Legislation that will enlist the federal government in reforming the troubled-teen industry is now heading to the desk of President Joe Biden.
The Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act cleared the House with an overwhelming majority Wednesday, after passing the Senate unanimously last week.
The bipartisan bill mandates a federal study, with a report issued every two years for a decade, on the prevalence and scope of child abuse and deaths in youth residential programs. The study will also examine the existing regulations and professional standards that govern the programs, and make recommendations on how federal and local authorities can improve their oversight.
The bill’s passage is the culmination of years of activism by child welfare advocates and survivors of the troubled teen industry — a constellation of boarding schools, residential treatment centers, wilderness camps and ranches for children with emotional or psychological problems — and high-profile scandals involving abuses and deaths dating back decades. Because most of the programs do not take government funding, their regulations are set by the states in which they operate, and many have avoided scrutiny thanks to spotty enforcement or legal loopholes, as detailed in previous NBC News investigations.
The National Academies, which advises policymakers and is conducting the study, will be required to consult with child advocates, health professionals, program alumni, parents, facility operators, among others, and a host of government agencies.
A coalition of child welfare advocacy groups lobbied for the legislation, and celebrity Paris Hilton became intimately involved in the effort, holding several demonstrations and news conferences in Washington, D.C., over the past three years calling for reform to the troubled teen industry.
“This moment is proof that our voices matter, that speaking out can spark change, and that no child should ever endure the horrors of abuse in silence,” Hilton said in a tweet after the vote. “I did this for the younger version of myself and the youth who were senselessly taken from us by the Troubled Teen Industry.”
The Hilton Hotel heiress and reality television star began pushing for tougher oversight of facilities after describing in a 2020 memoir and documentary — and in subsequent testimony before state legislatures — the abuses she said she endured two decades ago in a Utah facility.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., one of the bill’s co-sponsors, credited Hilton and activists she worked with for getting Congress to pay attention to the industry during remarks on the House floor Tuesday.
“Survivors came to our offices again and again for years because they wanted to do something with these experiences to make it better for America’s children,” Khanna said.
The bill is a scaled-back version of legislation that youth rights advocates had pushed for that would have established a set of rights for all children in these facilities — guaranteeing that programs provide proper toiletries and nutrition, prohibiting them from withholding sleep, meals or hydration; and restricting their use of isolation as punishment.
