Recovery High Schools: Giving Teens a Second Chance

Recovery high schools are helping teen addicts maintain sobriety by focusing on recovery and their studies at the same time.

Recovery high schools are popping up across not only the U.S., but all over the world. Why? Because teens who attend addiction rehab typically have difficulties integrating back into their old high school without relapsing. High school is often a time of experimentation with drugs and alcohol, and saying ‘no’ repeatedly is often too hard of a test on their new found sobriety – which is why high schools based around recovery are becoming a more popular choice for newly sober teens.

What Are Recovery High Schools

The aim of The Association of Recovery Schools is to provide a safe and supportive environment in which teens suffering from addictions are able to obtain a high school education. Recovery high schools offer the necessary academic services required for a secondary school diploma, as well as assistance with recovery. Studies have shown that once a person has completed a programme at an addiction treatment centre, the following 60 days are when they are most likely to relapse. Placing a child back in their old school environment usually means that they are exposed to the same temptations, including their peers, that led to their substance abuse disorder in the first place.

Recovery high schools are specifically tailored to accommodate addicted teens. Their classes are kept small to ensure that every student receives to individual attention, and since the schools will not admit any student who does not wish to stop using, a sense of social bonding is present amongst the students. Classes are usually combined, and individualised self-paced learning