Best Special Needs Schools in Gray, Maine (2026)

Fiddlehead School of Arts & Sciences is a free public charter school in Gray serving children from Pre-K through 8th grade. Our teaching is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach: children are treated as capable learners, our indoor and outdoor spaces are set up for exploration, and students learn alongside peers of different ages and progress at their own pace. Learning is interdisciplinary and inquiry-based across literacy, math, science, visual and performing arts, and Spanish. We teach executive function skills and social and emotional learning directly, and each child's growth is captured in a portfolio shared with families twice a year. Every classroom has a lead teacher and an assistant, and our staff includes a special education team and an RTI team. Families can enroll in before care and after-school enrichment, which runs from dismissal to 5 p.m. In summer, our outdoor-first camps for ages 4 to 13 cover themes like messy art, dinosaurs, space exploration, robotics and theater. Admission is by lottery each March, and we host open houses for prospective families every winter.

• Public charter school (Pre-K to 8)
• Reggio Emilia-inspired
• Arts and sciences
• Inquiry-based learning