By Sunayana Prabhu
LINCROFT – State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-11) announced $500,000 earmarked from the state’s fiscal year 2023 budget for K.E.Y.S. Academy to help teenagers battle substance use disorder and find a sober, healthy lifestyle.
Amidst a persistent pandemic and growing concerns over easy access to drugs in neighborhoods, teenagers and families looking to support recovery can find help close to home and at no cost.
Tucked onto the campus of Brookdale Community college in Lincroft, K.E.Y.S. – which stands for Knowledge Empowers Youth Sobriety – Academy is a “recovery high school” established in 2017 and serving students across Monmouth County. K.E.Y.S. follows the public-school curriculum of the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District but refrains from adding its name to the graduation diploma to avoid stigmas associated with recovery schools or rehab centers.
“When our kids graduate, it does not say ‘alternative school’ or ‘K.E.Y.S. Academy.’ It may say Marlboro High or it may say Red Bank Regional High School (on the) diploma because we don’t want any negativity for the kids in the future,” explained Jennise Nieves, assistant director and substance awareness coordinator at K.E.Y.S. Academy.
The school is Nieves’ brainchild; she pitched the idea of a recovery high school to the Matawan school district in 2008. “Six children had lost their lives to substance abuse in my 10 years of working as a student counselor in the Long Branch Public Schools,” Nieves said. “I said we need to do something different for children that really want to live.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines adolescents as those between 10 and 19 years of age. The great majority of adolescents are, therefore, included in the age-based definition of “child,” adopted by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international human rights treaty, as a person under 18 years old. The social and emotional transition for many children in this age is stressful as they experience rapid physical, cognitive and psychosocial growth. This affects how they feel, think, make decisions, and interact with the world around them.
According to the New Jersey Department of Human Services 2020 Substance Abuse Overview of Monmouth County, there were over 700 children admitted to treatment facilities for substance abuse; marijuana was the most cited drug abused, with opiates also mentioned.
Nieves explained that teenagers often relapse on their return from traditional rehab centers or hospitals because they are behind academically and socially and are in the same situations they were before the intervention. “It’s the same kids, people, places and things,” Nieves said. “So, although the children are great, their parents are trying their best, when they come back, drugs are very easily accessible, the stress is there, and then not being in school for some time, they’re behind in academics, they feel embarrassed, they feel depressed.”
Nieves researched options beyond rehabilitation centers and hospital treatment facilities. Her research led to a recovery high school model established by the Association of Recovery Schools (ARS). “In 2008, I heard that there was a thing called recovery high schools, but we didn’t know about it,” she said.
She prepared the paperwork required by the government to secure funding for a recovery high school with free tuition and transportation. On Nov. 1, 2017, the state awarded the school $1 million, she said. In January 2018, enrollment for K.E.Y.S. began.
Nieves said she reached out to schools in Monmouth, Ocean, and Middlesex counties to provide transportation, tuition, and drug testing for their students. “Brookdale said, ‘You have a home here,’” she said, explaining the importance of being on a college campus. “We want our kids to take college classes. We want this to be a very elevated school, so the kids get to see… if I remove myself from the negative environment, there is a possibility for me to make it here.”
Gopal, who chairs the Senate Education Committee and serves on the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, concurred. “Locating the K.E.Y.S. Academy at Brookdale demonstrates to the students that higher education is attainable and presents numerous other opportunities you find on a college campus,” he said.
“The Aberdeen Matawan Regional School District’s K.E.Y.S. Academy has a successful track record of helping adolescents who are trying to turn their lives around,” the senator noted.
Joseph G. Majka, J.D., superintendent of the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District, said K.E.Y.S. Academy provides academics, recovery counseling, mentorship, health and wellness, individualized academic instruction, blended learning, individual, group and family counseling, and incorporates the 12-step recovery philosophy. Based on the model established by ARS, K.E.Y.S. Academy educators identify students facing challenges and struggles upon their return to school after completing inpatient treatment for substance abuse.
Majka thanked Gopal for securing state funds. “Your continued support is greatly appreciated, and we look forward to continuing to work together,” he said.
“This appropriation is the result of working with legislators and leadership in Trenton to fund items that make the state more affordable, fairer and equitable for everyone,” said Gopal.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers who helped secure the $500,000 for K.E.Y.S with Gopal also included Republican assemblywomen Kim Eulner and Marilyn Piperno, who both also represent District 11 in southern Monmouth County. According to a joint press statement issued by Eulner and Piperno, the budget also includes $1.5 million for the Recovery High School Access Project to increase the number of students served at all three of the state’s recovery high schools. In addition to K.E.Y.S., New Jersey has two other recovery high schools that follow the curriculum of the Recovery High School Access Project: The Coastal Preparatory High School in Cape May which opened in 2019, and Raymond J. Lesniak Recovery High School in Roselle which opened in 2014.
Eulner called K.E.Y.S. Academy “a beacon of hope for teens struggling with substance abuse.”
K.E.Y.S. currently enrolls around 15-16 kids a year. While Nieves was grateful for the funding provided, she said, “$500,000 is not enough at all, because that’s paying for teacher salary. We provide the tuition and the transportation. The more funding, I have, the more I’m able to provide because, again, everything is for free.”
She said due to grant constraints, 15 is the maximum number of students the school can enroll each year; this year they accommodated 16. “I have kids all the way from Bayville from Manchester, Woodbridge, Rahway, Hazlet. They come to us from everywhere.”
Students can be referred by the school substance awareness coordinator, parents, a school counselor, a treatment facility, and family courts. The only requirement for eligibility, Nieves said, is that “the student is committed to the program and their school district supports us.”
If you, a family member, or friend are in need, substance use disorder treatment options can be found at reachnj.gov or 844-REACHNJ (732-2465).
The article originally appeared in the July 21 – 28, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
