Original Research by School Decision on Roosevelt Stay Hs
Roosevelt STAY HS is an alternative public high school in the District of Columbia Public Schools system, located on 10th Street NW in Washington. It serves grades nine through twelve and operates under DCPS rather than as a charter. Its classification as an alternative school signals a nontraditional mission, often designed for students whose prior schooling was interrupted or who need a flexible pathway to graduation. Families considering this school should understand that its purpose differs from a standard comprehensive high school, and its profile reflects that.
The enrollment pattern tells a story on its own. The school has a sizable ninth-grade cohort, and the numbers taper substantially by senior year. This pattern is common in alternative settings, where students may arrive mid-pathway, cycle in and out, or take nonstandard timelines to finish. The student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with only a handful of white students and students of two or more races. That composition is a plain fact of who the school serves; it is consistent with the neighborhoods and student populations that DCPS alternative programs typically draw from. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not reported, and the same is true for special-education and English-learner counts, so we cannot characterize the economic or disability profile from the available data.
Academic performance data is absent. No state assessment results, no multi-year trends, and no standardized academic context were available in the data provided. This gap is consistent with how alternative schools often sit outside the usual accountability measures, though the data does not confirm a specific reason. A parent evaluating Roosevelt STAY should ask the school directly what academic and credit-recovery supports it offers, what its graduation and post-secondary outcomes look like, and how it tracks student progress. The publicly available numbers do not answer those questions.
The same is true for school environment and access. No discipline data, course-access information, staffing details, attendance figures, or program offerings were provided. For an alternative high school, understanding the daily structure is essential: whether the day follows a conventional bell schedule, whether students can earn credits online or through evening sessions, and what counseling or wraparound supports exist. The data does not cover any of this, so a family would need to visit or call the school to get a clear picture.
The broader setting is central Washington. The school sits in a ZIP code where home values run well above the national benchmark, with typical rents that are modest relative to local mortgage costs. The area is urban, transit-served, and embedded in a city defined by federal employment, international institutions, and a distributed neighborhood structure rather than a single downtown core. Housing here is expensive by national standards, though rents are relatively more manageable for families who do not own.
At the district level, DCPS has made a few publicly reported moves that bear on families across all its schools. Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, the district implemented a new cell-phone restriction tied to the Heads Up! Distraction-Free Learning Amendment Act, limiting phone use during the school day. The district is also operating under its A Capital Commitment strategic plan covering 2023 through 2028, which frames priorities around academic success, student connection, and post-secondary readiness. A new middle-school addition opened at Leckie Education Campus in Ward 8 in early 2026, though that does not directly affect Roosevelt STAY.
What the data does not tell you is most of what matters here. Roosevelt STAY is an alternative high school with a distinctive enrollment shape, serving a largely Black and Hispanic student body in a high-cost part of the city. Its academic results, program details, and student-support structure are not in the available data. A parent considering this school should treat it as a starting point and go directly to the school for the specifics that will determine fit.
See more original research from School Decision →