AP Investigation Says For-Profit Troubled Teen Industry Confined Adopted Kids Promised Forever Homes

An Associated Press investigation describes how adopted children were promised “forever homes” but instead were confined for years in a network of loosely regulated, for-profit residential treatment centers, wilderness programs and boarding schools that has become known as the “troubled teen industry.”

“Adopted and Locked Away: Kids promised ‘forever homes’ instead confined in for-profit institutions She was 13 years old and scared of the dark when she arrived at a residential treatment center that had promised her adoptive parents it would help her heal — from the pain of not knowing who her mother was or why she’d given her away”

Associated Press

The AP account centers on “Kate,” who arrived at a Utah residential treatment center at age 13 after adoptive parents were told the facility would help her heal from the pain of not knowing who her mother was or why she’d given her away.

Associated Press

Kate said she plugged in a night light in the dorm room because she had needed one since she was sexually assaulted at another facility, and her roommate turned it off.

Kate told AP that she panicked, ran, and then curled into a ball, “heaving, weeping,” as three employees followed her to comfort her, but instead “threw her face first into the carpet.”

Kate said the employees held her down “one on each arm,” with the third holding her legs, and she described yelling that she was “OIC” — “out of instructional control.”

The AP investigation says Kate would be institutionalized for most of her adolescence until she could sign herself out as an adult, and it frames the broader pattern as a “shadow orphanage system” where children end up with the fate adoption was supposed to spare them.

The AP investigation says the “troubled teen industry” has set its sights on adopted children, describing a shift from tough-love boarding schools for rebellious, rich teenagers to a different demographic.

The investigation states that adoptees are “only 2% of American children” but account for an estimated “25-40%” of those in residential treatment.

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

The investigation says the AP interviewed dozens of program attendees and their families, former employees, public officials, attorneys and experts, and obtained “hundreds of government and business records” to examine why adopted kids land in such facilities despite companies’ track records.

The AP account describes marketing pitches that charge as much as “$20,000 a month” and promise to treat adopted children for reactive attachment disorder, often called “RAD.”

It says facilities offer a “salve for desperate adoptive parents,” claiming the child’s behavioral problems are caused by a “pathological failure to connect with their caregivers,” and that the child can learn to attach in faraway treatment.

The AP investigation also quotes experts’ position that most teenagers confined in these facilities “almost certainly don’t have RAD,” and that the treatment offered “wouldn’t fix it even if they did.”

The AP narrative emphasizes that parents alone usually decide to send children away and for how long, and it describes a system where children “have no sentence and no judge monitors their confinement.”

It adds that police reports reveal children as young as “9” experience or witness violence, chaos, self-harm and sexual abuse inside facilities.

The AP investigation describes a pattern of abuse and coercion inside facilities, including strip-searching, restraints, punishment with manual labor, and limited communication with the outside world.

“An Associated Press investigation finds that a business known for tough-love boarding schools for rebellious, rich teenagers set its sights on a different demographic: adopted kids”

Star Beacon

It says children are “strip-searched, regularly restrained and punished with manual labor,” and that “Communication with the outside world, including their parents, is limited and tightly monitored.”

The AP account says many adoptees told it that confinement felt like prison, except they had not been convicted of any crime, and it stresses that “they have no sentence and no judge monitors their confinement.”

In Kate’s case, the AP narrative includes a specific account of violence and breathing distress: Kate said that in 2017, when she was 12, she was held to the ground, screaming “I can’t breathe” as “snot poured from her nose.”

The AP investigation says Kate finally checked herself out of treatment four years ago, when she was 18, and it describes how she went silent, exhausted, and was released.

It also says Kate lived in the place for another two years after that, and that she went to bed “without a night light.”

Kate told AP, “We were afraid all of the time,” linking her fear to the conditions she experienced.

The investigation also states that some children have died inside facilities that promised they would keep them safe, and it frames the system as one where children are promised safety but instead are left more traumatized than when they arrived.

Beyond Kate’s account, the AP investigation says police reports reveal children as young as “9” experience or witness violence, chaos, self-harm and sexual abuse inside facilities.

It describes how adoptees and adoptive parents told AP that children left more traumatized than when they arrived, “if, that is, they ever left.”

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

The AP narrative says the investigation obtained “hundreds of government and business records” and examined “why and how adopted kids land in such facilities despite the companies’ disturbing track records.”

It also says the AP interviewed former employees, public officials, attorneys and experts, alongside program attendees and their families.

The investigation frames the diagnosis of reactive attachment disorder as a “corrupted diagnosis,” describing how adoptive parents sought answers and “thought they found them” when they learned about RAD.

It says facilities promise that the child’s behavioral problems are caused by a “pathological failure to connect with their caregivers,” and that treatment in faraway programs can help.

The AP account also states that experts say most teenagers confined in these facilities “almost certainly don’t have RAD,” and that the treatment offered “wouldn’t fix it even if they did.”

In the AP account, Kate’s fear is not presented as a one-off reaction but as part of a broader pattern where children are “afraid all of the time,” according to her statement.

While the Associated Press story provides the detailed narrative, the local and regional materials included here frame the same investigation through condensed “takeaways” and re-publication of the AP text.

“She was 13 years old and scared of the dark when she arrived at a residential treatment center that had promised her adoptive parents it would help her heal — from the pain of not knowing who her mother was or why she’d given her away”

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

The Star Beacon headline explicitly presents “Takeaways from AP investigation: Adopted kids confined in for-profit institutions,” reiterating that the investigation finds a business known for tough-love boarding schools for rebellious, rich teenagers “set its sights on a different demographic: adopted kids.”

Associated Press

It repeats that adoptees are “vastly overrepresented” in what it calls the “troubled teen industry,” and it again cites that adoptees are “only 2% of American children” and account for an estimated “25-40%” of those in residential treatment.

The Star Beacon item also carries the same copyright language from the Associated Press, stating “Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.”

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal entry mirrors the AP narrative’s opening details about Kate, including that she was “13 years old and scared of the dark” when she arrived at a residential treatment center that promised adoptive parents it would help her heal.

It includes the same Kate detail about plugging in a night light in the dorm room and needing it since she was sexually assaulted at another facility, but the local page text provided here cuts off after that point.

Across these materials, the through-line remains the AP’s central claim that adopted children are confined in for-profit institutions despite promises of healing and “forever homes.”

The Star Beacon’s framing also keeps the focus on overrepresentation, while the AP’s full account supplies the specific allegations, including the “OIC” restraint description and Kate’s “I can’t breathe” testimony.