Giving Compass' Take:

• TIME magazine takes a look inside of Seattle's specialized "recovery" high schools aimed at giving youths an education while battling addiction disorders.

• Could this model be replicated in other districts with high opioid addiction rates? What role could nonprofits play in supporting such schools?

• Read and learn more about specialized recovery schools. 

It’s the last class period of the day. The students lean back on couches and take turns describing the most important day of their lives: the day they became sober.

For Marques Martinez, that date was Nov. 15, 2016. Until then, he had used OxyContin, Xanax and nearly every other drug he could get his hands on, he said. He had been suspended from school for selling drugs. “I knew what I was doing was bad,” he said. “But I didn’t think there was another way.”

Two years ago, Martinez’s parents sent him to an in-patient treatment center and then enrolled him in this unusual high school, Interagency at Queen Anne, or IQA. Martinez, 17, learned about the school from an alumnus and knew it might be his last option. He was skeptical at first, but he knew one thing immediately: “I felt safe here.”

Read the full article about specialized "recovery" high schools by Anna Gorman at TIME.