DC Steps Up to the Plate for Attendance
DC Public charter schools, DC Public Schools, city leaders, and the Washington Nationals team up to tackle citywide student absenteeism.
Washington, DC — On Thursday, July 23, for the first time, more than 250 school leaders and attendance practitioners from DC's public charter schools and DC Public Schools (DCPS) convened at Nationals Park to identify citywide barriers to student attendance — and to find solutions that change the game for the more than 95,000 students who attend public charter and DCPS schools.
Step Up to the Plate for Attendance builds on last year's DC Charter School Alliance Attendance Summit, expanding citywide. The DC Charter School Alliance, DCPS, and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education co-presented the event, with support from EveryDay Labs. The Washington Nationals joined as a lead sponsor, hosting the summit at Nationals Park to help bring citywide attention to student attendance — a key driver of learning outcomes and career readiness.
Absenteeism remains a top barrier to improving learning outcomes for DC students. In 2024, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) joined more than a dozen states in pledging to cut chronic absence by 50% over five years, to 24% citywide. In SY 2025-26, 38.8% of students citywide were chronically absent, meaning they missed 10 percent or more of the school days they are enrolled, for any reason. Despite recent investments, the city has seen mixed results.
“Attendance is a team sport,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Antoinette S. Mitchell. “It has implications for learning and later success in life. Students can’t learn if they’re not in school. For those of us who work in education, attendance is job #1.”
This summit put citywide collaboration into action — a proactive, cross-sector response to one of the most pressing challenges facing DC's schools. Public charter, DCPS, and city leaders came together around a shared goal: making sure every student, no matter which public school they attend, is supported to show up ready to learn. The summit's design itself modeled tactics school leaders could replicate in their own communities: a walking "school bus" to move participants between sessions, meals that modeled wrap-around services addressing food insecurity, a wellness room for well-being recharge through the day, and interactive group-based sessions built to foster belonging among attendees.
The Deputy Mayor of Education, the State Superintendent of Education, and leaders from the DC Public Charter School Board and DCPS opened with remarks, then a presentation on citywide attendance data grounded leaders in the city's most current performance indicators. Participants split into panels on community safety, student motivation and climate, and systems and policy, where they dug into the barriers keeping students out of the classroom and worked toward solutions built around what students actually need, regardless of where they go to school or where they live.
Leaders then came together again to hear directly from students. Organized by SchoolTalk and building on the success of its Youth Summit in April, the student panel brought together middle and high school students from across public charter and DCPS schools to share their experiences, the barriers they face, and where they see potential solutions. Immediately afterward, participants—seated by ward—synthesized the day's insights and began developing collaborative action plans.
"This summit was more than a convening—it was a commitment to DC's students and families," said Nicole Travers, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at the DC Charter School Alliance, a former school leader and lead organizer of the 2025 Attendance Summit. "By bringing together public charter schools, DC Public Schools, government agencies, community organizations, the sports community, students, and families, we intentionally planned across sectors to proactively prepare for the needs of DC's students. Together, we modeled the strategies that improve attendance—collaboration, strong relationships, student voice, data-informed action, and shared accountability. As leaders left with action plans, our message was clear: every student deserves to feel connected, supported, and in school every day."
Throughout the day, participants also engaged directly with nearly 20 community organizations and government agencies and could complete micro-training in medical response readiness through a partnership with Johns Hopkins.
See the full list of community partners below.
Washington Nationals
Johns Hopkins
Children's National – Mobile Unit / CARE H / Mental Health Unit
SchoolTalk DC
Capital Area Food Bank
OSSE
OSSE – Health & Wellness
LinkU
WMATA
MPD
DPR
DOES
PAVE
City Schools Collaborative (Tutoring)
Vimbo Watson (AI Resources)
Jason Mellen, School Operation Partners (Attendance Tools – Early Childhood)
360 Learning Solutions
Asian American LEAD (Supporting the Whole Child: Attendance Through Wellness, Community, and Youth Voice)
Photos and interviews are available upon request. Contact Katie Wynne at kwynne@dccharters.org.
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About the DC Charter School Alliance
The DC Charter School Alliance is the 501(c)(3) advocacy organization representing DC's public charter schools — 65 nonprofit organizations operating 131 schools that serve nearly half of all public school students in the District, from age 3 through adulthood. The Alliance advocates to ensure every public charter student has the resources and support they need to thrive. Learn more at www.dccharters.org.
About the City-Wide Step Up to the Plate for Attendance
Co-presented by the DC Charter School Alliance, DC Public Schools, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, and the Washington Nationals, with support from EveryDay Labs. Step Up to the Plate for Attendance brought together cross-sector partners to share strategies, collaborate on solutions, and build a game plan for helping every student show up and succeed. This citywide initiative built on the success of the 2025 DC Charter School Alliance Attendance Summit.
