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Portland Public Schools saw another low year of applications to its Right to Return transfer partnership, receiving and accepting eight applications to bring students living in outer East Portland back to one of 19 North and Northeast Portland schools.
The transfer program, modeled after a similar housing program from the city of Portland, is meant to address some of the consequences of gentrification in North and Northeast Portland. (As prices climbed, many families of color were driven out of those communities, though race is not a consideration in the program.) After calls from Black community leaders, PPS developed and launched a plan in 2023 to allow students whose families were displaced into the David Douglas, Parkrose and Reynolds school districts to transfer back in.
The eight students who applied and were accepted into PPS through Right to Return in the 2025–26 academic year all had moved out of PPS district boundaries in the past year, according to a memo to be presented to the Portland School Board Tuesday night. They join about 25 students who have been accepted to the program in the previous academic years.
That’s well below early district hopes that the program would attract between 50 and 100 students in its inaugural year. In the 2024–25 school year, the district accepted four of the program’s six applicants.
Sydney Kelly, a spokeswoman for PPS, says the district does not currently have a specific number of students it is trying to attract through Right to Return. A subject matter expert was not immediately available to share how the district has promoted the program over time.
Despite low numbers, PPS continues to point to Right to Return as a strategy for attracting more students as enrollment craters. In January, as Oregon Public Broadcasting reported, the district said the program would continue to play an important role in filling Jefferson High School as it ends a policy allowing students within its boundaries to attend high school elsewhere. (This year, Jefferson enrolls 391 students.)
Last year, Ron Herndon, executive director of Albina Head Start and a longtime Portland education advocate, said he attributed the program’s low numbers to a lack of sustained effort to implement the program and engage the broader community.
Portland School Board vice chair Michelle DePass says the program is meant to give students an opportunity to return to schools where they can feel a sense of safety and belonging. She says she has guesses as to why so few students have taken advantage of the program—she suspects it could be anything from transportation barriers to a lack of awareness.
“Parents really want to choose where their children attend school, but the location has to fit into the family’s transportation and life plan,” she says. “It’s a great program, but it has to work for families.”
When reached for comment, School Board member Rashelle Chase-Miller expressed continued support for the program, noting investments in Right to Return and Jefferson “anchor the physical space back in the heart of Albina.”
“Allowing students from neighboring districts with legacy ties to enroll at Jeff acknowledges that reinvesting in Jefferson isn’t just about a building, but also about community,” Chase-Miller says. “Although the neighborhood has changed, Albina is the historic home and heart of Black Portland, and the right to return helps us maintain those ties to our community, wherever we might live.”
