In our youth survey, children who indicated they don’t play sports very often cited lack of program information — it was the sixth-most-popular reason among 16 answer choices.

Low- and medium-income youth are two to three times more likely than the wealthiest children to lack enough information on sports programming.

Black children in D.C. played sports at a higher rate (51%) than the U.S. average (45%) in 2022 and 2023, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health. But the gap compared to White participants in D.C. (33 percentage points) was far greater than it was nationally (18 points).

Washington D.C. is filled with many quality and well-intentioned sports providers, coaches and government and school officials who want to make a difference in the lives of children. They just often operate in silos and without a cohesive vision to leverage assets and help grow quality access to sports for all children.

Since DCPS launched its athletic training program in 1991, student sports participation in the system has tripled while the number of athletic trainers (ATs) has barely budged. The AT shortage was a crucial topic during DCPS teacher contract negotiations in 2024, at which time DCIAA (the district’s public high school athletic league) said it planned to hire a 15th athletic trainer. When DCPS added middle school sports in 2004-05, ATs asked for more staff, but no additions were made, so they became stretched thin even more trying to care for both middle and high school athletes.

Washington D.C. is viewed as a national leader for parks. In 2024, it was named by Trust for Public Land as having the best big-city park system in the U.S. for the fourth consecutive year. Twenty-four percent of District land is reserved for parks, among the highest in the country. The District also outperforms most of the U.S. in park-equity metrics among different races and ethnicities.

The gender gap for sports participation in D.C. is real and problematic. Only 53% of District girls participated on a sports team of any kind in 2022 and 2023, compared to 70% of boys. That’s the largest gender gap for U.S. states, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health. Our youth survey also showed that D.C. girls are less physically active than boys, according to CDC- recommended levels.

Simply finding coaches is increasingly challenging in D.C. Less free time, longer work hours, limited pay for coaches and hassles with parents are among the reasons it’s hard to find coaches, who are the backbone of youth sports. The best coaches are mentors, role models and inspirations for generations of young athletes — some of whom will grow up to coach as well.

The Aspen Institute’s State of Play Washington D.C. report, released in 2025, explored the role sports can play to reduce student truancy in schools. High levels of involvement in school sports are one of the strongest correlations with lower risk of cutting or skipping class and school misbehavior, according to a study by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Charter schools comprise 36% of Washington, D.C.’s high school population, but only 22% of high school sports participants. Similar challenges to grow sports participation occur at the elementary and middle school levels for charters, which struggle more than any other school stakeholder to access facility space and financial investments for sports.