Many Portland Public Schools students will likely have to see different therapists when classes restart, as the district ends its short-lived partnership with a mental health contractor that embedded providers in schools during the recent academic year.
The contractor, Stronger Oregon, reports that the therapists—16 of whom worked across 40 PPS schools—saw more than 300 PPS students last year. This is a large chunk of the roughly 1,000 students PPS says accessed mental health services during this span.
Stronger Oregon’s removal from the Portland schools is a local expression of a broader reconfiguration in the state mental health system that has been underway for months, as the Oregon Health Authority shifts how it directs scarce mental health resources…