Alternative Education

Charter Schools, Alternative Programs, Supplemental
Educational Services, and McKinney-Vento Homeless

Alternative Education is designed to meet the needs of at-risk students who are not succeeding in the traditional setting. Students are provided with a variety of options that can lead to graduation and are supported by services for the student and their immediate family that are essential to success. While each of Indiana’s 291 alternative education programs is unique, they share characteristics identified in the research as common to successful alternative schools.

Alternative education types include but are not limited to: alternative classrooms, school-within-a-school programming, separate alternative schools, and second or last-chance schools for disruptive students. Just as there are many types and settings for alternative schools, there are many delivery models based on the programs’ philosophy and the needs of the students they serve. Some follow a school community partnership model that features collaboration with the larger community. Others may combine academics with a vocational intervention that focuses on making school meaningful while preparing students for the workforce. Still others employ a behavioral intervention model. In Indiana, the programs and models designed to meet the needs of disaffected youth are as diverse as the students themselves. Despite this diversity, however, all alternative education programs are held accountable for helping students master the Indiana Academic Standards and must comply with educational laws and rules or seek appropriate waivers. In 1997 the legislature passed alternative education legislation and funded it so that school corporations could obtain up to $750 per full-time equivalent student to cover additional expenses inherent in alternative education. To qualify as an alternative education program, the program must “be an educational program for eligible students that instructs the eligible students in a different manner than the manner of instruction available in a traditional school setting”. To obtain alternative education funding based on the formula established in the legislation, public school corporations must:

Grant Information

Conferences Alternative Educators looking for professional development are encouraged to check out the following conferences. You might also check into the possibility of presenting and sharing some of the great things going on in Indiana.