Some students were expelled, others are behind academically, but students at Hope Academy in Indianapolis all have one thing in common: a serious dependence on drugs, alcohol or both.
The charter school, founded 15 years ago, is moving to the southside, 3919 Madison Avenue. The school was located at Community Hospital North, near the Fairbanks addiction treatment center in Castleton, on the far northside.
Next month, Hope Academy, the only substance abuse recovery high school in Indiana, will move to the southside near the University of Indianapolis, making the commute easier for Johnson County students.
Already, about five local students attend the school, which has between 30 and 40 students, said Rachelle Gardner, the school’s chief operating officer. With the move, she expects that number will go up.
There were two reasons for the move, she said.
“One of the reasons, our partnership with Fairbanks will be dissolved as of June 30,” Gardner said. “The other reason is we’re located on a hospital campus now and it’s hard for people to see it as a school as opposed to a treatment program.
Being in our own building on a college campus, we can be our own entity, so they see it’s not necessarily a treatment program and it takes the stigma away from it. It’s an education environment that’s more conducive to (treating) substance abuse.”
Most Hope students are in their junior or senior years of high school, and although they are required to complete at least a semester, most choose to stay until they attain their high school diplomas, she said.
Most of the students struggle with a dependence on alcohol or marijuana, Gardner said.
“Because we know it’s a chronic disease, return to use may very well happen. We work with recovery peers and coaches to create an individual plan for students. That might mean attending more (Alcoholics Anonymous) or 12-step meetings, or meeting more times with therapists. We may require them to go into treatment. We will look at each student individually. If they use or relapse on Oxycontin, we will send them to the (Emergency Room) to make sure they’re safe,” Gardner said.
“We know that return to use can happen. Kids come to us straight from expulsion from their home school and might not have clean time. Some might have six months, a year, maybe longer. But the goal is to lengthen the time of sobriety. We know after 60 to 90 days of continued abstinence, the brain starts working, and they can have academic success.”
Parents searching for hope and referrals are the two most common ways students end up at the school, which drug tests students at least twice a month. And it works.
The average student goes from attending school 25% to 30% of the time at their home schools, to 92% to 95% of the time at Hope Academy. Prior to attending the alternative school, students earned one to three credits a semester, compared to the six to seven credits they earn each semester at Hope Academy, she said.
Hope Academy will open Aug. 10 on the southside.
