An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. These schools are designed to educate students who haven’t been successful in regular schools, often due to behavioral issues or learning disabilities. Alternative schools can be part of the public school system or privately run. Some examples of private alternative schools include charter schools, parochial schools, and therapeutic or military boarding schools. Public alternative schools are sometimes located in the same building as a traditional school and are sometimes located within institutional settings such as hospitals or juvenile justice facilities.

Alternative schools offer a wide range of approaches, but the features of promising alternative programs seem to converge more or less on the following characteristics:

• The approach is more individualized
• Integration of children of different socio-economic status and mixed abilities
• Experiential learning which is applicable to life outside school
• Integrated approach to various disciplines
• Instructional staff is certified in their academic field and are creative
• Low student-teacher ratios

Alternative schools are designed to address a variety of different needs, so they have very diverse student bodies. Some of the students most likely to attend alternative schools include students who have behavioral or emotional needs that can’t be met in a traditional school setting. The main goal of alternative education is to help at-risk students overcome the factors that put them in their current situation and return to their home school and grow.