Chronic and serious delinquency in adolescence is the best single predictor of a wide variety of physical, emotional, and social pathologies. As other approaches to preventing and treating delinquency have failed, research has increasingly focused on schools. Delinquency and school problems coincide closely, and certain school-based programs can ameliorate them. Alternative schools can prevent student failure through a highly individualized curriculum and evaluation, and supportive relationships are critical in alternative school programs. At the same time, discipline is essential, and disciplinary techniques vary among alternative schools. Goals of discipline should be to prevent scholastic failure and to maintain control in a caring manner. To become fully established, alternative schools need to be guided by theory and by an increasing broad database generated by rigorous research and evaluation. 10 references