LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Recovery Center of Kentucky held a ribbon cutting and open house for its newest Aspire Day School location in Lexington. The organization’s schools specialize in helping students who are struggling in the classroom or at home.

What You Need To Know

  • The Aspire Day School prioritizes mental health and integrates that with education. Staff members work with children who have behavior disorders and mental health issues

  • It is a temporary facility with the goal of preparing students with coping skills to regulate their emotions and behavior for when they go back to their traditional schools

  • Every day, students have three hours of academic education and another three hours of group therapy sessions. The students also have individual therapy sessions once a week and bi-weekly family therapy sessions

  • Lexington's location is the Recovery Center of Kentucky's third Aspire Day School in the state. There are two other schools in Louisville and Radcliff

Aspire Day School serves as a temporary facility for students with behavior disorders such as oppositional defiance disorder and mental health issues like depression.

Staff members work with students daily to help them develop coping skills to manage those issues so that they can go back to traditional schools and thrive.

“Sometimes the kids are struggling with so many things that that they’re not able to focus so if we’re working on the mental health first then they’re able to sit down in the classroom and get their work done,” said Leslie Wells, an elementary-age teacher at the school.

Students work with their teachers and behavior interventionists every day. They also have individual therapy sessions once a week and family therapy sessions bi-weekly with a licensed mental health care provider.

“We offer 50% therapy and then 50% education to our students so three hours of therapeutic group and three hours of education (a day),” said Kim Castle, the Recovery Center of USA’s Kentucky clinical director.

Children with disruptive behavior disorder who attended short-term day treatment programs that use best-practice treatment strategies showed significant improvement with their behavior at home, according to research in the National Library of Medicine.

This is the third Aspire Day School in Kentucky. The other two are in Louisville and Radcliff. The Louisville location was the first and opened its doors in July 2022.

The school accepts Medicaid to help cover the costs for children to attend, but won’t deny a child who isn’t covered. The schools have a self-pay option.

For more information about the school, check their website.

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