My School DC, the lottery portal for DC’s students for public schools, opened for students on December 15th. This year the My School portal is especially important for the JR families that also have kids at Hardy Middle School, as the grandfathering rule has been revoked for Hardy students with older siblings at Jackson-Reed. 

This rule applies to many schools across DCPS allowing automatic admittance to any public school for younger siblings of a student who is currently enrolled. 

With the addition of MacArthur High School back in 2023, the feeding patterns into Jackson-Reed have shifted significantly. Now, eighth-grade students from Hardy Middle School are sent directly to MacArthur, leaving JR with only two feeder middle schools: Alice Deal and Oyster-Adams.

This has caused worries for some families with siblings being forced to separate. Parents have expressed frustration about having kids at multiple schools, and having to coordinate travel, activities, special events, and more across two different schools. 

An anonymous Hardy 8th grader headed to MacArthur next year despite having two siblings at Jackson-Reed, expressed disappointment and anxiety about heading to a different high school. He noted that, “it will make traveling to school much harder,” for his entire family.

The student added that, “JR being a bigger school means it has more things to offer, while MacArthur is newer and does not have as many options. This makes it harder for [him] to pursue different opportunities.” This disappointment is shared by many parents who feel MacArthur’s opportunities are not yet comparable to JR’s.

It is important to note that as of the 2025-26 school year, Jackson-Reed’s enrollment finally went down to roughly the building’s capacity after years of severe overcrowding. The issue of overfilled classrooms, floating teachers, and the overload of programs due to an unbalanced student-teacher ratio has died down since the influx of the student body died down. 

It is projected that these enrollment numbers will continue to drop significantly, continuing their downward trend below capacity as the years progress. As the enrollment process progresses, the looming question of where these students will end up remains.•