<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Recent research shows that recovery schools \u2014 also known as sober schools \u2014 help keep their students off drugs and in class.<\/p>\n
A 2017 study by Vanderbilt University associate professor Andy Finch and other researchers showed that students in recovery schools were significantly more likely than those not in such schools to report being off drugs and alcohol six months after they were first surveyed. And the average reported absences among the 134 recovery school students in the study was lower than the other students.<\/p>\n
Recovery schools first appeared in the late 1970s and now about 40 exist nationwide, including in Minnesota, Texas and Massachusetts. More are likely to open as opioid overdoses continue to climb, said Finch, who is co-founder of the Association of Recovery Schools. \u201cThere has been a gap in adolescent treatment for many, many years,\u201d he said. \u201cThe schools are one of the programs that fill in that gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finch said about 85 percent of the recovery schools are public or have some source of public funding, while some are private campuses or part of treatment centers. New sober schools are planned in New York, Delaware and Oregon, Finch said.<\/p>\n
Starting any school can be complicated, but recovery schools have extra layers of complexity. They have to recruit their students, impose policies specific to them and fund the services they need.<\/p>\n
Advocates and school officials in Delaware had hoped to start a public recovery school this year but couldn\u2019t get the funding they needed, said Don Keister, who helps run Attack Addiction, an advocacy group he co-founded after his son died of a heroin overdose. Keister said a local school district offered to provide the space and the equipment but didn\u2019t have the estimated $2 million needed to cover staff costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a real need,\u201d he said. \u201cIn Delaware, we don\u2019t have any real help for adolescents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nationally, illicit drug use among middle and high school students is at record lows. Still, nearly 1 in 5 10th-graders reported using an illegal drug in the previous 30 days, according to the annual nationwide Monitoring the Future survey.<\/p>\n Like Martinez, many of the Interagency at Queen Anne students go there straight from treatment programs. They say they encounter less temptation than at traditional high schools. \u201cThere, people offer you drugs every day,\u201d said 15-year-old Coltrane Fisher, who regularly used heroin, cocaine and other illegal drugs before coming to the school last March.<\/p>\n The success of recovery high schools is partly due to the fact that the students are among sober peers, as well as teachers and counselors who all support their sobriety.<\/p>\n \u201cUnless these kids get engaged with other young people in recovery, they don\u2019t stand a chance,\u201d said Seth Welch, a recovery support counselor at Interagency Queen Anne. \u201cThis becomes their new community.\u201d<\/p>\n But the going is not always easy.<\/p>\n Teachers at IQA say they believe the environment has been critical to the students\u2019 success, but it is sometimes a challenge to work there. Some students are way behind in their credits, and they don\u2019t always respond well to authority. \u201cThe more we push them, the more they push back,\u201d said one of the teachers, Phyllis Coletta.<\/p>\n Sometimes classwork must be set aside, Coletta said. On a recent school day, one of the newer students was so upset that she spent most of the day crying, clutching a blanket. Coletta hugged her and they took a long walk.<\/p>\n \u201cMental health and sobriety come first,\u201d Coletta said. At first, the campus drew opposition from a group of elementary school parents who feared the students would sell drugs in the neighborhood. But Melinda Leonard, the former vice principal who helped found the school, said those fears have now given way to community support.<\/p>\n \u201cThe campus is the most sober school in the school district,\u201d Leonard said.<\/p>\n Students at the school sign a sobriety pledge and agree to random drug testing. They aren\u2019t kicked out for relapsing, but Welch, the support counselor, works to get them back into treatment if they begin actively using again.<\/p>\n Since the school opened, 21 students have graduated. Welch and the teachers help students plan for the future. Martinez, for example, will graduate this month and is taking community college courses.<\/p>\n On a recent morning, language arts teacher Heidi Lally played a song from the hit musical \u201cDear Evan Hansen\u201d about loneliness and anxiety in high school. She encouraged the students to write about the song in terms of their recovery.<\/p>\n One student wrote, \u201cI\u2019ve had suicidal thoughts and attempts and these lyrics made me remember those times.\u201d Another wrote, \u201cShadows crowd me \/ I\u2019m lost \/ but what\u2019s the cost to end this feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n For Coltrane Fisher, the cost was hitting rock bottom. He began smoking marijuana at age 12 and then moved on to other drugs. Last year, he stopped going to school and didn\u2019t come home for days on end. \u201cNobody grows up thinking you are going to become an addict,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Fisher\u2019s mother, Lisa Luengo, said she didn\u2019t realize the extent of what was happening. \u201cHe derailed quickly and very deeply,\u201d said Luengo, a community college teacher. She sent Fisher to a rehab program in Utah before enrolling him here.<\/p>\n Luengo knows the school is right for her son, even though she believes it is weaker academically than other schools. \u201cIf he was in a different school setting, he would crumble,\u201d she said. \u201cThe school is giving him a future.\u201d<\/p>\n Fisher agreed. \u201cI can accomplish nothing in my life if I am not sober,\u201d he said, \u201cand I would not be sober if not for that school.\u201d<\/p>\n KHN\u2019s coverage of children\u2019s health care issues is supported in part by the Heising-Simons Foundation.<\/em><\/p>\n By\u00a0<\/em>Anna Gorman<\/em><\/a><\/strong>Photos by\u00a0<\/em>Heidi de Marco<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The post Innovative Recovery High School Is Saving The Lives of Teen Age Drug Addicts<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad Gay News<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nInteragency at Queen Anne, which opened in late 2014, is part of a network of alternative public school campuses called Interagency Academy, which also serves homeless and incarcerated youths.<\/p>\n