Adopted kids harmed in for-profit residential programs

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An Associated Press investigation says adopted children are being confined in private, for-profit residential treatment and “tough-love” boarding programs that market themselves as helping with adoption-related problems—sometimes for years after families hoped for “forever homes.” The report includes interviews with former program attendees and families, as well as former employees, public officials and experts, and it describes police records, court filings and other government and business records the AP used to examine how some adopted children end up in the programs. The investigation portrays a system where, according to the accounts it gathered, children can experience abuse and endure restrictions on contact with parents while having limited oversight by independent authorities.

One former resident, identified by the AP only by first name because the outlet said it typically does not identify people who say they were victims of sexual assault, described arriving at a residential treatment center in Utah as a 13-year-old who had been promised it would help her heal. She said she plugged in a night light in her dorm room because she had needed one since she was sexually assaulted at another facility, and she said her roommate turned it off, prompting panic and a flight response. The AP account says employees then tackled her, held her down—one holding an arm, a third holding her legs—and labeled her condition as “OIC,” or “out of instructional control.”

The AP investigation says that for much of her adolescence she remained in the facility until she could sign herself out as an adult, and it places her experience within what it describes as a broader “troubled teen industry” that includes residential treatment centers, wilderness programs and boarding schools. Experts cited by the AP said adoptees, who the report says make up about 2% of American children, are estimated to represent 25% to 40% of children in residential treatment.

The AP report says police reports it reviewed show that children as young as 9 experience or witness violence, chaos, self-harm and sexual abuse inside some facilities. It also says some children left the programs more traumatized than when they arrived, and it describes cases in which children died inside facilities that had promised safety. According to the investigation, some facilities use strip-searching, regular restraints and punishment with manual labor, while also limiting outside communication—including with parents—and tightly monitoring it.

The investigation traces part of its account to what it describes as disputes over the medical diagnoses used to justify confinement. It reports that many facilities charge as much as $20,000 a month and market treatment for reactive attachment disorder, or RAD, suggesting that behavioral problems stem from a failure to connect with caregivers and that children can learn to attach through faraway treatment. But the AP says experts argue most teenagers confined in these facilities likely do not have RAD and that the treatment offered would not fix RAD even if a diagnosis applied. The AP also describes a Utah facility, Uinta Academy, as one example and says it is operated by Family Help & Wellness; the company denied wrongdoing and said its programs are independently operated, while it provides funding and support and follows licensing laws.

A psychologist cited by the AP, Brian Allen of Penn State’s Center for the Protection of Children, said the RAD diagnosis is for young children who have been neglected and struggle to bond with caregivers, and that it is “extremely rare” under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, applying to children under 5. The report includes Allen’s criticism that RAD is being “corrupted” and misapplied to adopted preteens and teenagers who are having behavioral challenges, and it quotes him saying that the DSM should delete RAD from its listings. The AP also includes an account from Sloan Nova, a University of California, San Francisco psychologist who was adopted from South Korea and said she ended up in a treatment facility as a teenager, who described “overpromise” from residential treatment centers that she said can sound “almost too good to be true.”

The AP investigation says the industry’s business model and incentives can profit from keeping children in care and minimizing staffing costs. It reports that the industry lacks federal tracking, so the number of programs and children housed there is not known, and it cites an estimate by 11:11 Media Impact, led by hotel heiress Paris Hilton, that the industry enrolls up to 200,000 kids each year, including 50,000 placed privately at the sole discretion of parents. The AP says public and private equity firms have acquired centers over time, and it includes quotes from Raj Kumar, an analyst at the financial services firm Stephens, who said that the structure can allow investors to go “into these markets risk free,” alongside expert criticism that fewer regulations than in other inpatient settings can make cost-cutting easier.

The AP also describes how some facilities have closed after deaths of children while others remained open, and it recounts examples from different states. It says Trails Carolina closed in 2024 after a 12-year-old boy suffocated and that the state revoked its license; it also says Asheville Academy closed after last year and that North Carolina officials suspended admissions after deaths by suicide at the facility. The AP reports that Uinta Academy remained open, and it describes a lawsuit filed last year by parents of a 16-year-old girl alleging punitive practices; it also says the AP did not receive responses from Uinta’s administrators. The report further describes the AP’s account of other programs, including one called Change Academy at Lake of the Ozarks, or Calo Programs, and a congressional investigation led by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon that produced a report titled “Warehouses of Neglect.”

A former resident’s account described facilities using behavioral control in ways that the AP portrayed as stripping individuality and requiring compliance from children while they are confined away from their parents. The AP also recounts the story of Zoie Albers, adopted from a Chinese orphanage at nearly 2, who the investigation says later reported self-harm and confinement in Utah and North Carolina programs dedicated to adoptees, including allegations of restraints, yelling and group discipline.

The AP investigation also includes examples of children dying in programs. It recounts that Biruk Silvers, 17, was found dead hanging from a belt tied to a post on a bunk bed at Discovery Ranch in Utah on Nov. 5, 2024, and it says the family’s lawsuit describes warning labels about suicidal thoughts in kids and young adults around the time the facility began a new depression medication. The report says the Utah Department of Health and Human Services investigated and cited the facility for compromising safety and failing to supervise, and it says Discovery Ranch was fined $10,300, with a temporary bar on taking more children that lasted a few months, according to the AP.

The AP investigation concluded its reporting by describing what it says is a broader pattern: a private system with limited oversight and incentives that can increase confinement time, paired with contested diagnoses and, in some cases, reported violence and abuse. The outlet said it contacted companies for comment, and it reports that some did not respond while others issued statements defending accountability and care.