Utah revokes Provo Canyon School Springville licence after DHHS cites abuse and neglect

The Utah Department of Health and Human Services announced that Provo Canyon School’s Springville girls’ campus will have its residential treatment licence revoked, citing unnecessary restraint, aggressive physical contact and neglect in inspections dating to 2025; the licence cancellation requires all services at the campus to end by 6 August and the school has 15 days to appeal.

State regulators said inspections found failures to provide required health and safety services for clients and documented instances of inappropriate physical interventions and neglect at the Springville facility, which is described on the school’s website as an intensive psychiatric residential treatment centre for girls aged 12 to 18.

Paris Hilton, who testified to Congress about her experiences at the school in the 1990s and has campaigned to close it, said the state’s decision confirmed long-standing survivor accounts of abuse and neglect and noted that children still inside the facility would now have protection from the state action.

The school said it was reviewing legal and administrative options, including an appeal, and added that while the matter is ongoing its priority remains providing safe, high-quality care and support for adolescents and families.

Complaints to the state’s licensing agency, including recent filings, and calls for closure have come from former residents in addition to Hilton, and regulators earlier imposed temporary restrictions on the school’s boys’ campus in Provo after finding staff failed to protect a boy during a fight and did not seek immediate medical care for his injuries.

Hilton, now 45, spent nearly a year at the Springville campus in the 1990s when the school had different ownership; she has previously said she was physically assaulted, medicated and placed in solitary confinement during treatment programs and has since advocated against the troubled teen industry, testifying before Congress and state legislatures to seek protections for youth.