Two out of three students who stay at least 90 days at Seattle Public Schools' Interagency Recovery Campus earn or work toward a high school diploma. Among those whose recovery status is known, 53% maintain sobriety for over a year.
Those numbers, drawn from a King County data brief covering 190 students from 2015 to 2025, now carry a national stamp. The Association of Recovery Schools (ARS) has accredited the Queen Anne campus, making it one of 14 accredited recovery high schools in the country and the only public one in Washington state, Seattle Public Schools announced Tuesday, Oct. 13.
"To keep it straightforward, if it weren't for the school, I'd probably be dead," one student said in the district's announcement. "I was immersed in a community that was doing the work to stay sober … and I was taught how to do that."
The campus, at 1431 2nd Ave. N., opened in 2014 as a partnership between SPS and the King County Behavioral Health and Recovery Division (BHRD). King County provided $250,000 in startup funds. The two agencies still split costs: SPS pays for academics, and King County funds behavioral health services.
The program was created after a 2013 Washington Department of Social and Human Services report found only 25% of young people in publicly funded substance use disorder treatment graduated from high school. For youth with co-occurring mental health disorders, that rate dropped to 17%.
Students in grades 9–12 choose to attend. The school day runs from 9 a.m. to 2:05 p.m. and combines classroom instruction with individualized recovery plans, on-site substance use counseling and sober support groups. After school, the campus partners with BRIDGES: Seattle Alternative Peer Group for sober activities and 12-step meetings.
The student body is small, averaging 37 students per year. It serves a high-need population.
Thirty-five percent of Recovery Campus students had Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), compared with 18% across the district. Fifteen percent received McKinney-Vento services for students experiencing homelessness, compared with 4% districtwide. Recovery status was unknown for about one in five students in the 2015–2025 cohort, according to the King County brief.
The ARS accreditation, granted by the Minneapolis-based nonprofit, recognizes that the program meets national standards for school-based recovery support. Seth Welch, identified in the King County brief as the campus substance use counselor and social worker, helped prepare the program for the accreditation review.
No statement from SPS Superintendent Ben Shuldiner or Seattle School Board directors about the accreditation appeared in public records as of publication, and the district's announcement was unsigned.
Students from outside the district can attend through interdistrict transfer. Families can reach outreach coordinator Jessica Levy at [email protected] for enrollment information, according to the program's website.
