SandyPines Treatment Center. Photo via the Martin County Sheriff’s DepartmentThe Vermont Department for Children and Families sent multiple youths to two Florida residential treatment centers where violent incidents have occurred in the past two years, one just this past summer, according to the department. Vermont youths were living at the facilities in different regions of Florida — the SandyPines Residential Treatment Center and Brooksville Youth Academy — during the two incidents, both of which caused injuries to residents and staff and led to multiple criminal charges, according to local law enforcement. Vermont state agencies continued to place youths at both locations afterward, said Joshua Marshall, a spokesperson for the Department for Children and Families. After each incident, DCF interviewed administrators at the facility and the youths who were placed there, Marshall said, and determined both programs were safe. But the revelations raise questions about where Vermont decides to place youths out-of-state — and how those programs are vetted.Both SandyPines and Brooksville are psychiatric residential treatment facilities, meaning that in order to be placed at either one, Vermont youth must have a significant mental health need, according to DCF. The youths may or may not be involved with the justice system as well. Each facility costs the state of Vermont roughly $800 a day per resident, which includes room, board and education, according to DCF.“Whenever we’re talking about out-of-state facilities, we only know what we know,” said Marshall Pahl, the Deputy Defender General and supervising attorney in the Office of the Defender General’s juvenile division, in an interview this week. Out-of-state facilities allow for much less visibility and oversight than in-state programs, Pahl added.“Has Vermont sent kids to dangerous out-of-state facilities? Absolutely they have,” Pahl said. “I don’t think anybody intends for that to happen or that that’s the point. I think it’s just a question of, it’s hard to know what you don’t know about these facilities.”Brooksville Youth AcademyThe most recent incident took place at Brooksville Youth Academy, in Brooksville, Florida, roughly 40 miles north of Tampa. The residential treatment program is for boys ages 13 to 17 with “mental health treatment and behavioral support needs that require temporary care in a structured, supportive and therapeutic setting,” according to the facility’s website.The facility did not respond to a phone call Friday.On July 28, 2024, just after 11 a.m., the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call from a Brooksville Youth Academy employee, who said “dozens” of teens were fighting, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office. Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the campus and arrested 18 teens, according to the sheriff’s office. Seventeen residents were charged with crimes related to the incident, including two who were charged with attempted murder. Five people, including one staff member, were taken to the hospital, according to the press release.“Detectives continue to be in contact with several state agencies and oversight organizations in regard to this incident,” the sheriff’s office said in its press release.  Three Vermont youths, placed by DCF, were at Brooksville during the incident, Marshall, the DCF spokesperson, said, and another was placed there afterward. No Vermont teens were injured during the incident, but one was criminally charged, he said.“DCF spoke with leadership at Brooksville regarding the incident,” Marshall said in an email. “DCF interviewed the youth remaining in the program after the incident and made sure the youth felt safe within the program. None of the youth indicated they were feeling unsafe in the program. DCF has assessed that program is safe for the youth currently placed there.”Currently, three Vermont teens are at Brooksville, he said.  SandyPines Residential Treatment CenterThe Brooksville incident is not the first outbreak of violence at a Florida facility housing Vermont youths.On January 20, 2023, another incident took place at the SandyPines Residential Treatment Center, about 80 miles north of Miami. SandyPines has 149 beds on a 19.2-acre campus and serves children aged 5 to 17, according to its website.“The SandyPines experience is often the last alternative for our youth to find calm in their confusing worlds, to create organization out of chaos, to constructively build life skills with support and new role models and to experience success and self-fulfillment toward a positive future,” the website reads.At around 8:30 p.m. on January 20, 2023, an “emergency crisis situation” occurred at the facility, documents from the Florida Agency of Health Care Administration said. Drawing on security footage, Florida state documents spell out in detail the chaotic events of the next hour. Residents of the facility used their feet, a chair and “what appears to be a metal garbage can” in an attempt to break down a door that led outside. One resident pulled a fire alarm and another took a staff member’s badge and keycard from around their neck. After getting the door open, multiple residents ran out of the building and into a fenced-in area surrounding the complex. At around 9:20 p.m., law enforcement arrived at the unit, according to the documents. On Facebook, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said three people, including one SandyPines staff member, were injured in the “riot” and at least eight residents escaped. The youths were found later that night after a search involving a helicopter, according to local news station WPTV. Screenshot from the Facebook page of the Martin County Sheriff’s Department“Multiple juveniles have been charged with various crimes such as battery on a health care worker and resisting arrest,” the sheriff’s department said on Facebook. Karen Callan, SandyPines’ director of business development, wrote in an email that the facility has agreements with multiple states to care for youth. Callan disputed some of the media coverage of the January 2023 incident.“It was not a ‘riot,’ and the facts are as follows,” Callan wrote. “Two of our residents engaged in an altercation which others joined. No residents eloped from the premises. Damage was limited to one door, which was repaired immediately.”Five Vermont youths were at SandyPines during the incident, according to DCF. Three were placed by DCF, while two others were placed there while they were under the care of the Department of Mental Health.Alex Frantz, a spokesperson for the Department of Mental Health, said the department recommends placements for youths, but “the ultimate decision to place a child in a program remains with the parent or guardian, as the child remains in their custody throughout the process.”Frantz said the department only recommends SandyPines when other, closer facilities do not meet a child’s needs.“At DMH, we always prioritize programs close to home, as we know how important it is for families to stay connected through frequent visits and involvement in treatment,” Frantz said in an email.A subsequent investigation by the Florida Agency of Health Care Administration found that SandyPines had been short-staffed for weeks. The agency initially imposed a moratorium on new admissions to the facility and moved to revoke its license, but ultimately reached a settlement that allowed SandyPines to stay open. As part of that settlement, SandyPines was fined $13,600 and adopted a plan of correction to improve its practices. The facility is in compliance with state regulations, said Callan, the SandyPines director.“We take regulatory surveys seriously and use the feedback identified as an opportunity to improve our operations,” she said. Since the incident, Vermont has placed 11 more youths at the facility, according to DCF. Two are there currently, the department said. DCF staff talked with the youth at the facility, “who indicated they were not harmed and not in fear” after the incident, Marshall, the DCF spokesperson, said in an email. No Vermont youths sustained injuries during the incident, but one received criminal charges as a result, he said.“After investigating the matter in person, DCF made the determination that the youth placed at Sandy Pines were safe, and that keeping them at Sandy Pines was in their best interests,” Marshall said. ‘What do they need?’As of last November, DCF had 47 youths in out-of-state placements in five states. DCF did not make any officials available to interview about the placement process. Marshall said staff with the department’s Family Services Division visit out-of-state facilities, speak with administrators, examine licensing documents and conduct “an internet search” prior to placing a child there.“Ongoing assessment is provided by DCF Family Services having a regular presence in the program to interact with youth, program staff, and leadership,” Marshall said. “DCF Family Services meets with their youth monthly and, dependent on the youth’s progress, may take them in the community to have conversations about their time in the program,” he wrote. “If a youth discloses concerning information, it is reported to the appropriate licensing authority and/or addressed by the DCF Family Services, Specialized Services Unit with program leadership.”But the Florida incidents are not the first to raise concerns over out-of-state placements. In December 2023, VTDigger reported that Vermont continued to contract with the Bledsoe Youth Academy in Tennessee, even though the states of New Hampshire and Texas had stopped sending youths there amid concerns over conditions and treatment by staff at the program.READ MORE Bledsoe Youth Academy and Brooksville Youth Academy are in fact both operated by the same parent company, Youth Opportunity Investments. SandyPines is operated by the health care and behavioral health giant Universal Health Services. The revelations come as Vermont works to expand its in-state capacity to house young people in state custody. A four-bed facility in Middlesex, dubbed the Red Clover treatment program, was to open as soon as this month. Now administrators with the Department for Children and Families said it is expected to open in mid-October.And the state has embarked on a longer-term plan to build a secure, 14-bed residential treatment center, the Green Mountain Youth Campus, in Vergennes for youth involved in the justice system.A rendering of the proposed Green Mountain Youth Campus. Photo courtesy of Vermont Department for Children and Families But Matthew Bernstein, Vermont’s Child, Youth and Family Advocate, said the Florida incidents show that intensive residential care programs are dangerous, traumatizing and often inappropriate for children to be in.“One message that we are always conveying is that harm to children in residential care, both in state and out, is routine, not unusual,” he said in an interview. “The degree of harm in this case is obviously highly concerning.”Bernstein added, “To send more children to a place that has demonstrated, on an extreme level, that kids are unsafe there, is very concerning.”He sees the incidents as a symptom of a larger problem: an instinctive rush to institutionalize youth with significant needs.“When we have a child or a young person who’s struggling, who’s exhibited behaviors that show that they are struggling,” he said, “there’s a rapid move to find a bed for them in a treatment center — before there’s a sufficient inquiry as to, ‘Who is this kid? What do they need? What do they say they need? And how can we address that without having to put them in a group setting at all?’”Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont youths placed at Florida facilities where violent incidents occurred.