Recovery Schools Save Teen Addicts, So Why Aren't They Everywhere?

Teacher Traci Bowermaster arrived at the White Bear Lake Area Learning Center, an alternative high school in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, in early 2001 with a mandate for change. White Bear Lake was designed to help teens who weren't succeeding in traditional school settings. Then-principal Julia Jilek had grown frustrated to see how many of her students still struggled with addiction issues that undermined their education. Those receiving treatment for substance use disorders at a rehabilitation facility or hospital would often return to the school and relapse, falling back into the same troubled patterns and missing more school. It was a "revolving door" of devastation, said Bowermaster, who was brought in to do something about the problem. That was how the White Bear Lake school's Insight Program was born, as a school-within-a-school that helps students continue their recovery while also getting back on track academically.    Fourteen years later, the program has graduated 81 students, while many others participated in the program for a time before transferring back to their home districts. Last month, Insight became one of just four recovery high schools to be fully accredited by the Association of Recovery High Schools, a national network that helps schools connect with one another and stay up to date on best practices. Recovery schools aim to provide a learning atm...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news