Alternative schools first appeared in the 1920's and 1930's due to the Progressive Educational Reform Movement. The alternative school philosophy reappeared during the 1960's, and in the 1970's and 1980's alternative schools demonstrated a renewed commitment to children at-risk. Today, alternative schools are gaining a greater degree of legitimacy within America’s public school systems. Educators are appreciating alternative-learning programs with an increasing number of children demonstrating such at-risk behaviors as delinquency, truancy, poor academic performance, and other undesirable social and behavior problems. With the growth in alternative-schools at-risk children and to develop a framework for analyses, this chapter attempts to define both alternative-schools and alternative learning programs. The accepted definition presented is that alternative learning programs or schools are services for students at-risk of truancy, academic failure, behavior problems, and/or dropping out of school. In addition, these programs or schools adequately meet the needs of some individual students. To more clearly define alternative programming methodologies and schools, a three-tiered typology is presented which was formulated by the overall goal or purpose of the alternative school and includes: (1) typing by purpose; (2) typing by intended outcome; and (3) typing by relationship to traditional schools. References