Child Find
-
The Portland Public Schools conducts specific activities for the purposes of locating, evaluating and identifying students ages birth to twenty-one (21) with suspected disabilities and who reside within the district’s boundaries. This includes students attending private schools within the Portland Public School’s attendance area.
Evaluations birth to 5 years The Early Childhood Team conducts comprehensive developmental evaluations for children birth to 5 years old who are suspected of having a disability. The team determines eligibility for Early Intervention, Early Childhood Special Education and school age eligibilities. Once children are determined to be eligible for services, Multnomah Early Childhood Program (MECP) will work with families to develop an Individual Family Service Plan. For more information about early childhood services, contact MECP at 503-261-5535.
Evaluation Referrals- Multnomah County Early Intervention
For children ages 5-21 years of age, please call Special Education Department at (503) 916-3152
Multilingual Special Education Family Toolkit
-
Accessible Alternative to The Special Education Process
The Multilingual Special Education Family Toolkit is a set of cards that show the Special Education process, eligibility categories, and placement/services options in PPS. These procedures and concepts are often complex and create barriers for families that prevent their meaningful participation, which is critical to positive outcomes for their students.
The Toolkit currently consists of a Special Education overview, A Roadmap for the evaluation/IEP process, Eligibility cards that describe all the Disability Categories in PPS and a Placement/Services card. The cards represent these important ideas in a visual way using universal graphics along with the implementation of language access principles, including: family-friendly terms, plain language and translations.
The cards are available in the six supported languages at PPS: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Russian, and Somali.
Special Education Family Toolkit (WEB) | English/Español Special Education Family Toolkit | English/Tiếng Việt Education Family Toolkit | English/中文 Education Family Toolkit | English/Soomaali Education Family Toolkit | Русский Education Family Toolkit
The roadmap for the evaluation/IEP process | El proceso de educación especial | Quy Trình Giáo Dục Đặc Biệt | 特殊教育过程 | Habka Waxbarashada Khaaska ah | Процесс получения услуг инклюзивного образования
If you use these cards with your program or district, please cite Portland Public Schools when sharing or distributing them.
Contact Us
-
Special Education Office: 503-916-3152
Special Education Records Requests: sped-records@pps.net
Join Our Team! For employment opportunities see PPS Jobs
-
Assistive Technology
Helping educational teams find the technology and strategies to support student access to learning and communication.
PPS Assistive Technology Team consists of specialists with backgrounds in occupational therapy, teaching and speech-language pathology. Our mission is to provide best practice to support the success of learners in our district in the areas of assistive technology (AT) and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).
Our services may include AT and AAC systems and strategies, training and support to educational teams for the adaptation and modification of curriculum. We work in partnership with the building educational team. -
Early Childhood and Kindergarten Transition
-
Outside Agency Resources and Parent Organizations
-
Special Education Advisory Council (SPEAC)
Purpose
The council will review the services provided for students with special needs in Portland Public Schools and the diverse needs of those students. The Council will advise the Director of Special Education regarding policies and procedures.
Membership
SPEAC membership represents the broad array of families and disabilities in special education. The majority of Council members are family members of special education students. Council members are appointed by the Special Education Director.
Meetings
The Council meets monthly during each school calendar year.For more information about SPEAC please complete the following form.
-
Special Education Family and Community Specialist
-
Special Education Service Delivery Models
-
Procedural Safeguards
The ODE Procedural Safeguards Notices are available, and are aligned with the requirements of IDEA 2004, federal, and state regulations. The documents below are all in Portable Document Format (PDF) only
-
Special Education Procedures Manual
The PPS Special Education Procedures Manual
This guide is designed as a reference for special education and other school staff to ensure that staff provide consistent and equitable access to special education services and that parents receive appropriate procedural safeguards. This manual reflects current state and federal law and district policy. This Manual replaces the 2008 Special Education Policies and Procedures notebook.