The Rules

§0 CSH House Rules

These three requirements are specific to our competition and sit on top of everything else:

§1 Eligibility

• Age / enrollment: You must be enrolled in middle school or high school on October 26, 2026.
• Location: You compete in a Congressional District that hosts an App Challenge — either the district where you live or the district where you attend school. One district only; you cannot enter in multiple districts.
• Teams: Compete solo or in a team of up to four. A team of five or more is not eligible. At least half of any team must live or attend school in the same Congressional District.
• Prior projects: Any app created after October 30, 2025 may be submitted. Submitting a 2.0 of an older app? Only the new code counts — highlight it.
• One entry per person per year: One app, one team. You can't enter multiple apps or appear on multiple teams.

§2 Registration

Registration happens at congressionalappchallenge.us. Every student needs:

• A personal email address — not your school account.
• Your home address with the 9-digit ZIP, your Congressional District, and your Member of Congress.
• Your school address with the same details.
• A parent or guardian's name and email.
• Optionally, the name and email of your coding teacher or mentor.

§3 App Parameters

• Topic: The official challenge allows any topic — but our House Rule narrows it: your app must address a school or Bronx community problem.
• Platform: Anything — web apps, desktop, mobile, browser extensions, robots, AR/VR, wearables, smart devices, embedded systems.
• Language: Any programming language, including block-based languages.
• Functionality: The app must demonstrate real functionality to be competitive. It has to work.
• Content suitability: Keep it decent and respectful. Nothing defamatory, hateful, threatening, obscene, or in obvious bad taste — and nothing that violates anyone's intellectual property or privacy rights.
• Originality: The app must be original and created entirely by you or your team. Open-source libraries, frameworks, and external tools are allowed — but document what you used, and make sure the project reflects your own significant effort and understanding. Nobody else can hold rights to your app.
• AI usage: AI tools are permitted — required, in our competition — but every use must be fully disclosed in your submission. AI may support specific parts of the project; it cannot BE the project. Judges expect significant individual contribution and real technical understanding from your team.

§4 Online Submission

Submissions run through the CAC portal and cannot be modified after the submission period ends. The application includes questions about your app plus the video — the most important piece.

// the video (1–3 minutes) — CAC entrants only

The official demo video must include all of the following, per the official rules:

• The name of each participant
• The name of the app
• The app's purpose — in one clear sentence
• The target audience: who is this app for?
• The tools and coding languages used to build it
• A demonstration of the app actually functioning

// the written questions

• What is the title of your app?
• Explain the app's purpose.
• What inspired you to create this app?
• What technical difficulty did you face, and how did you solve it?
• What did you learn? What was your biggest takeaway?
• What would you change in a 2.0 version?

§5 Deadline

§6 Exit Questionnaire

After the deadline, every participant receives an Exit Questionnaire link. On teams, every member completes it individually — same link, separate responses. The data helps improve the Challenge.

§7 Winner Selection

• Videos and submission answers are evaluated by the Member of Congress and their office — sometimes with a judging panel.
• Judging criteria: quality of the idea (creativity and originality), implementation (user experience and design), and demonstrated coding skill.
• Judges may request access to your app and source code to verify it works as claimed. Refusing the request means immediate disqualification.
• Members of Congress may modify the judging process or criteria; judging is fair and impartial but entirely at their discretion.

§8 Winner Announcements

CSH winners are announced Friday of competition week — over the loudspeaker at 12:50, after the 11/12 and 9/10 finals in the Pit. Official CAC winners are announced by the hosting Member of Congress — results are embargoed until January 15, 2027, so national results can't be disclosed before then.

§9 Prizes

• Each district's winning app is featured on House.gov and CongressionalAppChallenge.us.
• District winners can receive a copyright fee waiver through the ARTS Act.
• The program administrator (the Internet Education Foundation) may distribute additional prizes to participating districts, and each district may award prizes of its own.
• CSH finalists — every team that reaches Friday's finals in the Pit: 5 dress-down passes each, custom CSH swag, and the chance to meet — and impress — real engineers, founders, and community leaders.
• CSH winners: $300 per team, entry into the 2026 Congressional App Challenge, and — possibly — the opportunity to develop the app more fully, if the team chooses to pursue it.
• Set the bar: see last year's New York district winners.

§10 The Fine Print

• Entry conditions: By entering, you agree to the official rules and to the decisions of the administrators and judges, which are final.
• Your IP: You own the intellectual property rights to your submission. You grant Congress and the administrator a royalty-free license to post submissions online, feature winners during and shortly after the competition, and use submissions for noncommercial purposes.
• Publicity: Participation means winners' names, likenesses, schools, and hometowns may be used for promotion.
• Integrity: Administrators can disqualify anyone tampering with the competition or acting in an unsportsmanlike way, and can modify or suspend the competition if fraud or technical failure compromises it.
• Liability: Administrators aren't responsible for technical failures, lost submissions, or errors in processing. If your submission is lost or corrupted, the remedy is to submit again.
• Privacy: Personal info collected at registration is governed by the CAC and House.gov privacy policies.
• Administrator: The Internet Education Foundation, Washington, DC.