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Contributions to Latin’s General Fund give us flexibility to respond to changing demands and realize our ambitions to better serve our students and families. Our model relies on excellent teaching, a rich curriculum, and small class sizes to ensure a personal approach; this is expensive. We also aim to keep Latin accessible to any student in DC in the broadest sense, committing that none will be turned away from an academic or extra-curricular opportunity for financial reasons. General Fund donation are essential for making sure we can offer quality academics and ensure accessibility.

Quality teaching is a crucial factor in student success, and at Washington Latin we depend on faculty members who are both expert in and passionate about the subject matter they teach, respectful of students and committed to their individual success, and dedicated to the school’s mission and unique challenges and opportunities. Our teachers work to ensure a personalized, collaborative, and thoughtful learning environment. Each day they model our core values of civility, intellectual curiosity, thoughtful discussion of important ideas, and moral decision-making.

We know that our current success and future impact rely on a strong pipeline of excellent faculty and strong, effective leaders. Without the ability to grow our leaders, our model cannot be sustained or grow.  We have therefore begun a systematic review and refinement of our system for identifying top talent and recruiting them, ensuring their initial training and ongoing professional development, and retaining them for both classroom and – as they grow – leadership positions.

Washington Latin has a student body that reflects the District’s racial demographics. In fact, we are one of the few schools in DC or nationally that is racially integrated, and we consider our diversity to be one of our school’s essential characteristics.

In addition to racial diversity, our students reflect a range of socio-economic backgrounds and come from all eight Wards of Washington DC. Our school has a wider income range than the majority of DC public schools. With approximately a quarter of our student body qualifying for the Free and Reduced Meals Program, we do not qualify to receive Title I funding. Nonetheless, our low-income or moderate income parents often struggle to afford the cost of transportation, books, supplies, and extracurricular activities.

We are committed to ensuring that the Washington Latin experience is accessible to any Washington, DC student and work to remove any barriers that might deter a family from applying to the school or fully participating in the school’s programs. We support any student unable to meet the full cost of additional services or opportunities and seek community support to close funding gaps.

We offer a robust variety of athletics opportunities for all students to find their place on a team or in a wellness class. Our policy is that students may participate without regard to their ability to pay activity fees, and we fund these activities each year in part through donations.

As Latin grows, we are working to ensure continued access to quality athletic programming, even as DC faces a shortage of facilities and fields available for youth. 

All students take visual arts, theater and music classes in middle and upper school, and we have a robust tradition of performances and art shows that involve students and faculty.

Latin’s theater program includes works both from the classical tradition and more modern works and aims to connect students with that tradition and develop their comfort with public speaking. Theater is a required class for middle school students at both campuses, and we also have a robust extracurricular theater program at both 2nd Street and Cooper. Donations to the program ensure all students can participate, regardless of their financial circumstances, and also supports enhancements to our performance spaces (such as curtains, lights, etc.)

Our music program likewise includes classes taught during the school day and extra-curricular programs and travel opportunities for students in our choirs, jazz band, and string ensembles. Donations to the Music Fund support student participation in these activities and particularly the support of trips to learn about musical traditions and perform at locations outside of DC, such as New Orleans, Pennsylvania, and New York City.