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Information Services - Statistical Reports

Student Exclusions 1999 - 2000

Alternative Education

As shown in Table 8, 70 percent of all students excluded from school in 1999-00 were provided with alternative education, an increase of five percentage points from the previous year. Sixty-one percent of regular education students excluded from school received alternative education, an increase of five percentage points from the prior year. Federal law requires special education students who are excluded from school to be offered alternative education. Ninety-five percent of the special education students excluded in 1999-00 received alternative education, while five percent did not. This five percent is a decrease of three percentage points from the previous year. Of the 19 special education students who did not receive alternative education, nine were reported as having refused or as not responding to the offer of alternative education, four were reported as having been incarcerated, five had moved, and for one student the school chose not to provide it.

Table 8. Alternative Education by Program Status
 1997-981998-991999-00
 #%#%#%
All Students
Alternative education provided 887 67 859 65 987 70
Alternative education not provided 439 33 467 35 425 30
Not Reported

8 1 0  0 
Regular Education Students
Alternative education provided 603 58 554 56 630 61
Alternative education not provided 424 41 440 44 406 39
Not Reported

8 1 0   0 
Special Education Students
Alternative education provided 268 96 305 92 357 95
Alternative education not provided 14 5 27 8 19 5
Not reported

0   0   0 
Special Education Referrals
Alternative education provided 11 92 0  0 
Alternative education not provided 1 8 0  0 
Not reported 0   0  0 
Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.


Table 9 illustrates that of the 987 exclusions in which students were provided with alternative education, 65 percent attended an in-district alternative program, 19 percent were provided with home tutoring, and 12 percent received alternative education in a private setting. The remaining two programs, work/community service and an alternative program in another district, accounted for the remaining four percent of student exclusions.

In 68 percent of the 425 exclusion cases where alternative education was not provided, the schools chose not to provide it. This was an increase of eight percentage points from the prior year, and a decline of two percentage points from the 1997-98 school year. For nearly one-fourth of all exclusions, the schools reported that students refused to accept or did not respond to offers of alternative education, a decrease of six percentage points from the previous year. For the remaining nine percent of exclusions, students had moved or were incarcerated. The number of excluded students who were incarcerated had decreased from the previous year (Table 9).

Table 9. Alternative Education
 1997-981998-991999-00
 #%#%#%
Types of Alternative Education Provided
Home tutoring 254 29 221 26 190 19
In-district alternative program 505 57 489 57 641 65
Alternative program in another district 28 3 45 5 40 4
Private alternative setting 91 10 99 12 115 12
Work/community service setting 6 1 5 1 1 0
Not reported

3 0 0  0 
Reason Alt. Education Was Not Provided
Student moved/transferred 17 4 23 5 21 5
Student refused/did not respond 88 20 138 30 100 24
Student was incarcerated 11 3 24 5 16 4
School chose not to provide it 307 70 282 60 288 68
Not reported 16 4 0  0 
Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.


The provision of alternative education varied by the length of the exclusion and student classification (Table 10). Eighty-three percent of regular education students who were excluded from school for one year were provided with alternative education. Almost 56 percent of regular education students who were excluded for 41 to 179 days received alternative education, nearly 79 percent who were excluded 21 to 40 days received alternative education and about 36 percent who were excluded for 11 to 20 days received alternative education. Five percent of the regular education students who were excluded permanently received alternative education. For all intervals of exclusions, except permanent, a much greater percentage of special education students received alternative education due to federal mandates that require these students to have this educational option.

Table 10. Percentage of Students Receiving
Alternative Education by Length of
Exclusion and Student Classification
Length of Exclusion Regular Education Students (%) Special Education Students (%)
11-20 school days 36 93
21-40 school days 79 97
41-179 school days 56 91
180 school days (one school year) 83 100
Permanent 5 8
Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.



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