LAKE OZARK, Mo. (AP) 鈥� A facility deep in rural Missouri promises relief for desperate parents whose adopted kids are struggling 鈥� a lakeside, summer camp-like academy where kids can heal by bonding with golden retrievers, and where caring employees 鈥渃reate joy.鈥�
The company that operates the place known as Calo Programs says it exists 鈥渢o serve the hardest-to-treat cases 鈥� the students and families the broader system has given up on.鈥�
But paints a more complicated and less idyllic picture.
Law enforcement is often called to Calo to investigate assaults or track down runaways. State agencies that pay to send kids there have questioned its operations, training and transparency. Parents and former employees say there is minimal treatment and barely any schooling, with only young, poorly trained staff to supervise the kids. Two mothers described it as something out of 鈥淟ord of the Flies.鈥�
and taxpayers often pick up the tab. Also known as Change Academy at Lake of the Ozarks, Calo has charged up to $20,000 a month to treat adopted children. Some stay for years.
It is part of the so-called troubled teen industry, a sprawling network of loosely regulated, for-profit residential centers, boarding schools and wilderness programs that have been quietly 鈥� adoptees are as much as 10 times more likely to be sent away than the general population.
A deep dive into Calo鈥檚 practices 鈥� how it makes money, and what happens to kids under its watch 鈥� offers a window into a larger phenomenon: Some youth treatment centers, backed by private equity companies, share a business model that depends on government funding, despite limited oversight and few consequences for negligence.
The AP obtained troves of state data and documents through public records requests and interviewed young adults who recently attended, parents who sent their children there, former employees and lawyers who are engaged in more than a dozen lawsuits against the company.
In emailed statements, Calo denied allegations of wrongdoing and said student outcomes prove the strength of their approach and innovative treatment.
鈥淥ver and over again, parents across the country have come to us in their moment of need, and we are proud of the track record we鈥檝e established helping treat their children and return them to their families with the skills and tools they need to get ahead.鈥�
Hundreds of pages of Camden County Sheriff鈥檚 Office reports documenting calls to the facility from 2020 to the fall of 2025 show that children in Calo鈥檚 care have been alleged victims, witnesses and perpetrators.
There was the free-for-all last summer when escaping girls ran toward the woods and jumped into the lake to swim away, employees chasing them and returning them, only to see them escape again. (Calo said none of them were injured.)
Just before that, sheriff鈥檚 deputies wrote that two kids had reportedly gotten high on methamphetamine that a Calo employee brought in her purse. (Calo said the employee was fired and the substance was never confirmed to be meth.)
Not long before that, deputies called to Calo were told staffers were outnumbered as teens 鈥渟tormed鈥� a room to attack another student. One boy climbed onto the roof, jumped, landed on rocks below and had to be airlifted to the hospital. (Calo said altercations happen among troubled kids, staff followed protocol in calling for help, and the boy who jumped sustained a sprained ankle.)
Stacy Roberts, who runs the local juvenile detention center, said his agency is frustrated by Calo and processes as many as a dozen cases each year involving Calo kids who live out of state.
Many families have decried the conditions at Calo as jail-like. Roberts rejects that comparison 鈥� because traditional juvenile detention centers like his are held to a higher standard, he said. Unlike Calo, Roberts answers to the public, a judge and the juvenile justice system, which monitors children鈥檚 stays within his facility.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a business,鈥� Roberts said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not doing this because they want to help. They鈥檙e making money off these kids.鈥�
Selling hope at a vulnerable time
Calo opened in 2007 with 40 beds and has expanded greatly since, with a capacity of 144 this year. It specializes in adoption trauma and says 90% of its clients are adopted.
Many are diagnosed with a rare condition called reactive attachment disorder, which experts say has been misapplied to many adoptees who struggle with the trauma of being divorced from their birth families and, for foreign adoptees, their country and culture.
The company says it鈥檚 treated thousands of young people ages 9 to 20 from more than 30 states as one of the nation鈥檚 largest for-profit centers of its kind, popular for out-of-state placements.
Critics ranging from advocacy groups to local law enforcement say serving faraway families has allowed places like Calo to avoid dedicated oversight and strict regulation.
Calo said it responds to serious incidents as required by law, and it 鈥渙perates under rigorous, continuous external oversight鈥� from governments that fund its students, some of which visit the campus annually or monthly.
And it defends its marketing efforts aimed at families in distress.
鈥淚t is a common misconception that for-profit entities are more expensive or less ethical than non-profit organizations,鈥� Calo said in a statement. 鈥淩eaching them through thoughtful outreach and advertising helps break down the mental health stigma that keeps people from seeking treatment 鈥︹��
Nationally, the need for youth mental health services has skyrocketed, along with its cost.
That demand, coupled with free-flowing public funds, has attracted investors. It鈥檚 estimated that the broader industry taps billions of dollars annually from government sources, including health programs, child welfare agencies, school districts and juvenile justice systems.
Calo was acquired around 2011 by a private equity firm led by the Stanford-graduate Alex Stavros, who over the next 13 years expanded the business by merging with other treatment centers to become the parent company Embark Behavioral Health. Stavros, who stepped down in 2024, did not respond to The Associated Press for comment.
Stavros claims in his LinkedIn profile that he built Embark to 38 programs across 20 states and achieved a remarkable 40-fold increase in revenue, to $180 million. Under his leadership, Calo shifted its business model 鈥渇rom entirely private pay to majority third party reimbursed,鈥� including both private health insurance and Medicaid, and a range of government programs.
This is so integral to Calo鈥檚 business model that Nicole Fuglsang, its current CEO, once led a presentation at an industry conference on how to diversify revenue. The 2014 session was titled: 鈥淪how me the Money 鈥� An Innovative Approach to Finding Funding for Families.鈥�
In the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, as residential programs struggled with enrollment, Calo kept admissions humming.
Among the residents in 2020: a 9-year-old boy adopted from Haiti. Illinois education funds paid for his stay there. He later told his mother he was bullied. Other kids used racial slurs against him and defecated and urinated on his bed, his mother said. When she took him out, he woke up screaming for weeks, she said, before finally telling her that he鈥檇 been sexually assaulted there by an older boy.
Calo officials later told law enforcement that they couldn鈥檛 substantiate the sex abuse claim and that the bullying was mutual, according to the incident report.
His mother, who the AP is not naming to protect the identity of her son, said she reported what happened to him to everyone she could: law enforcement, Illinois state authorities and Calo鈥檚 parent company. She felt that no one cared. Though they told her they investigated, she said she watched as Calo continued business as usual.
鈥淭he almighty dollar will prevail once again,鈥� she wrote to the Illinois State Board of Education, 鈥渁nd Calo will grow in wealth from school systems and cause harm to young children like my son.鈥�
A month after her son arrived at Calo, Embark called on dozens of industry people to talk business strategies. 鈥淒OING EPIC SH$T鈥� was printed on the cover of the August 2020 鈥淓mbark Academy Sales & Marketing Conference鈥� handbook. It featured a session on how to 鈥渙vercome objections鈥� with sales tactics to 鈥渂uild your client base and keep your pipelines full!鈥�
Attendees were urged to touch hearts to help 鈥渁ssure a doubting child or resentful spouse.鈥� In a session that touted admissions as a vital part of the treatment team, the handbook noted: 鈥淭he admissions person sells hope when the family is at their lowest and most hopeless, scary, and vulnerable time.鈥�
At Calo鈥檚 request, the AP called families who the company recommended and said had good experiences. Several said they believe the facility helped heal their children.
Bill Hayden said his daughter, who was adopted from Russia, was never harmed during the 15 months she was at Calo, starting in 2016. A retired doctor, Hayden believes Calo changed his daughter鈥檚 life, and said that his daughter agrees.
鈥淚 felt that they were dedicated professionals who were trying to do their best with about the toughest group of kids you could probably ever house,鈥� Hayden said. 鈥淲e were content that things were going as well as they could with kids with extraordinary problems.鈥�
Reported abuse, little accountability
A New Hampshire family said they paid about $100,000 for their adopted daughter鈥檚 10-month stay, beginning in June 2023, when she was 10 years old. The New Hampshire state government provided additional funds.
The girl had already suffered so much before her adoption 鈥� in-utero drug exposure, violence, sexual abuse and extreme neglect, her mother said. In her new home, she still struggled with mental health problems and increasingly explosive behavior.
Her mother remembers the red flags she ignored 鈥� how dirty the facility was and how unhappy the children looked. Her daughter woke up screaming during a visit months into her stay. Her mother found a disturbing journal entry: 鈥淚 had a vision that (she) attacked me but not just a few scratches,鈥� her daughter scrawled, naming the assailant. 鈥淚 had blood dripping everyw(h)ere.鈥�
Late one night weeks later, the mother鈥檚 phone rang. It was another mom whose daughter had been at Calo. The woman, from Illinois, told her both of their daughters had been molested by another girl.
The AP is not naming the mothers or their daughters because it does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault.
The mothers say they both reported their concerns to the same therapist who treated their daughters, and allege Calo covered up the assaults.
The Illinois mom said her adopted 11-year-old daughter was sent to Calo after struggling with thoughts of suicide. In February 2024, she told her mom that a girl in her preteen program had months earlier touched her genitals while lying next to her and had threatened to beat her up if she told anyone about it.
Such incidents of abuse were rampant at Calo, the girl said to her mom: 鈥�(She) touched me, but (she) touches everybody. Everybody knows that.鈥�
The mother says the Calo therapist first dismissed it as 鈥済irls playing footsie鈥� before the company acknowledged it had lost track of the daughter鈥檚 initial report. The mother also alleges the therapist and a Calo director later told her the issue had been 鈥渉andled,鈥� assuring her that the troubled girl was gone, so everyone was safe.
The mother was frustrated, but she believed Calo鈥檚 claim that it was just an innocent communication mistake and that the problem had been remedied.
Then, weeks later, the girl told her mother that the same attacker had done the same thing to an even younger girl, the one from New Hampshire.
Both families immediately took their daughters home and notified authorities. They are now among a group of families suing Calo.
After the mothers complained, Calo said it immediately reported it to authorities, including the state child welfare agency, which looked into it and 鈥渄etermined the claim did not meet the requirements for a full investigation.鈥�
鈥淲e acknowledge the delayed report due to a staff member not following the established protocols and failing to route the statement to the quality assurance team for processing,鈥� Calo said in a statement.
The Missouri Department of Social Services has previously noted that Calo has repeatedly failed to fully report serious incidents. In 2022, for example, the state ordered them to turn in five such missing files, to which a company official 鈥渁cknowledged Calo needs to change their practice as it is not currently working.鈥�
The mothers were also the first to report the allegations to law enforcement. The sheriff鈥檚 office told AP in a statement that deputies 鈥渞evealed what appears to be a mistake by Calo staff not reporting the allegations,” though deputies did not investigate further.
They also contacted authorities in their home states, some of which were helping to pay the tab for the girls to stay at Calo.
The Illinois mother said her daughter鈥檚 treatment was paid by a little-known program called the Family Support Program run by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services that is designed to fund behavioral healthcare. She learned about it from Calo. She and other Illinois parents told AP that they believed the state had vetted the program because it paid for so many kids at Calo.
That agency and the Illinois State Board of Education both list Calo among approved residential treatment programs they fund. Over the last decade, the two Illinois agencies have spent more than $35 million sending kids to Calo, according to data obtained by AP.
Last year alone, the Board of Education paid more than $1.6 million to send 13 kids there for special education services. Healthcare and Family Services spent $1.2 million for 19 kids. Some families used money from both.
Melissa Kula, an Illinois government spokeswoman, said in a statement on behalf of both agencies that they don鈥檛 oversee Calo鈥檚 day-to-day operations or regulate the facility, and rely on the Missouri government for Calo鈥檚 licensing and approvals.
The Illinois State Board of Education said the state doesn鈥檛 have a direct role in placements 鈥� it only reimburses school districts that determine where students go. The education department said it has never set foot on Calo鈥檚 campus. The law only requires on-site visits if the facility is within 50 miles (80.47 kilometers) of Illinois state lines.
鈥楢n effort to stonewall鈥�
Healthcare and Family Services visited for the first time in May 2024, after multiple reports of children suffering severe harm, including the girls from Illinois and New Hampshire.
The Illinois team of five nurses and officials arrived at Calo and the report of what they found there, obtained by the AP through a public records request, is scathing.
Calo administrators insisted they attend a new employee training session, and the team was shocked by what they saw, according to the report: It 鈥渨as only a drum circle,鈥� they wrote. 鈥淭here was no explanation regarding how the drum circle related to therapeutic activities nor any explanation of the purpose in training new employees.鈥�
To the AP, the company defended the drum circle as a 鈥渢herapeutic, experiential activity.鈥�
The Illinois investigators said they were 鈥渃losely controlled,鈥� and denied free access to much of the staff and property, including reviewing records and training curriculum. The team worried there was 鈥渁n effort to stonewall鈥� their inspection.
鈥淭his, along with witnessing the drum circle鈥檚 supposed training for new staff training led the reviewers to think that an organized training curriculum and training plan does not exist,鈥� the report said.
Calo asserts that investigators weren鈥檛 denied access to its campus but acknowledged that there was 鈥渁 disagreement鈥� over restricted records. Its employee had 鈥渁n error in judgment鈥� that the company said was promptly corrected, and that Illinois investigators were later offered full access digitally.
The Illinois team was also skeptical of claims the school made about their therapy methods, noting that staff was 鈥渘ot aware of any research鈥� supporting their effectiveness. They found the facility did not seem to have a 鈥減rofessionally appropriate鈥� understanding of serious mental health problems children likely suffered, such as bipolar disorder. Instead, Calo insisted that the children鈥檚 problems were always viewed as a symptom of adoption trauma.
Calo鈥檚 parent company, Embark, swooped in to negotiate changes. The Illinois investigators ultimately said they believed the company was committed to the 鈥渃ommendable鈥� swift reforms it pledged, including raising salaries and lowering capacity until it could hire more staff.
鈥淎t the end of the visit, we recognized that we may have talked past each other regarding our clinical offerings 鈥� something we were able to address and resolve through subsequent dialogue with the evaluators,鈥� Calo wrote in a statement.
Former teachers like Dustin Wood, who worked at Calo for six years as an English teacher before quitting in 2024, said when he tried to report his concerns to company leaders, Calo administrators stopped inviting him to parent retreats and started writing him up for infractions like contacting parents to discuss their children鈥檚 progress.
Wood said all employees got the same minimal training, whether as a teacher, cook or 鈥渃oach鈥� tasked with monitoring the children 24 hours a day. They were told all the kids had something called reactive attachment disorder, but were given no guidance as to how to help them, he said.
Calo said it conducts 40 hours of training. It said it investigated and addressed 鈥渋n good faith鈥� the concerns raised by Wood and another teacher that company officials 鈥渢hought were valid.鈥�
Wood said as Calo took on more kids, sometimes younger children mixed in with older teens, without enough adults to supervise them. It grew increasingly chaotic, he said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 not a single kid,鈥� Wood said of the students he worked with, 鈥渨ho left in better condition than when they started.鈥�
鈥楽he鈥檚 a runaway from Calo鈥�
One day last June, Amos Pierce jolted from a nap to the sound of his Ford F-150鈥檚 engine turning over. He ran outside and saw a girl hiding inside the truck.
He鈥檚 lived within earshot of Calo for decades, and figured she was from there, partly because he was so used to constant screams, escapes and vandalism, he told AP.
Pierce said he tried to coax the girl, who was screaming and crying, out of the truck. He had a daughter about her age, he told her. He wasn鈥檛 mad and wouldn鈥檛 hurt her. Come out, he said, and we can call the police.
鈥淚 could tell that girl was so scared that she was prepared to do whatever she had to do to get away from what had her in that panic state,鈥� he said.
He watched as she drove off, ploughing over his plants as she backed out of the drive, nearly careening into a ditch. She clearly was too young to know how to drive.
鈥淚 had tears in my eyes,鈥� Pierce said. 鈥淚 was upset, by tenfold more scared for that child than I was worried about my truck.鈥�
The girl鈥檚 desperate escape from Calo thrust her into a tense and at times dangerous encounter with law enforcement.
Deputies spotted the truck and followed, lights and sirens blaring. Two other police departments were called in. They stretched spike strips across the highway road to puncture the truck鈥檚 tires and stop her.
After she got out of the truck, at least one officer pointed a gun at her. The girl climbed over a median to dart across the highway, running into a swamp as officers chased her, according to Lake Ozark police body camera video obtained by AP. She panted and sobbed as she was arrested face-down on the side of the road, surrounded by officers.
Did anyone know who she was? One officer said simply: 鈥淐alo does. She鈥檚 a runaway from Calo.鈥�
The chase was also captured by the reality TV show 鈥淥zark Law,鈥� which reported that she was 15 years old and going as fast as 70 mph.
Sheriff Chris Edgar said the incident was a turning point for him.
For years, deputies often visited Calo for runaways, injuries, vandalism and assaults. When the AP asked about 17 specific reports involving serious incidents during the last five years, Chief Deputy Colonel Scott Hines of the Camden County Sheriff鈥檚 Office said most were found to be unsubstantiated.
The Missouri Department of Social Services is also called to Calo. Baylee Watts, a department spokesperson, declined to comment on individual cases, citing closed and confidential records, and said its role was to respond to every report and assist law enforcement.
Hines said Calo itself has never been investigated for wrongdoing.
But Edgar, who took office in January 2025, said after the girl stole the truck, he demanded Calo officials be more accountable.
鈥淭here was a lot of cases that they would not give witness statements. They wouldn鈥檛 talk to law enforcement. In a sense, preventing us from being able to investigate stuff. And that was one of the things that I had a problem with,鈥� he said.
Edgar said he even threatened to put them in jail if they prevented officers from going inside or interviewing kids and staff.
鈥淭hey have the care, custody and control of the child, so therefore, I feel the responsibility would bear with them,鈥� Edgar said.
Calo insisted it has a great relationship with Edgar鈥檚 office, and sent a photograph of a letter on Edgar鈥檚 letterhead supporting their business.
Edgar, whose son has worked at Calo, declined to send the letter directly to AP. He instead offered a different statement that says his office鈥檚 relationship with Calo has improved, including allowing deputies unrestricted access: 鈥淚 know things were not like this in the past, but this is refreshing to know everyone is working together.鈥�
He didn鈥檛 respond to follow-up questions.
Calo said its facility is open and unlocked, a place where 鈥渟tudents are free to move throughout the campus rather than being confined to their rooms or a single building.鈥� The girl who stole the truck, it said, was later sent to a facility with higher-level care, including locked doors, due to her history of running away.
鈥淚n this instance, a neighbor unfortunately left his keys in an unlocked car with doors wide open. A student who eloped took advantage of the accessible vehicle,鈥� Calo said.
Pierce, the neighbor, told the sheriff鈥檚 office he didn鈥檛 want to press charges against the girl, but wanted Calo held accountable.
Pierce鈥檚 daughter, meanwhile, took to social media. She urged that Calo be investigated because she believed the children there weren鈥檛 safe.
In response, Pierce said, a Calo employee admonished him and his daughter for the post, pleading with Pierce to take it down. He should keep a closer eye on his child, he was told.
Pierce was aghast. He wasn鈥檛 worried about his own kid, he said. He was worried about theirs.
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Ho is a former Associated Press reporter.
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