Posted on 08/10/2003 7:45:51 AM PDT by wallcrawlr
Students struggling with drug and alcohol addictions may have a new way to avoid peer pressure if Dakota County's first charter school opens as hoped next year.
The new Sobriety High School would be one of a growing number of programs in Minnesota and the nation designed for students recovering from drug or alcohol abuse. Supporters say they can save lives, keeping recovering teens away from the friends they partied with at their old schools and the reputations they're trying to shed.
"Sending a kid back to school where there's a bunch of using friends is like sending a drunk back to a bar," said Jim Czarniecki, chief executive of Maplewood-based Sobriety High, one of the first recovery schools in the nation.
The 14-year-old school runs campuses in Edina and Maplewood. It plans to transform itself from a private program to a charter sponsored by Dakota County's Intermediate School District 917, which provides special education and other services to south suburban students.
Charters are publicly funded schools that don't charge tuition and run largely free of traditional district control. The Dakota County campus, expected in fall 2004, and the other sites would be part of a single charter.
Sobriety High currently receives roughly a third of its funding from the state, about $5,200 per student. Becoming a charter school would bring in about $7,500 per student in state money, and allow it to open the third campus in Dakota County.
That's vital, Czarniecki said.
About 20 programs like Sobriety High now operate nationwide, including eight in Minnesota. Recovery schools here can accommodate only a few hundred students, and Sobriety High schools almost always have waiting lists, especially for the upper grades. A Dakota County campus would allow space for as many as 48 more students.
About 5,250 people under 17 were treated for addiction in Minnesota in 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Another 3,650 completing substance abuse treatment were between 18 and 20 years old. Some recovery schools accept students up to 20 years old. About 77 percent of teens in recovery relapse at least once in the first year they return to school, University of Minnesota researcher Ken Winters found in a 2000 study.
Intermediate School District 917 and Sobriety High board members are negotiating the details of a charter school agreement, said Superintendent Bill Larson. Then they must find a site far enough from existing high schools to keep students in relative isolation but close enough to public transportation to be convenient. The district is expected to finalize the deal Aug. 19.
Then Sobriety High will need to raise money: between $250,000 and $300,000 to construct the school and more to fill in the gap between state and federal funding that charter schools receive and the additional $200,000 to $250,000 costs to run the school.
Removing students from the typical high school environment — in which some two-thirds of seniors said they drank alcohol at least once, according to the 2001 Minnesota Student Survey — and placing them in a high school with no more than 48 students, all who vow to stay sober or leave, can turn lives around, Czarniecki said. School data shows about three in four Sobriety High students have stuck with the program the past five years, even though they're kicked out if they relapse more than once.
"Students teach each other: how to have sober fun, how to live in sobriety," he said. "Going through treatment is like getting a shiny new toolbox … but Sobriety High shows students how to use the tools."
But those tools should include an on-site therapist, said Paul Grehl, program coordinator for the Gateway for Recovering Youth program, a St. Paul Schools program for addicts.
Without a trained counselor, students' recovery could be compromised, said Grehl, a licensed chemical-dependency therapist. He fears teachers who aren't licensed counselors won't recognize signs of relapses or will unintentionally enable their students. He believes that could lead to lawsuits if a student relapses and dies while under the influence.
"If your school ends up enabling kids, you have mayhem," he said.
Sobriety High bills itself as a safe haven for students, not as a treatment program. Students are required to work with a sobriety program such as Alcoholics Anonymous, but no such program is offered in the school, Czarniecki said.
Recovery programs like Sobriety High often say that so many teens have started with their own counselors or programs already that a school counselor would be superfluous, said Andrew Finch, director of the nascent Association of Recovery Schools. Public programs are also wary of promoting 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous because they are faith-based.
Having a trained counselor in the school can certainly benefit students, said Finch, who started a program in Tennessee with a counselor on staff. The schools in Finch's association all run their programs differently, and so far there isn't hard data comparing their methods.
Dakota County officials and educators say they're delighted by the possibility, and even Sobriety High critics like Grehl agree that it can be a better option for students than a regular public high school.
"I think it gives kids who have been through treatment an option for staying sober," said Dave Rooney, director of Dakota County community services, which assists chemically dependent teens. "We're pleased."
Send them to a new school where there are exclusively kids who know how to score. Makes sense, somehow.
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