Alternative schools are often a school system's major defense against dropout (Souza, 1999). Today, close to 11,000 public alternative schools or programs are believed to exist in the United States education system (Foley & Pang, 2006) and as many as one million students are currently attending alternative learning programs in the United States (Lehr, Tan, & Ysseldyke, 2009). Still, little research has been devoted to these institutions, or the professionals that work in them.
In this study, we took an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the ways teachers, administrators, and nurses in alternative settings collaborated to support mentally healthy school environments for marginalized student populations as well as how they self-defined mentally healthy school spaces. Drawing on the process of rationale development (Shaver, 1977; Shaver & Strong, 1982) as rooted in social studies education, we explored the perceived purposes of these professionals as they worked with some of the nation’s “riskiest” children. The results of this study are derived from focus groups and one-on-one interviews which were transcribed and coded for theme development. This work offers insight into the rationales of alternative educators, administrators, and nurses and provides a platform for helping professionals undergo the rationale development process.