FORT KENT, Maine — A first-of-its-kind school to help students recover successfully from addiction will open this fall in Aroostook County.
The Upper St. John Valley Recovery High School is slated to open in August at the University of Maine at Fort Kent.
The facility will work with students who have already started the recovery process and provide an alternative to going back to their old high school. It will be not only Maine’s first recovery high school, but also the first in the United States with a residential component.
Nearly all adolescents returning to their former schools after receiving treatment are offered drugs on their first day back, a study from the National Institute of Health found. That surprised Peter Caron, coordinator of innovative practice and community outreach for the Valley Unified Education Service Center.
The school aims to help mitigate that, he told guests Friday at a university presentation.
“They need a soft landing spot so they can progress from those very early and vulnerable stages of recovery to the point of sustainable recovery,” Caron said.
News of the school broke last April, when the Maine Recovery Council funded the recovery school pilot program with a $616,000 award to MSAD 27, the district that serves the Fort Kent area.
The program will not be a residential treatment center or a rehab center, but an actual school that will focus mostly on students from the St. John Valley and elsewhere in Aroostook County who are already in recovery.
“We think The County is in dire need of a service like this,” he said, “However, if we have someone from a zip code outside Aroostook County whose parents were willing to bring them here on Sunday night and pick them up on Friday afternoon, we wouldn’t turn them away.”
Preliminary data in Maine from January 2025 to November 2025 shows 342 suspected or confirmed overdose deaths, which is down approximately 24% from 2024 when the state saw 450 confirmed or suspected overdose deaths.
There are currently six recovery high schools throughout New England.
Caron said the $616,000 grant will cover 75% of operating costs for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years. The remainder will come from the students’ sending school district. Districts will pay a smaller amount for students who are just attending during the school day compared to students staying for the residency. He said sending schools will be sent quarterly bills depending on the number of students, and if they will be residential. There will be no direct costs for the families of students.
The Fort Kent facility will work with teens in grades 9 to 12 who are dealing with substance use disorder and any co-occurring disorders. They will undergo a goal-oriented recovery process while earning their high school diplomas, and will live in Powell Hall in dormitories separate from the university’s students, Caron said.
The staff will include a certified recovery counselor, a certified teacher and educational technician, and “dorm parents” who are also trained recovery coaches. The school will have up to eight in-residence students and up to six students who just attend during the school day, Caron said.
Students will take classes at the Haenssler House and eat at the Nowland Dining Hall, and get an hour of daily physical activity at the UMFK sports complex.
The program will also involve collaboration with several other community organizations such as Aroostook County Action Program, Aroostook Mental Health Services Inc. and the Hope & Justice Project. Fish River Rural Health will help students with medical appointments, dental and optometrical needs, according to Caron.
Northern Maine Medical Center and Houlton Regional Hospital, because they now share an administration, will provide behavioral health and emergency medical services. The Department of Corrections’ Juvenile Community Corrections officers will also provide case management.
Now, Caron and others are working to secure additional funding for the school. Applicants for the “dorm parent” position, for example, will be offered a package that is valued at $48,000, and part of this value includes free room and board and a 36-week meal plan. It also includes summer residency at six credit hours of tuition waivers.
The high school is vital not only for the students, but for the greater St. John Valley community, Caron said. The long-term success of the program depends on what happens during this early stage.
“This is a ‘use it or lose it’ proposition,” he said. “If we don’t succeed in drawing students and parents to this life-changing opportunity, we will lose the funding. We won’t get it back. It will go to other areas of Maine.”
