| Abstract: | Well‐meaning parents send an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 at‐risk children each year to unregulated private residential treatment facilities, which for as much as $3,000 to $5,000 per month promise to modify troublesome behaviors and make bad kids good. The facilities that compose this booming, billion‐dollar business are generally not regulated, licensed, or monitored by state or federal governments; too many aspects of this alternative care system for youth are rife with mistreatment, including physical, sexual, and mental abuse by facility staff. This American Bar Association policy resolution urges state, territorial, and tribal legislatures to pass laws that require the licensing, regulating, and monitoring of residential treatment facilities that are not funded by public or government systems but offer treatment to at‐risk children and youth for emotional, behavioral, educational, or other problems or issues. |
