Source: Utah S.B. 127 (2021) — Human Services Program Amendments

Summary

Enrolled S.B. 127, 2021 General Session, sponsored by Sen. Michael K. McKell with Rep. Brady Brammer as House sponsor. It is the statute behind the first substantial tightening of Utah's oversight of youth residential treatment in more than a decade, and the load-bearing document for Utah Congregate Care Oversight Reform.

The bill does four things that matter: it defines "congregate care program" as a class of licensee, raises inspections from routine to quarterly with unannounced visits, requires restraint, seclusion, and critical incidents to be reported within one business day, and enumerates practices a program may not use on a child. That last list is the most informative passage in the document — a legislature does not prohibit inducing pain to obtain compliance in the abstract.

Useful Claims

• "Congregate care program" becomes a defined licensing category in Section 62A-2-101, covering four kinds of provider that serve a child: an outdoor youth program, a residential support program, a residential treatment program, or a therapeutic school. Every duty below attaches to that class.
• Inspection frequency moves to each calendar quarter, with at least two unannounced. Section 62A-2-118 previously let the Office of Licensing inspect "on a routine basis"; the bill adds a floor. It also lets a substantially similar inspection by another government entity satisfy the requirement.
• Restraint, seclusion, and critical incidents must be reported within one business day of the day they occur — a rule the bill puts in the Office of Licensing's rulemaking duties in Section 62A-2-106, replacing a bare requirement that licensees "report incidents".
• Section 62A-2-123 is enacted, and prohibits a list of named practices as cruel, severe, unusual, or unnecessary: inducing pain to obtain compliance, hyperextending joints, peer restraints, punishment intended to frighten or humiliate, forced uncomfortable positions, forced physical exercise as punishment, aggressive physical contact, denial of an essential program service, depriving a child of a meal, water, rest, or toileting, denial of shelter, clothing, or bedding, withholding personal interaction, and prohibiting the child from entering the residence. Strip and body-cavity searches are permitted only where the program determines and documents that the search is necessary for health or safety.
• Chemical and mechanical restraints require the Office of Licensing's prior authorization; a passive physical restraint is allowed only if supported by a nationally or regionally recognized curriculum in non-violent intervention and de-escalation.
• Seclusion is limited to immediate-safety use where no less restrictive intervention would do, and may not be used for coercion, retaliation, or humiliation, or because of inadequate staffing or staff convenience. A staff member familiar to the child must actively supervise throughout.
• Programs must facilitate weekly confidential family communication, and may not use family contact as a reward or withhold it as a punishment.
• Suicide prevention policies become mandatory and subject to the office's review and approval, with eleven enumerated elements from warning signs to post-intervention planning.
• Section 62A-2-124 is enacted, requiring an individualized assessment when classifying and placing an individual, and policies against sex- and gender-based abuse, discrimination, and harassment.
• The bill appropriates nothing. Its own front matter reads "Money Appropriated in this Bill: None" — the funding for additional inspectors that contemporaneous reporting attributes to this reform is not in this document.

Verbatim

"99 (9) 'Congregate care program' means any of the following that provide services to a 100 child: 101 (a) an outdoor youth program; 102 (b) a residential support program; 103 (c) a residential treatment program; or 104 (d) a therapeutic school." — Section 62A-2-101, definitions

"473 (b) (i) The office shall enter and inspect a congregate care program at least once each 474 calendar quarter. 475 (ii) At least two of the inspections described in Subsection (1)(b)(i) shall be 476 unannounced." — Section 62A-2-118, administrative inspections

"414 (A) report the use of a restraint or seclusion within one business day after the day on 415 which the use of the restraint or seclusion occurs; and 416 (B) report a critical incident within one business day after the day on which the 417 incident occurs;" — Section 62A-2-106, office rulemaking duties

"886 (1) A congregate care program may not use a cruel, severe, unusual, or unnecessary 887 practice on a child, including:" — Section 62A-2-123(1)

"892 (c) inducing pain to obtain compliance; 893 (d) hyperextending joints; 894 (e) peer restraints;" — Section 62A-2-123(1)(c)–(e)

"902 (k) depriving the child of a meal, water, rest, or opportunity for toileting; 903 (l) denying shelter, clothing, or bedding; 904 (m) withholding personal interaction, emotional response, or stimulation;" — Section 62A-2-123(1)(k)–(m)

"936 (b) may not use a chemical or mechanical restraint unless the office has authorized the 937 congregate care program to use a chemical or mechanical restraint;" — Section 62A-2-123(3)(b)

"950 (ii) may not use seclusion: 951 (A) for coercion, retaliation, or humiliation; or 952 (B) due to inadequate staffing or for the staff's convenience." — Section 62A-2-123(4)(a)(ii)

"980 (c) may not use family contact as an incentive for proper behavior or withhold family 981 contact as a punishment." — Section 62A-2-123(6)(c)

"26 Money Appropriated in this Bill: 27 None" — Front matter

Reliability Notes

Primary tier: enrolled Utah legislation, at the Legislature's own address. le.utah.gov is on the mandated-host list, so no archive snapshot is owed; the capture in raw/ exists to make the quotes checkable, not to insure the document.

The capture carries the bill's line numbers inline, because the Legislature's HTML prints them. Quotes above therefore read "473 (b) (i) The office shall…". The numbers are the document's, not this wiki's.

An enrolled bill is what passed, not what took effect as written. Section text here is the 2021 language; Title 62A, Chapter 2 was later recodified into Title 26B, so the current Utah Code citations for these provisions differ — S.B. 297 (2025) amends 26B-2-101 and 26B-2-124, the descendants of the sections this bill wrote. Cite this document for what the 2021 Legislature enacted; check the current Code before describing today's law.

What the document does not establish. It carries no enactment date (see the bill's status record), no count of licensed programs, no appropriation, and nothing about whether any of these duties were enforced. The prohibited-practices list is evidence that legislators chose to prohibit those practices; it is not, by itself, evidence that any particular program committed them.

Related Pages

• Utah Congregate Care Oversight Reform
• Source: Utah S.B. 127 (2021) Legislative Status Record
• Source: Utah S.B. 297 (2025) — Congregate Care Amendments