Committee on Education and Labor : U.S. House of Representatives

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House Education Committee Approves Legislation to Stop Child Abuse in Teen Residential Programs
Bill Would Help Ensure Parents Have Information They Need to Keep their Children Safe 

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

 

WASHINGTON, DC -- By a vote of 27 to 16, the House Education and Labor Committee today approved legislation to protect teenagers attending residential programs from physical, mental, and sexual abuse and to prevent deceptive marketing practices by operators of private residential programs for teens.  

Past investigations by the Government Accountability Office have uncovered thousands of allegations of child abuse between 1990 and 2007 at teen residential programs, including therapeutic boarding schools, boot camps, wilderness camps, and behavior modification facilities. Currently, these programs are governed only by a weak patchwork of state and federal standards. A new report released yesterday by the GAO found major gaps in the licensing and oversight of residential programs – some of which are exempt from state licensing standards altogether.

The Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 (H.R. 5876) would establish minimum standards for preventing child abuse and neglect at teen residential programs. It would require the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to inspect all programs around the country at least once every two years and to issue penalties against programs that violate the new standards. The bill also calls for states, within three years, to take on the role of setting and enforcing standards for both private and public youth residential programs.  

The legislation would also help ensure that parents have the information about teen residential programs that they need to make safe choices for their children.

“In far too many cases, the very people entrusted with the safety, health, and welfare of these children are the ones who violate that trust in some of the worst ways imaginable,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the Committee, and one of the bill’s authors. “We have a responsibility to keep kids safe no matter what setting they are in. Today we are taking the first step towards finally ending the horrific abuses that have gone on for far too long in residential programs for teens.”

We must do all we can to keep children safe from abuse and stop residential treatment facilities from using deceptive marketing that entices parents into sending their kids to places they think can help them,” said U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), the chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities and the co-author of this legislation. “I believe that this bill will go a long way toward protecting children in residential treatment facilities and putting an end to the kind of neglect and abuse that so many children have unfortunately suffered.”

The GAO’s investigation over the past year revealed that many teen residential programs have been using deceptive marketing practices and questionable tactics to lure vulnerable parents desperate to find help for their children. 

Among other things, H.R. 5876 would create a toll-free national hotline for individuals to report cases of abuse and a website with information about substantiated cases of abuse at residential programs. The bill would require programs to provide children with adequate food, water, medical care, and rest. And to prevent deceptive marketing practices and create transparency to help parents make safe choices for their children, it would require, among other things, that programs inform parents of their staff members’ qualifications, roles, and responsibilities.

It is estimated that tens of thousands of U.S. teenagers attend residential programs. Parents send their children to the programs in hopes of addressing their kids’ behavioral problems, such as substance abuse, as well as mental illnesses.

For more information on today’s legislation and past GAO investigations, click here.  

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