Beach School

Families who currently have students in the fifth grade in Portland Public Schools should take note of an important date change. If your students wants to attend a focus option school in the middle school years, the window to apply for the 2020-21 lottery is:

• Opens: 8 a.m. on Tuesday, November 5
• Closes: 5 p.m. on Tuesday, December 3

Families will be able to fill out an application on the Focus Option Transfer webpage. The form will be activated during the application window.

Students who qualify for free and reduced-priced meals are given preference to most focus option schools. In mid-January, the lottery runs and families receive offer letters in the mail.

All PPS students have guaranteed spots in neighborhood schools based on attendance boundaries. Focus options draw students from throughout PPS who are interested in different approaches to learning or deeper exploration of specific subjects.

In previous years, the middle school lottery application dates ran from February to March, with offers made in April. The timeline was moved up to match the lottery applications dates for high schools, which helps budgeting and staffing, and gives families more time to plan after the lottery results.

Each year, hundreds of families apply for about 225 middle grades lottery slots.

The schools with available lottery slots in grades 6-8 are:

• Creative Science K-8 School (constructivist/storyline learning methods)
• da Vinci Arts Middle School (arts focus)
• Metropolitan Learning Center K-12 (alternative focus)
• Odyssey Program (history focus)
• Sunnyside K-8 School (environmental focus)
• Winterhaven K-8 School (math and science focus)

More information is available on the Enrollment & Transfer webpage. You can also call 503-916-3205, and staff is available to help in English, Spanish and Russian. Support is available in Vietnamese by calling 503-916-3584, Chinese at 503-916-3585 and Somali at 503-916-3586.