When an recovering drug addict walks out of the rehab facility, the last place that he or she will go is the bar where the alcohol was purchased or the street where the drug transactions were made. However, when a teen walks out of the rehab facility, where are they sent? They are sent to their old academic environment because the best thing for them is to go to school and finish their high school classes. When a parent sends their recovering teen back to the academic setting, they are literally throwing them to the wolves. More times than not, school is where they purchased their drugs.
There may be students who return to their former academic environment and remain sober and are successful in continuing their recovery. However, the return-to-use rate is very high for adolescents and young adults. One solution to addressing this problem is a recovery school.
Recovery High Schools, Sober High Schools, or Rehab High Schools feature a high school curriculum side-by-side with a recovery support program and also a typical 12-step model of recovery. Academic services and assistance with recovery and continuing care is given daily. The Recovery School does not operate as a treatment center but it exists as an ongoing recovery and rehab support. The Recovery School requires that the students enrolled in the program be actively working through their recovery. The academic courses will give the students credit towards a high school or a college degree.
The needs of students in crisis have access to therapeutic services and licensed counselors and staff in these recovery schools. Recovery Schools have been around since the late 1970s. The first collegiate recovery community was started at Brown University in 1977. The first Recovery High School started in 1987 in the Twin Cities. There are approximately 15 to 18 collegiate recovery communities and 3 to 35 recovery high schools in various states. Recovery schools provide recovering addict students an opportunity to be educated in a safe, supportive environment that is empowered with embedded recovery support and guidance.
