The District of Columbia's charter school board received no applications for new charters in the 2026 application cycle, according to a Government Accountability Office report publicly released November 5. GAO also describes a new system the board uses to monitor academic performance at existing schools.
Almost half of DC's public school students were enrolled in 133 charter schools in the 2025-26 school year, GAO says. The DC Public Charter School Board is the district's sole chartering authority.
Applications and oversight
The board screens applications through a process that includes interviews and public hearings, GAO reports. In the past five years, it added a requirement for new charters to fill a demonstrated community need and a preapplication process. The board also shifted the application timeline from spring to fall.
During the last five years, two schools applied for new charters and the board denied both, GAO says. In the previous five years, from 2016 to 2021, it received 30 applications and approved 11. Board officials attributed the reduction in applications to a more rigorous application process; that is their explanation, not a causal finding by GAO.
How schools are monitored
In 2024 the board introduced its Annual School Performance Index Report and Evaluation, or ASPIRE, system. GAO says it is intended to improve accountability for schools' success and student development and is used to identify schools needing additional monitoring or support.
The system has measures similar to the previous system, GAO reports, but emphasizes school performance and calculates measures by student groups, including students with disabilities and multilingual learners, rather than only for all students combined.
GAO says it reviewed board policies and procedures and interviewed its board chair and staff. The publicly available highlights describe the changes; they do not establish that the changes caused a particular student outcome.