Our Reporting

March 8, 2022

'Blindfolds, hoods and handcuffs': How some teenagers get to Utah's youth treatment programs

“Secure transport services,” a shadowy corner of the teen-treatment industry, are almost entirely unregulated. Parent-hired transporters can pull kids from their beds, handcuff them, hold them down or blindfold them. In Utah, a legislator who recently sponsored a bill that brought regulatory reform to the state’s booming teen-treatment industry said he wants to take a closer look at how kids from all over the country are getting to the state for treatment.

December 3, 2021

Sequel to close New Mexico youth facility amid more abuse allegations

The once-ascendant youth treatment company has agreed to shutter its 14th center in the past three years following a state report that found abuse of kids with autism, including one resident who was allegedly whipped with a tree branch.

November 22, 2021

St. Louis cops are hiding key details about homicide cases from the public

Despite killings on the rise and the highest homicide rate among big cities, St. Louis police say they don’t have to tell the public which cases have been solved. APM Reports has filed a lawsuit for the information.

November 19, 2021

Influential authors Fountas and Pinnell stand behind disproven reading theory

The education professors double down on a flawed approach that encourages pictures and context to read words. Heinemann — their publisher — faces harsh criticism.

September 3, 2021

Curtis Flowers sues District Attorney Doug Evans

The Mississippi man tried six times for the same crime alleges in a lawsuit that Evans and three investigators committed misconduct that led to his wrongful imprisonment for more than two decades.

September 3, 2021

In Deep: One City's Year of Climate Chaos

Most scientists believe climate change is increasing the severity of the storms we experience, and how quickly they intensify. After suffering two hurricanes, a winter storm, and devastating flooding in less than a year, Lake Charles, Louisiana, offers a troubling view of the wrenching, disturbingly inequitable effects of climate change.

August 19, 2021

Inside the college mental health crisis

Colleges are struggling to meet the surging demand for mental health services on campus, and some schools are wrestling with how much care they owe students.

August 3, 2021

The U.S. may never regain its dominance as a destination for international students. Here's why that matters.

Colleges and universities in the United States attract more than a million international students a year. Higher education is one of America’s top service exports, generating $42 billion in revenue. But the money spigot is closing. The pandemic, visa restrictions, rising tuition and a perception of poor safety in America have driven new international student enrollment down by a jaw-dropping 72 percent.

July 28, 2021

Texas company fuels rise of for-profit teacher training programs

Texas Teachers of Tomorrow has become the largest teacher training program in the nation, offering a low-cost online program. While it’s lowered barriers and helped diversify the workforce, this approach to training hasn’t solved chronic teacher shortages.

July 28, 2021

We’ve spent decades trying to alleviate teacher shortages. Our attempts have dramatically changed the teacher workforce, but the shortages remain.

A four-part podcast series by APM Reports.

July 21, 2021

Lax oversight, no-bid contracts and mysterious pricing: Inside the black box of Covid testing

More than a year into the pandemic, many details about Covid testing remain unclear to the public, including how much the tests will cost taxpayers and how effective they really are. Nowhere is that more evident than in Minnesota.

June 24, 2021

21 states still don’t require de-escalation training for police

Studies have shown that teaching officers to de-escalate confrontations can reduce violent encounters, but many states don’t mandate it.

June 23, 2021

The teen got a concussion. The school got a pass.

Up until 2019, the agency regulating Utah’s massive youth treatment industry rarely cited facilities for violating rules — even after cases of abuse. After a 2016 incident left a teenager with a concussion, state regulators listened to his mom’s complaint — and then did nothing about it.

May 21, 2021

Sequel confronts more abuse allegations amid concerns about its finances

The embattled youth treatment company will soon shutter its Northern Illinois Academy, the 13th closure since 2019, while creditors doubt it can repay its debts.

April 17, 2021

The Jail Tapes in the Dumpster

A murder conviction sent Myon Burrell to prison for life when he was a teenager. An investigative reporter dug into what seemed a hopeless case. What she found helped free him.

April 2, 2021

Former residents of troubled youth facility receive settlement money

The families of 17 kids settled their lawsuit against the owner of Mesabi Academy for $1.495 million, even as more treatment centers closed, forcing youth with mental health needs to wait months for care.

March 26, 2021

How Utah has let its many youth treatment centers off the hook

Utah has become a national center for youth treatment, and it goes easy on the industry. At one facility, teen girls were forced to sit in a horse trough as punishment, and state regulators chose not to punish the people who did it.

March 10, 2021

New data underscores Utah's lax oversight of youth treatment programs

Over the course of hundreds of inspections, regulators marked the programs as “compliant” 98 percent of the time. And in recent years, the state noted even fewer violations than before.

March 2, 2021

Mississippi to pay Curtis Flowers $500,000 for his decades behind bars

Judge orders state to give Flowers the maximum compensation for his wrongful conviction.

February 10, 2021

Embattled Sequel closes three more facilities

Following abuse reports, the company has now shuttered a dozen youth treatment centers in the past two years, including its flagship academy.

January 13, 2021

Thousands of public housing residents live near the most polluted places in the nation — and the government has done little to protect them

An investigation reveals that more than 9,000 federally subsidized housing properties sit within a mile of a Superfund site, and the government has failed to inform many residents of the potential threats they face. As a result, low-income renters are paying for government inaction with their health.

December 14, 2020

California hands Sequel a major setback

The state’s decision to no longer send children to out-of-state youth treatment facilities capped two difficult weeks for the embattled company.

December 9, 2020

Washington becomes latest state to ditch Sequel

State officials decided to no longer place foster children with the company following an APM Reports investigation and reports of abuse.

December 7, 2020

How private money helped save the election

After Congress failed to aid local election offices, a nonprofit provided critical funds — including $350 million from Mark Zuckerberg — that paid for staff, ballot-scanning machines, protective gear, and rental space that helped the presidential election run surprisingly smoothly.

October 30, 2020

The last days of Wisconsin's pandemic election

The critical swing state that had a disastrous April primary endures a divisive election with long lines at the polls and battles in the courts — all amid a raging coronavirus outbreak. Yet voter turnout has been surging.

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