VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A hybrid learning model for teens recovering from substance abuse could be approved by the end of the month that would benefit school students in the five Southside cities. Known as a recovery school, Harbor Hope Center would combine a standard high school education with counseling and resources. Currently, Chesterfield Recovery Academy is the only recovery school operating in the Commonwealth. The General Assembly approved a total of $1.5 million to be shared evenly by proposed recovery schools in Hampton Roads and Loudoun County. Chief Virginia Beach School Board proponent Carolyn Weems said other funding sources are in place, including opioid abatement funds and money from a settlement with JUUL, and grants will be sought. The program will not be a form of punishment. "A child needs to want to go here," Weems told WAVY prior to Tuesday night's board meeting. "They can be referred here by a doctor or by a counselor, by themselves or by a parent. It's a team decision." Weems said her daughter Caitlyn, who died 10 years ago of a heroin overdose that began as prescription painkillers for sports injuries, could have benefited from Harbor Hope Center. "She was very isolated," Weems said. "The stigma, the shame that she went through because she knew she wasn't to be doing certain things, but her body had to have it by that point or she couldn't function." The recovery school would serve Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Suffolk and Portsmouth schools. It would lean heavily on virtual learning, occupy the old Great Bridge Middle School in Chesapeake, and ideally have an enrollment of about two dozen students. Weems said getting the recovery specialists will be a major task. "They would have to be an educated expert in the field, specifically of addiction and substance abuse disorder, and adolescence and the teenage brain," she said. Former Police Chief Jim Cervera spoke in support of Harbor Hope Center, saying it would help lift a burden from hospitals, the courts and police. "The cops are doing a fantastic job every day and what they do. Wouldn't it be interesting if we could stop it before it happens," Cervera said. The Virginia Beach School Board will vote on Harbor Hope Center Jan. 28, and the other four Southside school divisions have a deadline of Jan. 31. Weems said even if some of the divisions reject it, the project could still move forward. The goal is to get it up and running by this summer.