Students Educated With Alternate Curriculum in Elementary School: Timing, Switching, and Educational Placements

While most students receiving special education services in school are educated with the same general curriculum (i.e., instructional materials) as their peers without disabilities, students with extensive support needs and significant cognitive disabilities may qualify to receive instruction with alternate curricular materials aligned with alternate content standards. Available special education data, however, do not provide information about students who are educated with alternate curriculum specifically. This study aims to address this gap by reviewing special education administrative data from a large urban school district to identify timing, placements, and switching patterns of alternate curriculum participation in elementary school (N = 11,399). Results indicated the majority of students instructed with alternate curriculum received special education services under intellectual disability, autism, or orthopedic impairment eligibility. Students were mostly educated in traditional public day schools, but nearly 97% of students in the sample had a primary placement of a special education classroom. Over 50% of students started with alternate curriculum instruction in grades transitional kindergarten/kindergarten or first grade. High rates of students educated with alternate curriculum in early elementary grades suggest lack of access to general curriculum and general education classrooms. Implications for future research are discussed.