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Norfolk joins regional proposal for Harbor Hope recovery school; board to vote Jan. 22
Summary
District staff described Harbor Hope Center, a regional recovery school for students with substance use disorders, to be located in Chesapeake with fiscal authority under Virginia Beach; the program would serve five Tidewater divisions and is planned to start in fall with support from Virginia opioid abatement funds.
Norfolk Public Schools presented a regional proposal Jan. 8 to participate in Harbor Hope Center, a school-of-choice recovery program for students with substance use disorders in the south-side Tidewater region.
Dr. Michael Cataldo (presentation lead) said the center would be located in Chesapeake under Virginia Beach fiscal authority and would serve students from Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. The program is designed as a full-day, structured school of choice that combines academic programming (including Imagine Learning's state-approved multi-division online platform and credit-recovery options) with clinical supports: a clinical coordinator, a licensed clinician, and a peer recovery specialist. Students would remain enrolled in their home schools for records, disciplinary, IEP/504 and testing purposes while attending Harbor Hope.
Services described: individualized academic pathways (asynchronous online MOP courses and credit recovery), 1'0 weekly clinical sessions (30 minutes each) with licensed staff, daily group psychoeducation, peer recovery specialist support and family wraparound referrals to local recovery and mental-health partners. The draft program includes mandatory random drug testing as a condition of participation, with protocols to support students who relapse.
Funding and next steps: Cataldo said the program's startup and operational funding was expected to draw from local opioid-abatement resources (city-level allocations), and the board would be asked to approve Norfolk's participation at the board's Jan. 22 business meeting. Cataldo and staff said transportation would be provided and that the center will operate on a modified year-round calendar with some summer virtual supports.
Why it matters: The program offers a targeted academic and clinical pathway for students with substance use disorders regionally; a collaborative model could spread costs and provide services not feasible for a single division alone.
Ending: Board members asked about the data sources used to justify staffing and the program's partnerships with community behavioral-health providers; staff said regional discipline and health-agency consultations informed the proposal and that community service-board partnerships are planned.
