Pioneer Special Schools serves Portland’s special-education students, kindergarten to 12th grade, who are unable to be successful in less restrictive school placements. With two school sites, the program helps students with social/emotional needs, fragile mental health, developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder, life skills, or GED preparation needs or who require vocational training and community transition services.

Specially designed instruction and related services are provided to meet each student's individual needs. School wide positive behavioral supports and daily social skills lessons in the classroom provide the structure and framework by which we address pro-social school skills and work with students and families to deter negative behaviors which impede their ability to access less restrictive educational environments.

Delivery of services in the classroom is provided by a certified teacher and two para-educators, as well as a Masters level therapist at least half time to address mental health issues. Behavior coaches are available to assist with positive reinforcement of pro-social behavior and to facilitate the de-escalation of students who have become a danger to themselves or others. Related services may include professionals such as a speech-language pathologist, educational assistants, school psychologist, adapted physical education teacher, and occupational therapist.

Portland Public Schools is thrilled to announce the availability of $10 million to support partners who provide summer safety and enrichment programming for students this summer. 

Dear PPS Community,

As we continue welcoming our students to hybrid in-person learning, today we want to share a new resource that is available to you. For this project, we ReImagine a Digital Experience – an experience that is easy to navigate, multilingual, user-friendly and welcoming for ALL.

Dear PPS Families,

We have been working hard to put the finishing touches on the safe return of students to our schools for hybrid learning, and are excited to see students in grades 6-8 starting next week! For families whose students will participate in hybrid instruction, we have included information and reminders to help you prepare for the first days of in-person learning this school year. 

We are excited to welcome our high school students back into buildings starting April 19. It will be great see students, hear the voices in the hall and connect with one another in person. The last few weeks we have been preparing for students to return and wanted to share a few reminders to students and families.