GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY MAYOR FOR EDUCATION

Open Government Report 2014

To institutionalize a culture of transparent and open government, accountability, and to
expand opportunities for resident participation and collaboration, this Report describes
how the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) has and will continue to
develop and enhance transparency, public participation, and collaboration. In accordance
with Mayor’s Order 2014-170, this report addresses the following topics:
1)

Transparency
DME’s transparency efforts include the following:


DME holds numerous public meetings, hearings and workshops in the
community at which information and data is shared with the public including:
o the Student Assignment and School Boundaries Review Process
o disposition and reuse of excess DC Public Schools
o DC Education Adequacy Study
o DC Common Lottery (My School DC)



We routinely post materials, summaries and feedback from public meetings
on our website. Information is also disseminated through press releases, radio,
press and digital interviews, stories and advertising.



In December, DME will post a copy of the annual supplement to the Master
Facilities Plan on our website.



The agency meets its obligations pursuant to the District’s Freedom of
Information Act and maintains an Open Government and FOIA page on its
website.



The Deputy Mayor co-chairs the Truancy Taskforce in compliance with the
Open Meetings Act.



DME is working closely with the Office of the City Administrator (OCA) and
the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) to identify a significant
number of datasets that OCA and OCTO expect to publish online later this
year. If no additional datasets from DME are selected to be included in this
2014 release, we will continue to work with OCA and OCTO to identify
datasets appropriate to publish in 2015. In the future, requirements for open
data reporting will be provided by the Chief Data Officer.

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2)

Public Engagement and Participation
In addition to the methods outlined above, DME’s efforts to encourage public
participation in agency decision making have included:
 Creating and using a stakeholder distribution list to provide updates on office
projects and meetings. The public is invited to join the office’s distribution
list. (Information on upcoming public meetings is also posted on our website
and distributed through a number of partner agency and stakeholder
distribution lists.)
 Attending meetings held by community and stakeholder groups.
 One-on-one meetings with the Deputy Mayor.
These public engagement opportunities are outlined on the office website:
DME solicits written feedback from community members in the form of surveys and
questionnaires on various projects (including the boundaries review process and the
school reuse process) in addition to convening targeted focus groups to gather
information and feedback.
DME participates in the annual public hearing on the budget for public schools.
Testimony from the hearing is submitted to the DC Council.

3)

Collaboration
DME leads, hosts, and participates in a number of collaborative efforts with DC
agencies, non-profits and the public including:
 Co-chairing the Truancy Task Force, and spearheading the Graduation
Pathways Project and the Youth Re-Engagement Center
 Raise DC
 DC Common Lottery (My School DC)
 Public Facilities Planning including School Reuse and the Master Facilities
Plan
 Student Assignment and Boundaries Review Process

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