Vista Del Mar: Absent Without State Accountability

Vista Del Mar Children and Family Services, Los Angeles, is one of the largest, most awarded and well-funded children's residential facilities in the state of California, with an annual revenue of nearly $50 million.Despite its sterling reputation, our investigation raises serious questions around its ability to ensure the safety of the vulnerable children in its care.Our investigation initially came to fruition as I began research on resources that were being offered for children in LA County who have been trafficked and sexually exploited, and the few residential treatment facilities some of these children are placed in as a result.Throughout the process, I discovered Vista, as it became apparent through public social services documents that a large number of abuse allegations were coming from the facility.Once the pitch was accepted by the Investigative Reporting Program, I began working in conjunction with reporter Taylor Barton.We have found that the facility has consistently failed to report missing children, leaving them vulnerable to injuries, sex trafficking and even death.Instead, the facility has developed a problematic overreliance on police to fill in the voids in care left by undertrained, underpaid and overwhelmed staff who are unprepared for the challenges of caring for this challenging population.By collecting first-hand testimonies and reviewing reports on nearly 200 visits from the California Department of Social Services, to years of state and county audits, and almost 2,500 calls for police service going back over a decade, we've found a serious gap between the frequency of runaways ("AWOLs") and other serious incidents and what Vista reports to the Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD), a subdivision of the state's Department of Social Services which oversees children's group homes.This gap in reporting puts children's lives at risk.Without accurate and timely reporting to partner agencies, children who run away from the group home are at a heightened risk of physical and psychological danger, including sex trafficking, access to drugs and even death.In 2016, Desiree Lawson, a 14-year-old resident of Vista's locked community treatment facility, went AWOL from children's court during her permanency review hearing while under the care and supervision of Vista employees.Vista had prior notice that Desiree was threatening to AWOL from her hearing, but failed to take precautions to keep her from fleeing.Desiree remained missing from Vista's care for almost three and a half months until she was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Canyon Country.Desiree's AWOL was never reported by Vista to the state, as required by law.According to the state's licensing regulations, Vista is required to report any unusual incidents, including client absences, that threaten the physical or emotional health of resident children to the CCLD by the next working day and follow up with a written report within seven days.In addition, it took a month for her case to be entered into the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children