This study is the first to describe applicants and application patterns to DC public prekindergarten. We leverage nearly 40,000 preschool applications submitted to the District of Columbia's centralized admissions lottery between 2014 and 2018 to answer the following research questions: 1. What are the patterns of DC prekindergarten applications, including total counts of applications and numbers of schools ranked, and how do they vary? 2. What are the patterns of lottery outcomes, and how do they vary over time, across geographies, and by preference statuses? 3. What are the characteristics of prekindergarten applicants and matched and wait-listed applicants, and how do they compare with the population of eligible children? We address the first two questions together using data from My School DC and then turn to the third, linking applications with ACS data to understand the community characteristics of lottery applicants and eligible children. (author abstract)