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WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, today asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate allegations of deceptive marketing practices by residential treatment programs for troubled children.
Last week, the U.S. Government Accountability Office testified before the Education and Labor Committee that such programs – often called “boot camps,” “wilderness camps,” or “behavior modification facilities” – sometimes market themselves to parents by claiming they have “credentials in therapy or medicine that they did not have.”
“These programs are taking advantage of parents who are desperate to find help for their children,” said Miller, who made the request to the FTC in a letter sent this morning to Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. “The programs claim they have the resources and expertise to help troubled children, when really they lack any such resources or expertise. In fact, these programs are often operated recklessly, leading to the worst possible outcome – the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of children.”
The hearing last week revealed that many of these programs operate with no standards or regulations of any kind, and are marked by ineffective management and poorly trained staff. As a result, allegations of child abuse in the programs are widespread. For more information about last week’s hearing, click here.
The full text of the letter to the FTC is below.
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October 16, 2007
VIA FACSIMILE
Deborah Platt Majoras
Chairman
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580
Attn: Ms. Claudia Simons
Dear Chairman Majoras:
Last week, the Committee on Education and Labor held an investigative hearing into cases of child abuse and neglect, including cases resulting in death, at residential treatment programs around the country. At the hearing, disturbing testimony by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that several of these cases involved owners and operators of residential treatment programs who claimed to “have credentials in therapy or medicine that they did not have, leading parents to trust them with teens who had serious mental or physical disabilities requiring proper treatment.” These disturbing and misleading practices have already put untold numbers of children at serious risk.
In one example, although the program brochure claimed that its program employed counselors who were “highly trained survival experts,” these “experts” failed to recognize basic signs of distress resulting in a teenager’s death. At the hearing, three parents – whose children died while attending residential treatment programs – also testified that they received deceptive marketing materials and heard “fraudulent” claims by program owners about the expertise and qualifications of program staff, which were intended to lure their troubled children to the marketed programs.
The Federal Trade Commission administers a number of our nation’s consumer protection laws; therefore, I respectfully ask you to look into the marketing practices of private residential treatment programs, often called “boot camps,” “wilderness camps,” and “behavior modification facilities,” among other names. To assist in your efforts, I have attached a copy of the GAO testimony that identifies 10 closed cases where a teenager died while enrolled in a private program, five of which include facilities that remain open and continue to market to prospective families. Deceptive marketing practices put at risk the health and safety of children attending residential treatment programs must not be tolerated.
I ask that you keep the Committee apprised of your efforts and contact the Committee’s Chief Investigative Counsel, Michael Zola, at (202) 22X-XXXX with any questions.
Sincerely,
GEORGE MILLER
Chairman
cc: Senior Republican Member Howard “Buck” McKeon
Attachments
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tom Kiley / Rachel Racusen
2181 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-226-0853
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