Currently, one third of teachers in the United States were trained by alternate route programs (Constantine et al., 2009). Although alternate routes programs fill a need within the education landscape, it is not enough to get more teachers into classrooms faster. Teachers must be prepared to address the needs of their students. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the skills teachers need to be effective. With the urgency to address the shortage of special education teachers and the alternate certification programs created to address this need, research is necessary to inform the traditional and alternate special education teacher preparation programs (Brownell, Ross, Colon & McCallum, 2005). Relay Graduate School of Education is an alternate certification K-12th grade teacher preparation program situated in New York City. As an alternate certification teacher preparation program, Relay graduate students must solidify a teaching position within a New York City Department of Education school or a charter school located within New York City, and continue teaching in a school while enrolled at Relay. A majority of Relay graduate students enter the program as early career teachers with three years or less of experience. Within the literature review, I examined the results of prior studies of general and special education traditional and alternate route teacher preparation programs use of culturally responsive instruction. This study examined the experiences of early career special education teachers enrolled at Relay and their preparedness to address the academic and social emotional needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities using culturally responsive teaching practices. To understand the experiences of teachers, I utilized a qualitative approach to examine the narratives of five teachers using a semi-structured interview protocol. The participants were employed as special education teachers of 6th-12th grade students in New York City during the 2016-2017 school year. During that school year, two of the participants taught at charter schools and three of the participants taught at traditional public schools.After analyzing participants' responses, three meaning units were identified around teacher experiences in the classroom and in the program: (1) influences of school context, (2) competencies and (3) connections and disconnections. Within the latter two meaning units, subthemes also emerged. Within the meaning unit of competencies, participants' responses reflected three additional subthemes: (1) academic competencies (2) classroom competencies and (3) social emotional competencies. Within the meaning unit of connections and disconnections, three subthemes were identified: (1) community connections (2) disconnections and (3) difficult situations. Participants described being academically prepared to address their students' needs. They described utilizing classroom competencies, such as relationship building skills and specific special education competencies, such as assessing students reading abilities. Participants also described including students' cultures in their lessons to bridge gaps between students' understanding and the content. In contrast to how some culturally responsive teaching practices were evident in participants' instruction, participants were unable to identify specific details they learned to help them address the social emotional needs of their students. One participant explicitly stated she was not prepared to address the needs of her students at her school. This could be attributed to her school setting, because she taught in an alternative school. While this participant explicitly stated she was not prepared to address the needs of her students, responses from all participants suggested a foundational knowledge of how to address the social and emotional needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students may indicate a gap in the curriculum at Relay Graduate School of Education and other teacher preparation programs. Special education teachers may benefit from instruction on how to address the social emotional needs of their students. Social emotional needs may affect a student academically (Durlak et al., 2011). Without knowledge on the impact of a students' social emotional needs, a teacher may not effectively, address the academic needs of his/her students and thus may not meet the needs of the whole learner. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]