Youth Advocates in Washington, D.C. Oppose Curfew and Call for Increased Investment in the City’s Youth

In April 2026, the office of Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser reinstated a juvenile curfew. While officials said this curfew was an action for public safety, advocates for youth said the policy is harmful for D.C.’s at-risk communities.

The curfew, which restricts youth activity outdoors after 11:00pm, has been called a response to “several weeks of disorderly behavior” according to a press release by the Office of the Mayor.

Adaku Onyeka-Crawford, Director of the Advancement Project’s Opportunity to Learn Program, the educational justice branch of the Washington-based racial justice nonprofit, said that curfews give law enforcement the authority to surveil youth in public spaces.

“We really let the people lead, and support Black and brown communities that are fighting to change their school, their communities, and exercise power in this country,” Onyeka-Crawford said.

The organization approaches youth justice through an abolitionist framework, advocating for the removal of policing from schools and opposing expanding law enforcement presence.

“D.C. is still under occupation,” Onyeka-Crawford said. “So, the National Guard is still here, immigration enforcement is still here. And often we hear reports about MPD working with the federal agents that are terrorizing our communities.”

Onyeka-Crawford said curfews disproportionately affect Black and brown youth, particularly in high-traffic areas such as Adams Morgan, U Street Corridor and Navy Yard.

“When you have a curfew law or a curfew extension, you are giving law enforcement, whether it’s MPD, local law enforcement, or federal law enforcement, the authority to harass children who are just Black and brown in spaces that people don’t think those children should be,” she said.

Many young people the Advancement Project spoke with described feeling increasingly unwelcome in their own neighborhoods as a result of curfew policy. 

“We heard things like, ‘I feel like I can’t just be outside in my neighborhood anymore,’” Onyeka-Crawford said. “There’s complaints about like, ‘there’s no place for us to go and just hang out with friends.’ And that’s something that all teenagers have the right to do.”

In response to behavior being called disruptive, Onyeka-Crawford said activity is being interpreted differently depending on who occupies public spaces.

“It seems like the disruptive behavior is just Black youth being in white spaces, to be quite frank,” she said. “I know students in Georgetown are able to do that. Why are Black youth denied that opportunity?”

Onyeka-Crawford said city leaders should invest more heavily in youth-centered programming and community spaces.

“We could have, for example, extended hours at recreational buildings for youth,” Onyeka-Crawford said. “What we see is a 15% increase in MPD’s budget. What we see is investment in overtime for MPD.”

The Advancement Project also collaborates with other youth advocacy organizations, such as the Black Swan Academy, a program focused on political education for D.C. youth. Many young people are now requesting resources to navigate interactions with law enforcement and military presence in the city.

“They really want, for example, a ‘Know Your Rights’ workshop about what they should do if they are approached by members of the National Guard or a police officer,” Onyeka-Crawford said.

Since January 1, 2025, 127 young people have been transported to the Youth Services Center in response to curfew violations and over 2,250 have been stopped by law enforcement, according to the Youth Power and Safety Collective. 

For advocates working with foster and LGBTQ+ youth, the concerns surrounding curfews extend into broader questions about housing instability and family dynamics.

David Marshall, founder of Journey to Josiah, an organization that was initially started to support LGBTQ+ couples navigating adoption and foster care, said curfew policies often assume all young people have safe homes.

“It is a matter of saying to parents, ‘do you know where your children are?’ A very very valid question,” Marshall said. “But, that is assuming that all of the children that are out have a parent.”

Marshall, an adoptive father himself, said his organization works to create affirming environments for LGBTQ+ youth while training practitioners, social workers and foster families through its ACCESS training.

Marshall said that shortages of foster homes and insufficient training for complex situations can leave vulnerable children without affirming environments. Marshall added that LGBTQ+ youth are statistically underrepresented because they do not feel safe openly identifying themselves.

“Limited data on LGBTQ+ youth” exists, he said, because many “frequently do not identify, as they don’t have a safe space to do so.”

According to Marshall, instability within the foster care system complicates how curfews impact young people.

“A lot of foster youth do elope from their foster families,” Marshall said. “It becomes a thing of, well, where do we take them back to? Some of them are not going to tell you that they are in foster care. They’re definitely not going to tell you the foster home that they’re in.”

He added that he does not believe policymakers have fully considered how curfews affect at-risk youth populations.

“I don’t think there is a thought process on how this would impact foster youth, or homeless youth in general,” Marshall said.

For 20-year-old D.C. college student Yori Candidi, who grew up in foster care, further consideration is necessary.

Candidi entered foster care at age nine before eventually being adopted by her grandmother in 2019. During that time, she moved between New Jersey, Delaware and Philadelphia.

“A lot of human service departments are really underfunded,” Candidi said, particularly in urban areas. She recalled cycling through multiple social workers and said instability within the system prolonged the adoption process.

Candidi experienced youth curfews firsthand during the COVID-19 pandemic in Philadelphia, where city officials enacted restrictions in response to large youth gatherings resulting from schools being closed.

“I do remember my nana being like, ‘you’re not allowed to go anywhere without me at night,’” she said.

A current curfew in Philadelphia impacts subway access at night, which Candidi said creates barriers for youth who may rely on working evening hours.

“There’s another one put in place in Philadelphia and it’s 9:00 p.m.,” Candidi said. “They stop running the subway stations which is really inconvenient.”

While Candidi said she understands the reasoning behind curfews, she believes enforcement alone cannot address challenges facing young people.

“Curfews and increased policing can only do so much,” she said. “I think that there needs to be more education in public schools for the youth to see the reason why these are actually put in place because a lot of the time, they just see it as a reason to be restricted so they’re more likely to rebel.”

She added that visible police and military presence can instill fear in children who do not fully understand why those measures are being implemented.

“Especially if you’re a child that doesn’t know about all of this and you’re seeing all of these, like, National Guard and just other police, you’re looking around like, ‘oh, what’s going on,’” Candidi said. “It also could be terrifying if you’re not properly educated.”

As D.C. officials continue implementing public safety responses to youth gatherings, advocates said officials must consider the realities facing the city’s most vulnerable young people and acknowledge it with care.

“We need to be very very conscious about making sure we acknowledge it in a way that is very very sensitive,” Marshall said. 

The Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser declined to comment.