Original Research by School Decision on Avera Adolescent Addiction Care Program - 81
The school sits on West 69th Street in Sioux Falls, part of the Sioux Falls School District. The name tells you most of what you need to know: this is a program affiliated with Avera Health, one of the two dominant healthcare systems in the city, designed for adolescents receiving addiction care. The enrollment is extremely small, a single student at the time of reporting. This is a special-purpose, treatment-centered setting rather than a conventional school, and the data gaps throughout reflect that nature.
No state assessment results, multi-year academic trends, graduation rate, civil-rights data, or program offerings were available. For a school of this type, that absence is expected. The grade band spans six through twelve, but the setting is therapeutic, and academic instruction likely operates alongside a clinical program rather than as a standalone curriculum. A parent considering this placement would want to contact the school or district directly to understand how academic credits are handled, how instruction is coordinated with treatment, and how transitions back to a home school are managed. We did not have that information and chose not to guess.
Sioux Falls is South Dakota's largest city, situated at the junction of Interstates 29 and 90. Publicly reported information describes an economy that has shifted from an industrial base toward healthcare, finance, and retail, with Avera Health and Sanford Health standing as the two largest employers. The city has grown rapidly since the late 1970s, with the population more than doubling over that span, and it continues to expand south into Lincoln County. The metro area accounts for roughly a third of the state's population. For a family whose adolescent is entering a treatment program, the city offers a broad healthcare infrastructure, and the school's affiliation with Avera places it within one of the region's most established medical networks.
The housing market in the school's zip code sits above both the state and national benchmarks for typical home values, consistent with the more affluent southwestern corridor of Sioux Falls. Rents are moderate relative to the estimated monthly mortgage payment, making renting the more affordable path for a household that may be relocating temporarily for care. A family in transition might find rental options more practical than buying, especially given current mortgage rates.
The Sioux Falls School District, the parent district, is the largest in South Dakota. Publicly reported figures show the district operating dozens of schools across elementary, middle, and high school levels, with continued enrollment growth driving facility and capacity decisions. A new elementary school, Susan B. Anthony, has opened to help absorb that growth. For a student in the Avera program, the district's size means there are established pathways back into conventional schooling once treatment concludes. A parent may want to ask how credits earned during the program transfer into the home school and what reentry support is available.
This is not a school a family chooses for academics in the usual sense. It is a clinical placement with an academic component, serving a very small number of students at any given time. The right questions are practical: how does instruction work within the treatment schedule, how are credits documented, and what does reentry into a standard school look like. The data on this page cannot answer those questions. The school and the district are the next call.
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