Data from 17 recovery high schools suggest programs are dynamic and vary in enrollment, fiscal stability, governance, staffing, and organizational structure. Schools struggle with enrollment, funding, lack of primary treatment accessibility, academic rigor, and institutional support. Still, for adolescents having received treatment for substance…

In this study, the authors describe and evaluate the impact of increased access to residential treatment added to traditional drug court services in Orange County, California, with a goal of increasing program retention, successful completion, and graduation rates for a high-risk drug offender population participating in drug court between January…

Objective: To qualitatively explore how treatment-involved youth retrospectively contextualize relapse from substance use. Methods: Fourteen focus groups were conducted with 118 youth (78.3% male; 66.1% Latino) enrolled in participating substance abuse treatment programs (4 young adult and 10 adolescent) throughout Los Angeles County. Transcripts…

This study evaluates the impact of enhanced drug court services in a large county in Southern California. These enhanced services, including specialty counseling groups, educational/employment resources, and increased Residential Treatment (RT) beds, were designed to increase program retention and successful completion (graduation) of drug court.…

The purpose of the study was to explore the potential effectiveness of service learning as a pedagogical technique for providing substance abuse education to human services/social work students. Using a quasi-experimental design, the authors assigned 38 human services undergraduate students to experimental and comparison groups on the basis of…

California's voter-initiated Proposition 36 offers non-violent drug offenders community-based treatment as an alternative to incarceration or probation without treatment. This article reports short-term treatment outcomes subsequent to this major shift in drug policy. Data are from 1104 individuals randomly selected from all Proposition 36…

The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID) among youths active in at least one of five public service systems: mental health (MH), educational services for youth with serious emotional disturbance (SED), child welfare (CW), juvenile justice (JJ), and alcohol and…

The records of 274,709 clients admitted to federally funded drug treatment programs in California between 1975 and early 1981 were examined to determine Chicano drug abuse patterns. The study confirmed the disproportionate use of heroin and inhalants by Chicanos and indicated that phencyclidine was disproportionately used by Chicanos. (NQA)

The influence of program-related constructs on perceived quality of treatment programs was assessed using a latent variable modeling approach and the responses of key personnel from 294 drug treatment facilities in Los Angeles County (California). A clear philosophy and emphasis and greater frequency of services significantly predicted greater…