Utah revokes Provo Canyon School license over health and safety violations

State citations detail failures in care, restraint, and background checks

The Utah Department of Health and Human Services revoked the license of Provo Canyon School’s campus in Springville, with the action taking effect Monday. The state’s letter said the school had “failed to provide applicable health and safety services for clients” and ordered all services terminated by Aug. 6. The school has 15 days to request a hearing.

The citations cover a wide range of noncompliance issues dating to 2025, including failing to increase staff-to-client ratios, engaging in an unnecessary restraint and aggressive physical contact with a client, neglecting care, and not verifying employee information or submitting background checks in a timely manner. In May, state health officials imposed temporary restrictions on the school after staff did not seek immediate medical care for a student with serious injuries, according to the state.

Hilton, 45, spent nearly a year at the school in the late 1990s. She has alleged that staff members beat her, watched her shower, fed her unknown pills and locked her in solitary confinement without clothing. The hotel heiress and media personality has testified about her experiences before Congress and state legislatures across the country, helping pass laws to protect teens in Utah and 15 other states.

“For more than fifty years, children came forward with stories of abuse, neglect, and trauma,” Hilton said in a statement Tuesday. “Today, the state confirmed what survivors have known all along: Provo Canyon School failed the children in its care.”

“I was one of those children,” Hilton said. “I know what it feels like to cry for help and believe no one is coming. Today, children still inside that facility know someone is finally coming to protect them.”

Provo Canyon School is described on its website as a psychiatric residential treatment facility for youth ages 12 to 18. In June, Hilton returned to the school to speak in support of two families who filed lawsuits alleging their children were mistreated there.

The school is under new ownership, and its administration has said it cannot comment on anything that came before the change, including Hilton’s time there. The school did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Utah has long played an outsized role in the “troubled teen industry,” a network of private, for-profit residential centers for children with behavioral issues.