This paper provides a description of the youth population that is disconnected from education and the workforce and describes a set of key considerations for improving outcomes for this population. Programmatic examples that demonstrate how effective supports for youth look in practice are discussed. Three key considerations are examined: (1) Engaging disconnected youth on a trajectory to graduation and beyond requires the use of data to understand student needs and to inform the creation of multiple options matched to these needs; (2) Educational pathways for disconnected youth must ensure that learning is relevant to careers, academically rigorous and adaptive to individual students; and (3) Cross-sector collaboration and resource-sharing is essential to building and sustaining the network of services that support disconnected youth. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for serving youth at the federal, state and local levels. (Contains 6 endnotes.)