Recovery High Schools and College Dorms Helping Young People Across the Country

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Today, high school and college students recovering from substance abuse have an alternative instead of going back to their old schools and old drug scares. Recovery high schools and recovery college dorms are slowly appearing across the country in states like Maine and are doing wonders at helping adolescents and college students maintain their sobriety without removing them from a traditional learning environment.

Nearly one in seven teenagers meet the criteria for drug or alcohol abuse in the U.S. Less than 10% actually receive the treatment they need. Those who do get treatment routinely return to the schools they left to recover. Despite traditional public schools receiving a boon in funds for self-harm awareness programs and access to Narcan, many students have a relapse within their first year of recovery.

High schools designed for students in recovery, however, have changed the dynamic. Although still a relatively new concept, they’ve shown much success. One student from Northshore Recovery High School in Beverly, Massachusetts, said, “Without this school, I really don’t believe that I’d be sober right now, or maybe even alive.”

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First Recovery High School Opened in 1987

Schools and school programs that support recovery are of huge importance for young people trying to live their lives drug-free.

The first recovery high school in the U.S., called Sobriety High, opened in 1987 in Minnesota. Back then, it was just one of only a few recovery high schools dotted around the country. Today, there are close to 50 such recovery high schools, and that number is growing. Nevertheless, it’s not enough when considering the number of students who currently need treatment and then further assistance to stay clean. Indeed, currently, the Association of Recovery Schools notes that the majority of campuses are in New England and the mid-Atlantic, with a few in Texas, Florida, Minnesota, and the rest scattered mostly along the west coast.

While the characteristics of each recovery school differ, they’re all focused on the same goal, fueled by empathy for the students. Not only do the teachers give it their all to help these students struggling with recovery and give them unconditional support, but the students also have each other to lean on in a way that is not possible at a traditional school.

Most recovery high schools are publicly funded and small, but the philosophy varies with each campus. Northshore Recovery High, in Beverly, Massachusetts, is funded by a grant through the state’s Department of Public Health. The grant, which was originally set up by former Governor Mitt Romney, allocates a budget of $500,000 a year, and each student is tied to a tuition grant from their district. Parents at Northshore don’t pay a dime, which is true for most recovery schools, but some are privately funded.

Creating a Nurturing Environment on College Campuses

There is a parallel effort taking place on college campuses around the country right now, with colleges providing recovery dorms right on campus, so students can stay on campus, but be in a much safer environment for their situation. Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, offered the first college recovery dorms in 1988. The program spread and over 100 colleges and universities offer official recovery programs, but Rutgers has dorms specifically designed for students in recovery. A recovery dorm is different from the more often seen “dry” dorms, in that students in recovery dorms don’t want to drink or use drugs. Having a recovery community all around them helps them achieve that goal.

These programs work to make sure that students who live there aren’t walking around with a stigma following them around the school. Students who live in the dorm support each other in their recovery and form meaningful personal friendships based on their unique college experiences.

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Some of the benefits to recovery housing at Rutgers are:

• The building is an on-campus residence hall.
• There are no signs identifying it as a different kind of dorm, which protects students’ anonymity.
• The school provides easy access to university resources such as Rutgers Health Services, which provides alcohol & other drug assistance programs, psychiatric services, medical services, on campus 12-Step meetings and recovery counseling.
• Recovery Counselors (RC) advise students on academic and career choices.
• Provide organized activities such as attending sporting events and plays, going on hikes and bike trips, participating in intramurals and other campus events.
• There is even an option for year-round housing.

“Many of these teens are offered their previous drug of choice on their first day back in school,” said Andy Finch. A professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Finch is a leader in the development and research of recovery high schools in the U.S “If you’ve gone to treatment, you’ve learned the dangers of your alcohol and drug use and you’ve made a decision to stop,” he said. “For you to go back as a teenager and be right around those same kids again … it’s going to be that much harder to stay with that decision to stop, if all of your buddies are continuing to use.”

One severe drug problem plaguing the nation right now is the abuse of, and addiction to, opiate drugs, and teens are not excluded from this scourge. An annual survey of high schoolers from eighth to twelfth grade conducted by the National Institute of Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Monitoring the Future actually found that substance use among 23,700+ teens in 2025 have dropped for the fifth consecutive year in a row following a peak during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, concerns remain high, and various watchdogs note that the drug scene is consistently shifting.

Skeptics

Skeptics of recovery schools are against grouping addicted students together or being lenient when a student relapses. But teachers report that they’ve seen positive results when students are offered a welcoming, comforting environment. They say that these students often feel they’ve been left out or ignored in the past, and being given a second chance, instead of just being excluded again, is what those students need most. And being surrounded by a group of friends who face the same challenges only reinforces that feeling of inclusion that they belong. Students encourage each other to stay sober just by being in school together and learning from each other how to avoid triggers or face them when they arise.

The age at which people first try many substances has remained relatively constant, with the age of first use being between 15 and 17 years old. These stats point to high schools and colleges as critical focal points when it comes to addressing the effects of a potentially devastating long-term addiction.

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