Amanda Simmons Publishes “Partnering with the Judiciary to End Institutional Child Abuse in Residential Treatment Centers” in the NCJFCJ’s In Session Magazine
In the Summer 2024 issue of In Session, the member magazine of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), Amanda Simmons, founder of Ambika Law, PC, published “Partnering with the Judiciary to End Institutional Child Abuse in Residential Treatment Centers.” The article makes a direct case to the bench: an educated judiciary is one of the most powerful and effective tools for protecting children from abuse in the so-called troubled teen industry. It pairs a brief overview of the problem with a practical, eight-step checklist judges can use before placing a child in a residential facility.
Founded in 1937 and based in Reno, Nevada, the NCJFCJ is the nation’s oldest judicial membership and education organization, serving an estimated 30,000 judges, referees, commissioners, court masters, and other professionals across the juvenile and family justice system. Through continuing education, research, technical assistance, and policy development, the Council works to improve how courts respond to children and families — making In Session a direct line to exactly the judicial audience Amanda’s article is written to reach.
Amanda opens the piece with her own story. As a teenager, she was sent to a therapeutic boarding school where she was sexually assaulted by the headmaster — who, despite a prior conviction for assaulting another student, received what local media described as an “inexplicably mild sentence.” She reflects on how differently things might have unfolded had the sentencing judge understood how prevalent and severe abuse in residential treatment centers can be. That experience grounds the article’s central argument: judges occupy a uniquely powerful position to recognize risk and prevent harm.
From there, the article offers a concise overview of the “troubled teen industry” — a loose term for privately owned youth residential treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools, group homes, and similar programs that are inconsistently regulated and may simultaneously house children placed by juvenile justice, child welfare, school districts, Medicaid, and private insurance. Amanda documents that authorities have known of these abuses for decades, with Senate investigations dating to 1974 and Government Accountability Office reports following in 2007, 2008, and 2022. She notes that an estimated 120,000–200,000 youth are placed each year and that more than $23 billion in public funds flows into these placements annually, with fees as high as $800 per day. She connects profit incentives, private-equity funding, and interstate-placement confusion to real harm — citing the 2007 “Kids for Cash” scandal and the American Bar Association’s 2023 Resolution 605 urging increased regulation to prevent institutional child abuse.
The heart of the article is an eight-step checklist for judicial officers to consider before authorizing a residential placement. It covers careful pre-placement consideration and strict adherence to the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children; compliance with the IDEA and ADA least-restrictive-environment mandates; human-trafficking risk assessment; communication and reporting standards that let children reach parents, attorneys, doctors, and safety networks; unannounced facility and client visits with a genuine means of reporting abuse; health, medical, and safety standards; harm-reduction scrutiny of abusive practices such as strip searches, isolation, restraint, and forced silence; and attention to contracts, deceptive marketing, licensing, accreditation, and insurance.
Amanda’s message to the judiciary is both urgent and hopeful: abuse in youth treatment centers has persisted for decades, and meaningful change will take time — but a single judge can make an enormous difference for a child facing placement in an abusive facility. The article reflects Ambika Law’s trauma-informed mission and Amanda’s ongoing work across the ABA, the NCJFCJ, and other national forums to protect vulnerable youth and hold institutions accountable.
Read the full article in the Summer 2024 issue of In Session (National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges): https://emma-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/eyj/3cf1da5140bf2b1cea3e5d39e23cd0c0/Summer_2024_In_Session.pdf