million in Bowser’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget will be invested in supporting out-of-school-time programming.

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Funds from the Summer Strong DC Grants will go to 18 schools and nonprofits that give kids access to summer programming. The organizations were selected based on the strength of their program proposals and ability to provide to the community.

Each organization will receive a grant of up to $100,000 to support its summer programming efforts, the release said. Programs will run from June to August and will offer academic enrichment, STEM, sports and recreation, college and career preparation, arts and culture and community exploration.

You can find a list of the awardees here.

Families interested in adding themselves to school waitlists for the My School DC Lottery can submit a post-lottery application at MySchoolDC.org.

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