“Substance Use in Harris County, Texas,” released by Harris County Public Health last month, noted the substance-involved death rate among Harris County youth increased by 340% during that five-year period. Among 15- to 19-year-olds, the increase was 544.3%.
Confronting statistics like these is one of the central missions of Fortis Academy, part of the Harris County Department of Education and the first public recovery high school in the Houston area.
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Located west of Houston’s Greenspoint neighborhood, Fortis Academy began instruction in the 2017-18 school year.
Harris County Department of Education Superintendent James Colbert championed the need for this approach after a seeing an opportunity to make use of a vacant department facility. Watching family members suffer from addiction and even face jail time made the issue a personal one.
“There’s only 40 recovery high schools in the United States, and only about 10 of them are public,” Colbert said. “The last time I checked, poor kids get high too. Their parents can’t afford $900 a month to send them to a private school.”
Researchers at Vanderbilt University found that recovery high schools had beneficial effects, including increasing abstinence from drug use and lowering rates of chronic absenteeism.
Treating addiction holistically
Students who are struggling with addiction are identified and referred to Fortis Academy by their home school districts. Participating districts budget for spots at Fortis, which range from $6,800 to $7,500 per seat.
“What we’re trying to tell districts is the typical kid that comes to Fortis is a student who has been to an alternative school several times for being high,” Colbert said. “This is where people come to get loved and get sober. We’re trying to make sobriety to be painless and fun because pain is what causes kids to use and abuse. But we also need students that want to get help.”
A 2022 report by the Kinder Institute’s Houston Education Research Consortium found that mental health care was one of the biggest unmet needs for students in Houston ISD. Substance abuse is a potential consequence. Fortis Academy students have access to counseling and group therapy and are regularly tested for drugs.
“A lot of our students have experienced some type of trauma,” Fortis Academy Principal Travita Godfrey said. “As part of the assessment when they get here, we find out about their adverse childhood experiences. We do an assessment on that, and create a treatment plan that’s personalized.”
Small class sizes are a priority at Fortis Academy, and there is a maximum of 34 seats at the school. Once students are enrolled, they complete their high school education there and meet the credit requirements to graduate from their original high school.
Prescription drugs and the fentanyl threat
According to a 2024 report by the National Institutes of Health, drug and alcohol use declined among high school students surveyed in the 10th and 12th grades. Among 10th-grade students, 26.1% reported drinking alcohol in the past year, and 41.7% of 12th-grade students reported doing so. For substances other than marijuana, including cocaine, heroin and prescription drugs, 4.4% of 10th graders and 6.5% of 12th graders reported use in the past year
The Texas School Survey, conducted by Texas Health and Human Services, includes every high school grade. Last year in Region 6, which includes Harris County, 42.5% of students reported using alcohol, and 13.75% of students reported prescription drug abuse. In the past school year, 22.8% of students reported drinking alcohol, and 6.9% of students reported prescription drug abuse.
Harris County Public Health’s report indicated that 16% of students in Houston misuse prescription pain medication, which is 3.8% higher than the national average.
Godfrey said abuse of prescription drugs represents the biggest threat to youth, as they are often mixed with another substance. In 2024, 5 out of 10 counterfeit prescription pills were laced with a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, according to a public safety alert by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In Harris County, fentanyl was the leading cause of substance-involved health care facility visits and substance-involved deaths from 2018-2022.
“Pills are so widely and readily available, and they’re easy to hide,” Godfrey said. “Parents can’t see them or smell them. In our testing, we see fentanyl, and when pills are being mixed with other substances they spell fatality. To me, that is the No. 1 issue.”
The path to postsecondary success
Research shows a clear link between unemployment and substance abuse. Part of Fortis Academy’s curriculum includes career and technical education (CTE). The Houston Education Research Consortium found that nearly 60% of Houston-area high school graduates who participated in CTE programs enrolled in college within six years of high school graduation. About 20% of CTE graduates who enrolled in two-year institutions attained associate degrees or postsecondary professional certifications, and 57% of those who enrolled in four-year institutions attained bachelor’s degrees.
To ease students into the campus, a culinary arts program is offered, which Colbert referred to as the “golden thread” of Fortis Academy. While encouraging students to pursue four-year universities for an undergraduate education, the school provides programs for them to become certified food handlers, food managers or nursing assistants.
“What makes this campus really unique is the culinary arts aspect,” Colbert said. “We built a $700,000 kitchen where our kids can learn to be chefs. I don’t think you can find that anywhere else in the United States. It’s not that we aspire for them to be chefs. We aspire for them to have a transition into sobriety, while learning something and having fun.”
