Vulnerable Youth: Identifying their Need for Alternative Educational Settings

This paper was prepared with funding from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the C. S. Mott Foundation, the Urban Institute, its trustees, or other funders. The author would like to thank Demetra Nightingale and Laudan Aron for their contributions to the content of the paper.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

VULNERABLE YOUTH IDENTIFYING THEIR NEED FOR ALTERNATIVE
EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS
Disconnected Youth
The Ways Youth Disconnect
School Completion and Dropping Out
Teen Pregnancy and Parenting
Involvement in the Juvenile Justice System
Leaving the Foster Care System
The Need for Alternative Education
Alternative Schools - Who is Being Reached?
Number of Alternative Schools through School Districts
The Student Population in Alternative Schools
Alternative Schools as Service Providers
Extent of Need
Conclusions
REFERENCES

VULNERABLE YOUTH: IDENTIFYING THEIR NEED FOR ALTERNATIVE EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS

Adolescence is a time of transition and change. It is a time when youth work toward educational and vocational goals, take on exciting new responsibilities, and prepare for their transition to adulthood. Most youth move through adolescence experiencing little or no adversity and successfully transition into adult roles and responsibilities. However, this is not the case for all of America's youth. A proportion of America's youth struggle to achieve developmental goals during adolescence and become disconnected from mainstream institutions and systems—including schools. Their day-to-day lives are very different than the typical American adolescent. These youth are vulnerable to further failures and continued disconnection from society, often resulting in lifelong economic and social hardship.

Alternative schools and programs may be a source of both disconnection from and reconnection to mainstream institutions. Some schools may use alternative education options as ways to remove youth who are disciplinary problems and/or unable to meet standards set by testing environments. On the other hand, some alternative education approaches attempt to meet the needs of disconnected and vulnerable youth and represent one way to reconnect them to society.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which alternative education schools and programs can meet the needs of the nation's vulnerable youth. The characteristics of youth facing disconnection from society are summarized, as are the risk factors associated with disconnection and the characteristics of students in selected alternative education settings. While there are currently no consistent or comprehensive data on the number of youth who could potentially benefit from alternative education or the number currently being served by alternative education schools and programs, rough estimates (based on existing data) are presented to provide a sense of the magnitude of need.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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