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DC Survey About Your School (DC SAYS) Resources

In the Office of the State Superintendent of Education’s (OSSE) 2023-25 Strategic Plan, the agency committed to administering the DC Survey About Your School (DC SAYS) to students, educators, school-based staff and families. ​OSSE believes that these data will provide LEAs with a critical tool, bolster the District’s school and community supports, and inform the public. OSSE has partnered with Panorama Education to design, administer, and report on statewide school climate surveys.

2025-26 School Year

OSSE is excited to announce that the DC SAYS spring 2026 survey window will be March 2 – April 3.​ The survey content and administration process will be the same as the previous spring administration. Please note that as part of a multi-pronged effort to turn the data around faster this year, OSSE will not extend the window as we did last year.

To successfully administer the student survey, every school with students in grades 3 and above should appoint a “survey liaison” who will develop plans for administration at their campus, coordinate technology access for classrooms, share proctor resources with educators, and monitor survey response rates. OSSE hosted two virtual trainings for liaisons on February 13, 2026. The recording of this training is available below along with supporting resources.

OSSE is encouraged by the high participation in the first year of administration and the fantastic efforts put forth by schools and LEAs! If you have any questions or concerns, please email [email protected] and an OSSE team member will be sure to respond. We are excited for 2026 and thank you and your teams in advance.

Resources for LEAs

The below resources are designed to support LEA- and school-level survey liaisons.

2024–25 School Year

OSSE provided all LEAs with school climate surveys to administer for students (grades 3–12 and adult), caregivers, educators, school-based staff, and school leaders. The survey window ran from Feb. 24 - March 28, 2025.

Data Files (SY2024-25)

Survey Content (SY2024-25)

Resources for LEAs

Communications Toolkit

Resources for LEA and School-Level Survey Liaisons

2023-24 School Year

To prepare for the full administration to all LEAs, OSSE partnered with 16 LEAs to administer surveys in the spring of 2024 and provide feedback.

Advisory Cohort

  • Academy of Hope Public Charter School (PCS)
  • Appletree Early Learning Public Charter Schools
  • BASIS DC
  • Briya PCS
  • Capital City PCS
  • Cesar Chavez PCS
  • DC International PCS
  • District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS)
  • Friendship PCS
  • Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy PCS
  • Maya Angelou PCS
  • Meridian Public Charter School
  • Monument Academy PCS
  • Sela PCS
  • Two Rivers Public Charter School
  • Washington Yu Ying PCS

Advisory Cohort Surveys

If you would like to see the Advisory Cohort versions of the surveys, they are archived here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Why is OSSE administering a statewide school climate survey?
Answer: OSSE believes that students, schools, LEAs and the public will benefit from comparable high-quality and actionable school climate data from students, school-based staff and caregivers. Administering the surveys citywide ensures that all of the results are shared within our local context. The surveys are a key project in our 2023-25 Strategic Plan and will support our programmatic work at OSSE, as well. Additionally, OSSE is required by a DC State Board of Education (SBOE) resolution to report these data on the DC School Report Card.

Question: Does my LEA have to participate in the statewide school climate survey?
Answer: Yes. All LEAs will be participating. Students in grade 3 and above will take the student surveys, so LEAs that serve students in PreK to grade 2 will only administer the school-based staff and caregiver surveys. Adult and alternative LEAs will have a customized student survey, as well as school-based staff and caregiver surveys. .

Question: What is the survey administration window?
Answer: The survey administration will be every spring. In the 2024-25 school year, the window was Feb. 24 - March 28, 2025.

Question: What are the survey topics and questions?
Answer: The surveys are designed to efficiently capture feedback on a wide range of topics. The survey questions are available above on this website.

Question: How will OSSE share the school climate data with LEAs and the public?
Answer: OSSE will share high-level summaries of the data on the DC School Report Card beginning in December 2025. LEAs will have access to their own LEA- and school-level dashboards with benchmark comparisons for each question and topic for the District. OSSE should have SEA-, LEA-, and school-level results in May 2025; LEAs should receive access to their data shortly after. In short, school leaders will receive access to their data roughly within a month of the survey window closing, allowing them to take action during the school year and plan over the summer.

Question: Our LEA has an existing contract with Panorama (and/or uses our own school climate survey tool), how will our LEA’s data be imported/transferred into the OSSE platform?
Answer: OSSE encourages LEAs to reach out to Panorama to discuss current and future contracting options. OSSE is taking on the cost of an annual spring survey, a customized data dashboard for LEAs, and professional development. Panorama offers a myriad of additional products and services that may be of interest to your LEA, but, as the state education agency, OSSE is not involved in the sales or procurement for individual LEAs. OSSE is very confident that what OSSE is offering for free to all LEAs will be of high value to your work. OSSE encourages LEAs to still administer their own tools—and is hopeful that the statewide survey tool will supplement existing work.

Question: What professional development and supports will OSSE be offering LEAs in advance of the survey administration window opening?
Answer: Beginning in January each year, OSSE will provide administrative support in advance of the survey administration window opening (the resources from the 2024-25 administration are available above). The surveys are all web-based and simply require survey takers to log in and complete. Panorama recommends that every campus designates at least one Survey Liaison to take the training to learn how to administer the surveys, use the platform to monitor participation throughout the window, and reach out for support if necessary. During this training, Survey Liaisons received the scripts and checklists to successfully administer the surveys. LEAs should ensure that they have designated someone with a Survey Liaison role in All Staff.

Question: What professional development and supports will OSSE be offering LEAs after survey responses and data have been collected?
Answer: OSSE is offering professional development sessions, both live and recorded. OSSE recommends that everyone on the LEA’s school climate team attend professional development, which could include staff such as counselors and behavioral technicians. Additionally, all LEAs have access to Panorama’s extensive Playbook suite of resources which include lesson plans and staff training sessions. Additionally, OSSE will continue to tailor existing professional development offerings to include school climate survey data.

Question: How will staff members receive the surveys?
Answer: Staff members with an FTE of .5 or above and a school code will receive a link to the confidential surveys in their email inboxes. Individual responses will not be shared with LEAs. However, if staff they would prefer to take a fully anonymous version of the survey, that link is available too.

Question: What email addresses should we whitelist to ensure that staff receive the survey?
Answer: During the survey program, district users will receive several email messages from Panorama. These include invitations to take surveys, information on survey administration, and instructions for accessing reports. To ensure these messages reach staff members’ inboxes and are not blocked by your district’s email filters, please add the following domain names to your district’s email Allow List:

  • panoramaed.com
  • mail.panoramaeducation.com
  • email-content.panoramaeducation.com
  • email.panoramaeducation.com
  • email.panoramaed.com
  • panoramaeducation.com
  • panoramaedhelp.zendesk.com

Question: What are adult LEAs doing with the surveys?
Answer: During our advisory cohort, we heard from Adult LEAs that the student surveys were not capturing the experiences of our adult students. So, we got to work with those Adult LEAs building a customized survey for adult students. We believe we are the only SEA with an adult student survey. Since it has so many customized questions and have not been field tested by Panorama, we will not share these data on the DC School Report Card in 2025. We do not expect Adult LEAs to receive many responses from parents and families, but the survey is open to all parents. Adult LEAs also have access to the staff surveys. Adult LEAs will have access to all these data on the same timeline as traditional PK-12 schools. We hope these resources are responsive to Adult LEA needs and helpful for their school communities!

 

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