Today, there are an estimated 120,000 - 200,000 minors in youth residential facilities across the United States. These youth are pipelined into congregate care placements through the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, school districts' individualized education programs, refugee resettlement agencies, mental health providers, and private parental placement. Many of these youth have prior trauma histories before placement, issues only exacerbated by extended separation from their communities once placed in an institutional setting.

This industry receives an estimated $23 billion dollars of annual public funds to purportedly treat the behavioral and psychological needs of vulnerable youth, yet it operates without meaningful oversight. The industry’s lack of transparency and quality care has led to youth experiencing maltreatment including sexual assault, physical and medical neglect, and bodily assault that has resulted in civil rights violations, hospitalizations, and death. Youth are too often denied access to legal counsel, advocacy, and the most basic rights to personal safety and satisfactory living conditions.

States and facilities have long neglected to track the placement and lengths of stay of youth, ensure quality care, report critical incidents and deaths, develop best practices, and account for outcomes of care. Without data, or means to track and address findings of institutional abuse, our nation’s understanding of this issue is severely limited. We must begin by developing systems and infrastructure that will prevent catastrophic abuse and increase our understanding of evidence-based practices for youth in these settings.

What is The stop institutional child abuse act?

The Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, sponsored by Congressman Ro Khanna (D), Congressman Buddy Carter (R), Senator Jeff Merkley (D), and Senator John Cornyn (R), will establish minimum standards, legally define institutional child abuse and neglect, create essential infrastructure for crucial interagency collaboration to protect youth in care, and encourage states to develop processes that reduce the overall usage of institutional settings.

Read the Policy Memo by clicking here.

How can you support?

Join a vast coalition of national, state, and local entities dedicated to upholding the safety and dignity of youth in congregate care settings by signing your organization on to support SICAA. Read the Coalition Support Letter here.

Have questions?

Email Rebecca Mellinger, Head of Impact at Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media Impact, at rebecca@1111media.co.

Email Caroline Cole, Survivor and Activist, at caroline@caroline-cole.com.