Adriana first felt pressured to smoke marijuana to fit in at school. She had been bullied, the teen said, and smoking helped her numb the pain.
But as the bullying continued, Adriana kept getting caught with marijuana. Her school didn’t know how to handle the situation, the teen said, and sent her to an isolated room as punishment.
“I felt unimportant and even dehumanized at times,” the teen said in a recent speech, reflecting on the experience. “I felt like I was just a problem and not a person. I felt hopeless.”
That was just before Adriana’s mom, who is a therapist, began researching schools online and found one with ‘hope’ in its name.
The school was Hope Academy, a small, tuition-free charter school that specializes in teaching students who are recovering from substance use disorder.
Hope Academy’s curriculum offers all of the academic courses required to graduate high school. But students also have access to recovery coaching and occupational therapy during school.
If you go
Celebrate with Hope Academy
The school invites the community to celebrate Hope Academy’s six graduating seniors this May.
🗓️ 7 p.m. Friday, May 15
📍 Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center at the University of Indianapolis, 1230 Greyhound Lane
It’s an uncommon model of education that’s only offered in a couple dozen similar high schools across the country. Now, in its 20th year, Hope Academy is offering more support to students through a new family engagement and outpatient treatment center.
Run in partnership with The Willow Center, the academy’s new Family Engagement Center offers clinical services, treatment planning and family education in a dedicated space attached to the school.
The school has made a world of difference already to Adriana, who says Hope Academy helped her find her purpose. (Mirror Indy is identifying Adriana and other students in this story by their first names only. School leaders say there’s still a stigma attached to talking about substance use disorder, and students have lost opportunities in the past after sharing their stories publicly.)
As a senior, Adriana has been sober for nearly two years. She’s been accepted to a beauty school, an Aveda Institute, and says she wants to study sound therapy and esthetics to help others feel good in their own skin, just like she has learned to do herself.
“This school changed my life,” Adriana told Mirror Indy. “I feel like I’m here for a reason.”
Recovery on the south side
Hope Academy is Indianapolis’ first and only accredited recovery high school — a designation given to schools based on their ability to educate and support students recovering from substance use disorder.
The school launched in 2006 as one of the city’s first charter schools. It opened in partnership with the Fairbanks Recovery Center in its own space on the Community Hospital North campus near Castleton. The academy moved to the southeast side in 2020.
The newer space, nestled in a shopping center just west of the University of Indianapolis, provided more room to work with students.
Its classrooms look a lot like those in other schools. There’s colorful art on the walls and lockers assigned to students. Students study core math, science and social studies classes, but the environment is smaller. The school enrolls about 40 students.
Students find the school in different ways. Sometimes parents, like Adriana’s mom, learn about Hope Academy through their own research. Educators in other schools also make referrals.
Executive Director Rachelle Gardner meets with students before they enroll to make sure the school will be a good fit. Hope Academy accepts students from nine counties across the Indy metro area.
“I’m not really interviewing them,” Gardner said. “I just want to understand them. I want them to feel comfortable.”
Creating a ‘truly good environment’
Once admitted, students spend time in a transition program that helps students acclimate to a new school culture. Counselors assess where students are academically and can help students catch up on credits and plan for the future beyond high school.
Every student is assigned a recovery coach. Teens attend a group recovery wellness class three times a week. And, an onsite occupational therapist works with students in their classes and in one-on-one meetings.
Hope Academy also offers an afterschool program with support group activities and off-campus excursions, such as bowling or an escape room visit. The school also offers a three-week summer program where students visit museums, tour colleges and participate in community service projects.
The goal is to help teens learn how to have fun away from the temptations that trigger addiction.
“It’s teaching them to have fun, with adults,” Gardner said, “to be a little different than who they normally are, maybe to take some of those masks off and not be so serious.”
The efforts have helped cultivate a climate where students say they want to go to school.
Hope Academy’s attendance rate hovers around 92%. Gardner said that’s much higher than students’ average attendance before coming to Hope Academy.
Students like Christopher say what makes Hope Academy different is its teachers. With the school’s small size, educators are able to devote personalized time to students. They’re also trained on addiction recovery and weave lessons about identity and acceptance into their assignments.
“It’s a really, truly good environment,” Christopher said.
Expanding access to clinical care
As a charter school, Hope Academy is coming up on renewal this fall. It comes during a period of change as IPS and nearby charter schools undergo structural reforms. However, IPS leaders have signaled support for Hope Academy.
Earlier this year, IPS commissioners unanimously approved a continuation of the district’s relationship with the specialized recovery school. As an innovation charter school, Hope Academy’s team enrolls students referred from IPS and shares academic data with the district.
“This is a wonderful example of the way we are innovative in the district and doing work that is not being done everywhere,” IPS Board President Hope Duke Star said during the panel’s December meeting.
Meanwhile, Hope Academy administrators are focused on growing their support for families. The school has recently added a family engagement specialist to its team. School leaders also say they want to increase efforts to connect families to community resources, such as support for food insecurity, housing needs and financial literacy.
And, Hope Academy is starting its new partnership with The Willow Center, an outpatient behavioral health provider based out of Hendricks County. As part of a new pilot program,
Hope Academy is providing space on its campus for clinical services run by The Willow Center.
Hope Academy administrators say the partnership breaks down barriers to critical resources that help teens maintain their sobriety. For example, students and their families will no longer have to arrange transportation separate from school to see a clinician.
The center has seen six Hope Academy students so far. Leaders envision opening services to the general public in future phases.
‘Mends the wounds’
For Lia, a junior, Hope Academy has become a refuge from the severe bullying the teen said she experienced in her former school.
The teachers have helped her feel comfortable in her skin. Lia said she’s also come to view other Hope Academy students as role models.
During a recent recovery wellness class, Lia recounted a time when she felt the urge to smoke at a sleepover. Adriana was there and talked her out of it. The teen knew what it felt like to give up smoking and told Lia she could help her learn how to have fun sober, too.
It was a dramatic difference from the large high school she used to attend. Though bullying — especially through social media — is still hard to ignore, Lia said she’s now found a school where she feels welcome.
“If we come to a place like this, it doesn’t just go away,” Lia said, “but it mends the wounds.”
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.
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