Not every institution accused of failing children calls itself a residential treatment center. The allegations against Missouri Military Academy are a reminder that abuse and institutional failures can occur anywhere children live away from home—including traditional boarding schools that market themselves as safe, structured educational environments.

Missouri's Division of Youth Services has long been praised as a national model for juvenile justice. But reports from the U.S. Department of Justice, investigative journalists, and former staff paint a more complicated picture—one that raises difficult questions about safety, oversight, and accountability inside state-run juvenile detention facilities.

Netflix's The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping tells the story of one abusive boarding school, but its legacy reaches far beyond a single campus. Here's what the documentary gets right—and why the same patterns continue to matter for families in Missouri and Kansas today.

Choosing a residential treatment program is one of the hardest decisions a parent can make. Before you enroll your child, learn the questions to ask, the warning signs to watch for, and the red flags that survivors say should never be ignored.

Adopted children represent only about 2% of American kids but account for as many as 40% of youth in residential treatment facilities. Here's why Missouri's Calo Programs has become a focal point in the national conversation about private equity, questionable diagnoses, and institutional accountability.

A residential treatment facility's current name may reveal very little about its history. As ownership changes, facilities are often rebranded, merged, or renamed, making it difficult for families to uncover past allegations of abuse, neglect, or unsafe conditions before placing a child.

For more than two years, Missouri survivors have asked the state's attorney general to launch a coordinated investigation into abusive boarding schools and residential treatment programs. Despite mounting evidence and ongoing litigation, that investigation has yet to begin.

Congress is considering the most significant federal oversight of youth residential treatment facilities in years. The proposed BRIDGES for Kids Act would create a national public database tracking restraint, seclusion, staffing, inspections, and more—changes that could have a major impact on Missouri and Kansas families seeking accountability.

Provo Canyon School lost its license this week. Agape, Wings of Faith, and Circle of Hope show Missouri has its own troubled teen industry crisis.

For many survivors of abuse within the Troubled Teen Industry (TTI), understanding what happened to them is often a long and difficult journey.

Many young people entered therapeutic boarding schools, residential treatment centers, wilderness programs, behavior modification programs, and other youth facilities believing they were receiving help. Years later, many continue to struggle with the emotional, psychological, and physical effects of experiences that occurred behind closed doors.

At McGonagle Johnson, we have had the privilege of speaking with survivors and families from across the country. While every story is different, a common theme emerges: many survivors spend years believing they are alone.

That is one reason organizations like Unsilenced are so important.

Former residents of Calo Programs, also known as Change Academy at Lake of the Ozarks, have filed lawsuits alleging abuse, neglect, and inadequate supervision. Recent investigations by the Associated Press and Midwest Newsroom raise broader questions about Calo, Embark Behavioral Health, and the troubled teen industry.

Joe White has stepped down as CEO of Kanakuk after decades at the helm. His letter to camp families didn’t mention child sexual abuse once. Survivors noticed.A law named for a Camp Kanakuk victim is spreading state by state — and reshaping how civil settlements in child sexual abuse cases can be written.

A law named for a Camp Kanakuk victim is spreading state by state — and reshaping how civil settlements in child sexual abuse cases can be written.

The Agape Boarding School case illustrates a recurring danger: institutional settings that attract not only abusive operators, but parents willing to exploit them.

Kansas House Bill 2521 would make it harder to hold private foster care agencies accountable when they fail children.

Missouri lawmakers are considering a bill that would let certain unlicensed religious facilities receive foster children from the state. That should alarm anyone who knows this state’s history.

Traffic collisions involving emergency vehicles aren’t something most of us think about — until they touch our lives in the worst possible way. In Kansas City, a collision involving a fire truck not only claimed lives, it irrevocably changed the course of others and highlighted important principles of Missouri law.It All Begins Here

If you are a survivor of abuse connected to Camp Kanakuk, it’s important to know this: your legal rights may still be open — and the statute of limitations may not have expired. In many cases, how and when a survivor discovers or remembers the harm can affect legal time limits in Missouri and other states.

For years, many survivors were told the same thing:

“It’s too late.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“There’s nothing you can do now.”

That is not always true.

On the evening of July 19, 2018, a sightseeing duck boat operated by Ride the Ducks tragically sank on Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri, during a powerful storm, resulting in the deaths of 17 people and severe injuries for others.