National Civics Bee Washington DC Statewide Finals

This year, we are proud to be National Civics Bee State Partners, and for the first time, the Civics Bee will be offered in Washington, D.C.! This competition is a wonderful chance for middle school students to showcase their knowledge of civics, develop their writing skills, and engage in meaningful discussions about our democracy.

This competition is modeled after a traditional spelling or geography bee and is composed of two parts, an essay competition and a live event. 6th-8th grade students who go to school in D.C. are invited to submit responses to the question prompts included in the essay guide, which will then be evaluated fairly in a nonpartisan fashion. The best among these will be invited to compete in a live event at the Reagan Institute for their chance at cash prizes and a trip to the national finals, which has more than $100,000 in scholarships available.

This is a two-part competition: an essay competition and a live event. The Essay submission window is open until February 3rd, 2026, at 11:59 PM Hawaii Standard time, and the live event will be hosted on June 20th, 2026, if there are enough essays sent.