Pittsburgh Public Schools officials are considering expanding its Bridges Academy, a full-time emotional support and special education program, to students in kindergarten, first and second grades. It would be headquartered at Weil PreK-5 in the Hill District.
Pittsburgh Bridges Academy, previously known as Oliver Citywide Academy, currently enrolls students in grades 3-12 receiving special education services and full-time emotional support services. It operates satellite sites at Clayton Academy, King PreK-8, UPrep Milliones 6-12, Greenway and Perry High School.
District officials say the proposed expansion would increase the services available within the district and broadens the range of services available to students within a neighborhood school.
If approved by the board next week, Bridges at Weil would start the upcoming school year. Patti Camper, assistant superintendent for students with exceptionalities, said identified at least two students that would be enrolled in the program.
“The maximum capacity of the K-2 Bridges satellite would be eight students,” Camper said.
Staffing for Bridges at Weil would be the same as other satellites, Camper said, which are two teachers, two paraprofessionals and a counselor.
School Board Member Yael Silk sent written questions to Camper and Ann McKetta, senior program officer for students with exceptionalities. In response they said the recommendation to expand Bridges comes from increasing special education enrollment, a need for emotional support programming in K-2 and the district’s ongoing efforts to expand its own services.
Last year, three K-2 students required full-time out-of-district placement because an in-district option wasn’t available. School districts pay for the often-costly outside placements.
Administrators said the expansion was coordinated with the district’s school building consolidation plan approved earlier this year, and special education programming efforts. That planning considered enrollment projections, building capacity, transportation, staffing and opportunities to reduce unnecessary transitions for students over time.
Bridges uses the same academic curriculum and behavioral structure as the district’s regional emotional support classrooms, which promotes consistent academic instruction, smoother transitions for support and reintegrating a child into general education classrooms when appropriate, the administrators said.
Quality of the Bridges program was not publicly discussed at this week’s Agenda Review board meeting. District data reports that, in the 2024-25 school year, Bridges Academy schools had the highest suspension rates in the district: ranging from 41.7% at Milliones to 66.7% at King. The satellites also reported a chronic absence rate of 60% or more.
District Spokeswoman Ebony Pugh did not return a request for comment Thursday on Bridges’ quality.
The school board is scheduled to vote on the expansion at a meeting Wednesday.