COMMUNITY HIGH GIVES AID TO TEENS FIGHTING ADDICTION

Parents pay $750 a month to send their children to Community High School, a
small campus in Nashville that serves teens recovering from addiction. They
do so without hard figures to show them how successful such schools are in
helping kids stay sober.

That's partly because Community High's administrators don't keep tabs. Each
child's situation is too different, they say. It's also because, until
recently, no one had figured out for sure how many recovery-focused schools
there were in the United States, let alone conducted any studies on them.

"There are not a lot of studies on what makes a successful post-treatment
program," said Andy Finch, executive director of the not-for-profit
Creative Recovery Communities, which runs Community High. "The bottom line
is, there haven't been enough of these schools to produce any hard-and-fast
studies."

The newly formed Association of Recovery Schools, which Finch helped
organize earlier this month and now heads, hopes to change that.

After a landmark conference in Washington, D.C., a few weeks ago, the
association answered one question: There are 17 high schools nationwide for
recovering addicts, with five more set to open in the next two years. Three
colleges also have programs.

As for what happens next, Finch said a steering committee of eight would
take about six months to put the organization together and determine its
direction.

In the meantime, Finch and Principal Judy Ide have the day-to-day business
of Community High School to attend to. The school runs almost year-round
and started classes July 22. Sixteen students are enrolled, but more start
each week, and Ide said she expected to reach the maximum of 25 soon.

Finch said he could not give parents numeric proof of the school's
effectiveness but he could tell them what the 5-year-old school offers:
classes that have no more than four students each; three doses of group
therapy daily; and a campus that's all but guaranteed to be alcohol- and
drug-free, thanks to random drug testing and a culture that encourages
students to be honest when they have a relapse.

There are also the testimonials of the students, some of whom attend
meetings with teens who are more recently out of rehab.

Tony Trieschman and Megan Binkley, both 18, offered their stories as they
talked to a visitor yesterday in Ide's office.

Where would they be if they hadn't come to Community High?

"Dead," they replied, instantly and almost in unison.

"I've been to more funerals since I've been sober .," said Binkley, who
came to the school in December and has been clean for about six months.

Both said they knew of others who would benefit from Community High's
programs and structure.

Finch said the same. In fact, research that Ide did before the school
opened five years ago led them to propose four schools in Middle Tennessee
with 40 students each.

Funding - and the realization that 40 students were too many for one
building - has kept Community High School from expanding. Last year, there
was a waiting list. Finch says he expects it to grow as more people learn
about the school.

Money is a factor in recovery schools nationwide, Finch said. The private
Community High School is one of only two that do not take some form of
public money. If it did, it would not be able to use the 12-step approach,
which involves acknowledging a higher power. Tuition covers only about half
of the $14,000 yearly cost of educating a student there, and about a third
of students receive scholarships.

Dave Hadden, program director of the StepUP program at Augsburg College in
Minnesota, says recovery-based schools fill a gap between the well-funded
pillars of drug abuse prevention programs and drug treatment centers.

The recovery school concept was pioneered in Minnesota, now home to 10 such
schools. Educators there estimate that only 20% of teens can stay sober
after treatment if they return to their former schools.

"It's a very lonely place for them," Hadden said.

Hadden has high hopes for the new national organization. Mainly, he wants
schools that have been around longer - though only seven are older than
Community High - to pass along lessons they've learned to newer schools. He
wants the schools to begin lobbying for more recognition of their mission
and for more schools to join it.

Finch also said he would like to see that happen.

"I really hope a network of these schools begins and promotes the concept
and is able to advocate for expansion of these schools into every city in
the country that could use one," he said.