Programs and Practices for Special Education Students in Alternative Education Settings. Research to Practice Brief. Volume 6, Issue 1

Overview & Synopsis

This brief presents a review of alternative education programs targeting students with disabilities. Because there is no clear picture of how alternative education programs operate, specifically regarding youth with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) funded three grants to develop a framework describing what is happening in alternative education settings. The University of Oregon received an OSEP grant, and the purpose of this brief is to share the findings from the University's descriptive study, What do they do there? Examination of alternative education schools, programs, and practices for special education students. While the findings from this study are descriptive and focus solely on alternative education settings in one state, they do provide important information about the structure of settings and types of students served within alternative education. Table 1 presents four broad themes of characteristics of alternative education: (1) student-to-staff connections; (2) flexible curriculum and instruction; (3) diverse goals of alternative education settings; and (4) stigma of student population. (Contains 3 footnotes and 1 table.)