The process is typically initiated by parents at their wit’s ends over a child they perceive as troubled. For the kids, it’s the traumatic first leg of a journey to placements that can be hundreds of miles from home.

Legislators passed a bill last year that brought the first regulatory reform to teen treatment programs in 15 years.

Some 20,000 kids have been sent away to Utah teen treatment programs since 2015.

Utah's Office of Licensing recently confirmed that it is planning to release violation and disciplinary information online, accessible through a search on its website.

Vista is one of the more than 100 teen treatment programs in Utah, which cater to parents and out-of-state agencies who care for struggling teenagers.

Opening a youth treatment center is relatively simple in Utah. But state regulators often can't — or won't — shut a place down after abuse is alleged.

Inappropriate contact between children and staff members has happened with some frequency in Utah’s teen treatment programs. From November 2018 through July 2021 — state regulators have investigated at least 20 reports of staff pushing the boundaries with clients, sometimes amounting to sexual abuse.