As prospective public and public charter school students begin to rank their 2026-2027 school choices on the My School DC Lottery, Stacy L. Dawkins continues to take the legal route to ensure that her grandson, a nonverbal child with autism, can spend the remainder of this school year in the Pre-K4 seat that Takoma Elementary School approved him for previously.
Dawkins said that, had it not been for what she describes as D.C. Public Schools’ (DCPS) abrupt denial of her grandson’s match at Takoma Elementary last spring, he would currently be receiving speech and occupational therapy services in the Northwest-based school.
Instead, in the absence of what she considers a viable pre-school alternative, Dawkins has opted for her grandson to receive a range of services elsewhere.
“It’s an inconvenience,” Dawkins told The Informer. “He goes to ABA [therapy for autism] from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., so I have to take his lunch, his breakfast and everything, as opposed to if he was in school, I wouldn’t have to do those things.”
Dawkins, a former federal government employee who was affected by the reduction in force earlier this year, said that keeping up with her grandson’s schedule has taken a toll on her.
“Time goes by fast,” she explained, “so if I have something to do, it’s like I gotta rush to get him by 2 p.m., but if I call, they’ll let him stay a little longer.”
On Nov. 15, Advocates for Justice and Education (AJE) and Steptoe LLP filed a civil complaint, on behalf of Dawkins and her five-year-old grandson against the D.C. government. The complaint alleges that DCPS violated the D.C. Human Rights Act when it denied Dawkins’ grandson, identified as CD, a seat in Takoma Elementary’s self-contained classroom.
Dawkins, a Northeast resident, navigated the My School DC Lottery during the 2024-2025 school year out of frustration with John Burroughs Elementary School, which she said never provided her grandson, then a Pre-K3 student, with a dedicated aide.
After reaching out to Takoma Elementary, and conducting research, Dawkins ranked Takoma Elementary among her top choices in the My School DC Lottery.
According to the complaint, Dawkins received notice in March that her grandson had been matched to Takoma Elementary. However, as she explained to The Informer, school officials later reneged on their decision as Dawkins attempted to complete the enrollment process.
“I got an email saying they can’t transfer his location of services (LOS) [the school building where a special needs child receives their Individualized Education Program (IEP) because of my address,” Dawkins said. “That’s not sitting well with me because everybody at John Burroughs that’s in [my grandson’s] class lives in Southeast.”
Dawkins went on to tell The Informer that DCPS central office personnel told her that the My School DC Lottery was only for general education students. She then said that DCPS central office assured her they would help her find different school placements, but only after they unsuccessfully pressured Dawkins to keep her grandson at John Burroughs.
“[They said] ‘I’ll look for some other [schools]’ and I said, ‘Well, what other schools is available to him then?’” Dawkins said. “She said, ‘I’ll find out and I’ll get back to you.’ Never called me back. Never assisted me with any other schools or anything.”
With her grandson’s last year of pre-school soon coming to a close, and his transition into compulsory education to start soon after, Dawkins said she wants to put him in an environment where he can improve his speech.
Though Dawkins noted some progress this school year, she said more can be achieved— much to her benefit and her grandson’s— in a setting like what Takoma Elementary provides.
“He would get some sort of occupational and speech [therapy] at DCPS,” Dawkins said. “Not a lot, but maybe 20 to 30 minutes. I would still be seeking that outside of DCPS, but if I don’t put stuff on my calendar, I’ll forget because he has so many appointments. I’m getting pulled every which way but loose.”
A Question of What Special-Needs Students Can Get in the Lottery
Assistant Attorney General Eli Koppel, the counsel representing the D.C. government, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
DCPS, however, issued a statement.
“DCPS is committed to ensuring all students have access to high-quality education and support, including those receiving special education services,” the local education agency wrote in an e-mail. “While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we remain focused on partnering with parents and families to meet student needs. In accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and our obligation to maintain student confidentiality, we are unable to provide details on individual student cases.”
On Dec. 15, the My School DC Lottery, the more-than-a-decade-old common application for all District public schools and most District public charter schools, opened for students seeking enrollment in: a Pre-K3 and Pre-K4 program; a dual language strand at a DCPS in-boundary elementary school; a DCPS out-of-boundary school; and selective DCPS high school programs.
Though the My School DC Lottery is open to all students, the DCPS Special Education Family Guide states that, in cases when a student’s IEP mandates at least 20 hours of weekly instruction in a self-contained classroom, DCPS has the option of matching that student at a public school that can accommodate those needs.
Families, even if referred by a public school or DCPS Division of Specialized Services, wouldn’t be allowed to use the My School DC Lottery to secure their child’s placement in the self-contained class of their choice.
The student in question would instead be assigned placement based on proximity to their home and availability of resources.
As Akela Crawford told The Informer, families of special-needs students have an entirely different set of circumstances to overcome when navigating the My School DC Lottery. Dawkins’ situation, she said, highlighted this reality.
“DCPS gave multiple different reasons as to why they felt as though they can change the school from the school that Ms. Dawkins accepted and…stated that the school lottery is for general education students,” said Crawford, AJE’s director of legal services. “That’s what we have always been saying: DCPS operates as if they don’t feel like students with special needs are entitled to school choice but with those specific words it’s in black and white and they can’t hide behind it.”
On Dec. 10, AJE filed a preliminary injunction in an attempt to secure Dawkins’ grandson’s placement in a self-contained classroom at Takoma Elementary for the remainder of the 2025-2026 school year. Nadiya Pope, co-counsel on the complaint, told The Informer that the success of the injunction could cause a ripple effect.
“That’s part of the systemic approach that we’re taking for future school years,” said Pope, AJE’s education justice attorney. “We understand that…if this policy that’s in place now is not changed, then even if Ms.Dawkins gets a lottery placement at Takoma this year…if she finds out Takoma’s not the right place…and she enters the lottery again, she could potentially be subjected to the same thing that happened.”
During the latter part of 2024, Pope assisted Dawkins as she engaged DCPS’ Division of Specialized Instruction in her endeavor to move her grandson out of John Burroughs Elementary. Throughout much of Dawkins’ journey, both parties kept in contact, especially in May when Dawkins learned that DCPS wouldn’t honor the My School DC Lottery match that garnered Dawkins’ grandson a self-contained classroom seat at Takoma Elementary School.
Pope, who contacted DCPS on Dawkins’ behalf, told The Informer that there are often instances when school and central office personnel disregard parents’ perspectives and deny services to special-needs children.
That’s why she said that a court ruling in Dawkins’ favor could instill more confidence in parents as they navigate the My School DC lottery application process.
“Families who have students that have a full-time IEP would also be able to meaningfully and fully participate in the lottery, meaning that they would be able to do their research on what schools are available and have the self-contained classroom that their child needs,” Pope told The Informer. “They would not have to deal with getting a lottery placement at the school that they’ve done the research on and completed a lottery application for, and then have to deal with it potentially being ripped away from them like it was from Ms. Dawkins based on a reason such as address.”
The Bigger Picture, as Explained by an Elected Official
In the days leading up to the start of the citywide school application process, students and parents attended the annual public school fair known as EdFest.
On Dec. 6 and Dec. 13, families that converged on Kraken Kourts and Skates in Northeast spoke with representatives of District public and public charter schools, engaged the My School DC team and Parent Advisory Council in conversation about the application process, and learned about vaccinations, recreational activities and tools to fight food insecurity.
D.C. State Board of Education Representative Dr. LaJoy Johnson-Law, the mother of a high school student with special needs, counted among those who walked through EdFest earlier this month.
Years earlier, she embarked on a similar journey to enroll her daughter, a special-needs student, into a public charter high school.
“I was looking at a school where she could have a continuum [of instruction] from middle school to high school to not break and go through another transition,” Johnson-Law told The Informer. “I have to prepare her for this big-life transition so she understands what’s going on. This was back in 2022, but we had to do the [My School DC] lottery.”
Now, Johnson-Law, the state board’s Ward 8 representative, is working to ensure that the District’s updated graduation standards reflect the perspectives of special-needs families.
Johnson-Law told The Informer that, by virtue of the law, the My School DC lottery is open to all District students. In speaking about the civil complaint brought on behalf of Dawkins, she told The Informer that DCPS misrepresented the lottery process by telling parents that My School DC is for general education students.
“I don’t understand why someone would tell a parent that they cannot fill out the application,” Johnson-Law said. “That’s unacceptable, and honestly discriminatory. You have to fill out the My School DC lottery form, no matter who you are, if you’re not enrolling in an in-boundary school.”