Characteristics of youth in alternative education settings: A scoping literature review

•Youth who disengage from education often attend some form of alternative education.•This scoping review investigates the characteristics of youth attending alternative education. It gathers information on demographic characteristics, physical and mental health, social functioning, family, school trajectories and academic functioning.•There is not one specific characteristic in which these youth might differ from their peers. They often encounter difficulties in many domains of their lives.•The needs of these youth are complex and multi-faceted. It is essential to keep this in mind when working with them. Youth who attend alternative education are often labelled as ‘youth at risk’ or ‘marginalized youth’. These general labels do not do justice to the different facets in the lives of these youth. Having a clearer view of who these youth are, and what characterizes them, is necessary to be able to better tailor alternative education to their needs. Therefore, this scoping literature review investigates different characteristics of youth who attend alternative education. It provides information on demographic characteristics, physical and mental health, social functioning, school trajectories and academic skills in youth attending alternative education. The results show that there is not one distinguishing feature for youth in alternative education, but that many of these youth encounter challenges on many domains. Implications of the findings for prevention of school disengagement, alternative education provision and research are discussed.