The LWV of Beloit supports:

• the commitment by the school district to alternative education.
• an organized, sequential, ongoing, comprehensive plan to provide a variety of alternative methods to educate students at all grade levels who are not achieving their full potential in the traditionally structured classroom.
• (such as comprehensive alternative education plans would not include state-mandated special educational programs for students who have learning disabilities, are emotionally disturbed, or who have handicaps.)
• identification of student needs as criteria for setting up long- and short-range funding priorities within a comprehensive alternative educational plan.
• seeking a variety of sources to finance alternative education programs including community resources, the local tax levy, available grant funds, and state and federal aid.
• the involvement of teachers, administrators, students, parents, and community representatives on an Alternative Education Advisory Committee to determine needs, set priorities, and explore funding alternatives on a continuing basis.
• a system of selecting participates for alternative education programs which includes:

1. use of established criteria to identify student needs,
2. referral by teachers, counselors, or administrators,
3. student application.

 The LWV of Beloit supports:

• efforts to inform every parent and student of the educational alternatives available (such as course selection sheets and booklet and students handbooks).
• policies which allow the school system to respond to constantly disruptive students, not through punitive measures, such as suspension or expulsion, but through positive interventions, even though such children cannot remain in the regular classroom.
• putting a priority on prevention programs at the transition grades of 5th to 6th and 8th to 9th, which appear to put students at greatest risk.
• programs in elementary schools that are targeted primarily for high-risk students and recommends that these and other programs can be expanded as excellent preventative tools. Examples are EXCEL and Sage.

The Beloit League of Women Voters supports preventive services and positive interventions which take into consideration possibilities of limited funding, such as the following:

• Development of more charter schools to meet the diverse and particular needs of students with the use of state money.
• A Truancy Abatement Program in Beloit in cooperation with Juvenile Probation and our local Police Department.
• Placement of suspended children into community service projects.
• Increased involvement of other community businesses, agencies and resources to create and fund programming, such as the YMCA One on One program.
• Meeting with local PTOs and Site Level Committees scheduled to seek their evaluation of existing programs and their suggestions for additional programming.

• (2002 – Boutelle, Fossum, Henderson, Hotchkiss, Kades, Schneider, Thompson)
• (1982 – Driggins, Mueller, McNamee, Seguin, Schoenfield, Hotchkiss)