The Province of Ontario welcomes the largest population of high school Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SILFE students) in Canada to its secondary schools. Many of these students arrive late in age with significant academic gaps and face many barriers to reaching their post-secondary goals in Canada. Literature has identified inequities in programming and pathways, including inaccessibility to academic programming, discrimination, and a lack of guidance and understanding of the school system, which places them at an inequitable disadvantage over peers. Most SILFE students are placed in Ontario's English Literacy Development (ELD) program, which they must complete before entering mainstream courses. Often, students age out of the high school system before graduating with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma and are left to seek alternate methods of completing their studies. Principals, acting as structural agents in a neoliberal system of education, are tasked with navigating programming to promote students' post-secondary goals, while working within existing systemic structures. Research shows that principals, in the absence of concerted collective consciousness of ELL and equity policies, interpret them through various lenses, thus resulting in misaligned praxis. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of secondary principals responsible for programming for SILFE students as well as SILFE students as they reflect upon their experiences in relation to ELD programming, given their late arrival to Ontario's high school system. The research examines current practices, guidelines, and policies in the Province of Ontario in relation to students with interrupted or limited formal education. The study adopts a constructivist, critical lens, invoking critical theories, including culturally relevant theories, cultural capital, and structural agency theory. Phenomenological qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews from five (n=5) principals of ELD secondary schools in Ontario who are responsible for the programming of SILFE youth. Data presented indicated that these school leaders expressed feeling inadequately prepared to fully enact this role. They called upon a need for increased board support, professional development, embedded community support, funding, and improved policy for late arrival SILFE, ELD students.Literature relating to SILFE students also reveals a gap between students' school experiences and that of their Canadian-born peers, which includes a discrepancy between presented goals and pathway options, and a lack of guidance in the Ontario education system and programming. Qualitative semi-structured interviews of seventeen (n=17) late arrival SILFE, ELD programmed students, supported the existing literature. Data also revealed a misalignment in students' perceptions of equity and their outcomes. Students in the study, although expressing feeling supported at the outset, conversely shared barriers they encountered at school which negatively impacted their post-secondary aspirations.The findings of this study reveal that both principals and students share a need for increased school embedded community support, improved access to academic programming, and age appropriate, alternative or accelerated pathway options. The research further unveils a need for specific, targeted policy that is reflective of the needs of SILFE youth as well as professional development which connects school leaders and faculty to the communities represented in their student populations. [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://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]