Optical carrier/exction and spin injection processes from a ZnMnSe dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS) to CdSe quantum dots (QD’s) are studied in detail by means of spinpolarized magneto- photoluminescence (PL) and PL excitation spectroscopies. Efficiency of carrier/exciton transfer is found to be practically independent of width (L_b) of a ZnSe barrier layer inserted between the DMS and QD’s. This is tentatively explained in terms of photonexchange energy transfer. In sharp contrast, spin injection efficiency is found to be largely suppressed in the structures with large L_b, pointing towards increasing spin loss.