Photo by Kris Connor/Getty.

DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson stepped down in 2016. (Photo by Kris Connor/Getty)

The Washington Post got its hands on a report based on the Inspector General investigation that launched a thousand parent complaints, and it’s a no good, very bad look for the administration of Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Given that it involves the school lottery, this was never a story that would quietly recede in the background, like the serious, but dull, ethics violation announced in December, in which we learned that former DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson had solicited donations from school contractors. The latest from the Post paints a particularly galling picture of a school administrator who played favorites with friends and government officials, while ignoring pleas from seemingly deserving plebeians, to circumvent the lottery system for school placements.

Haven’t been following along so far? Here’s the backstory:

D.C. Public Schools chancellor Kaya Henderson mysteriously resigned last June after six years on the job, saying she was ready to take on new, unspecified challenges. A few months later, D.C.’s ethics board censured Henderson for soliciting donations from a contractor that provided the system with meal services. Aside from a modeling gig, Henderson has largely stayed away from the spotlight.

But then the spotlight came back to her, in the form of an Inspector General’s investigation that indicated she’d given special treatment to certain parents who requested discretionary placements at highly sought-after schools—bypassing the great equalizer that is the lottery system. The IG didn’t actually release its report, though, just a short description, ostensibly to shield the children involved and because the parents weren’t accused of wrongdoing.

Still, the report included enough information for the Post to connect Deputy Mayor for Greater Opportunity Courtney Snowden to the list of seven people who were given preferential treatment, according to the inspector general. Bowser spokesman Kevin Harris defended Snowden, saying she had done “what any parent would do by pursuing every available option to assist her child.”

At a press conference, Bowser testily defended City Administrator Rashad Young, who had been identified as another government official aided by Henderson, repeatedly saying that his children had been matched through the lottery system and they attend the school they were matched to. “We think there may be an error” in the report, the mayor told reporters.

Bowser also issued a 30-day moratorium on discretionary placements until a new rule goes into effect that requires city officials and the chancellor to consult the D.C. Board of Ethics when making such school transfers.

“I don’t want there to be any questions about discretionary placements, but the chancellor needs to have the ability,” Bowser said, admitting that the current process isn’t “tight” enough. “We want it to be very clear in a set of parameters how the chancellor should address those discretionary placements.”

What’s new:

This was all already looking pretty bad for the administration, but the Post’s latest reporting gives some damning context:

Henderson openly acknowledged in interviews with investigators that she gave special treatment to the children of government officials. Asked about the help she gave City Administrator Rashad M. Young, a top Bowser cabinet official whose salary is $295,000, Henderson said D.C. officials “do not necessarily get paid as much as we should.”

The former chancellor bestowed such favors even as she dismissed pleas for special consideration from those with less influence, such as a deaf Vietnamese immigrant whose request that her daughter be allowed to attend a school where she could practice sign language was rejected.

Right.

It also seems to shed some light on the situation with Young. When asked point blank several times at a press conference by the Post’s Peter Jamison if the city administrator had been given a discretionary placement, Bowser kept repeating that his children go to the school that they had been matched with. The report the Post obtained shows that his children were offered a seat at Murch Elementary, but Young had missed the enrollment deadline. Henderson then authorized a transfer to allow them to attend.

The inspector general’s report found that a total of four government officials received such transfers, along with a school principal, the head of a foundation that works with DCPS, and a former classmate of Henderson.

Meanwhile, in addition to the deaf woman denied a discretionary placement at a school with more deaf families, Henderson also declined requests from a D.C. agency director and a teacher who wanted her child to attend classes near the school where she works.

Anybody have anything to say about all this? You betcha:

Mayor Bowser would like to remind everyone that such placements have been put on ice for the time being.

Rashad Young is fighting with Chuck Thies (a close ally of former mayor and likely soon-to-be-running-for-mayor Vincent Gray) from the city administrator’s official Twitter account:

Some officials are calling for the whole report to be made public:

And Kaya Henderson is doing some very late-night retweeting:

Sure sounds like you’ll want to tune in to the Kojo Show tomorrow.

Filed Under: antwan wilson, bowser, courtney snowden, dcps, kaya henderson, scandal, school lottery, school lottery scandal,