After bombshell report, head of St. Mary's Home for Children is out. What comes next?

The top administrator at St. Mary’s Home for Children has stepped down following a critical report that described the North Providence residential treatment center for youth as having “significant safety concerns and abusive living conditions.”

Carlene Casciano-McCann built a 30-year career at St. Mary’s, serving as the home’s executive director since 2008.

Episcopal Bishop W. Nicholas Knisely, chairman of St. Mary’s board of directors, announced Casciano-McCann's departure Thursday, a day after The Providence Journal revealed the findings of a 119-page report by the state Office of the Child Advocate.

Legislative leaders call for hearings after bombshell report

Meanwhile Thursday, leaders in the state's House and Senate called for legislative hearings into the operations at St. Mary’s, noting their deep concern over the issues raised in the report.

The report, based on an eight-month investigation, portrayed the home for about 30 traumatized and high-risk youth in state care as often chaotic and sometimes violent.

Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio and House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said the findings called for legislative hearings to, as Ruggerio said, “ensure accountability and determine if additional legislative action is necessary.”

The report chronicled instances of children being assaulted by other children, sometimes sexually, staff fired for misconduct, children being “injured in restraints,” at least one on-campus drug overdose, and administrators who admonished other workers for raising issues about resident safety “that could cause trouble for St. Mary’s.”

One parent of a resident told investigators from the child advocate's office of being told their child had gone missing last summer and arriving at St. Mary’s to find “bikers searching the campus for the missing child.”

The report said "the bikers informed this family of places in the woods the kids run off to and that they helped locate two boys the week before" who had left the campus.

Bikers Against Child Abuse invited to campus

In June, St. Mary's invited members of “Bikers Against Child Abuse” onto the campus to serve as “a deterrent to human traffickers.”

The arrangement was made without the knowledge or approval of the state Department of Children, Youth & Families, which places children in the home and is ultimately responsible for their care.

According to the child advocate’s report, St. Mary’s administrators “failed to ensure that appropriate clearances and background checks were completed” prior to the club members’ arrival.

Investigation started after suspected overdose

The child advocate's office began investigating in April after a 17-year-old girl was found unconscious from a drug overdose on the bathroom floor of a residential unit. A rescue crew administered two doses of Narcan to revive her.

A three-member team of investigators from the child advocate’s office interviewed staff, residents and the parents of children in the home, and reviewed hundreds of pages of documents and emails, as well as hours of video footage of common areas in the Fruit Hill Avenue center.

Last February, state officials announced a new partnership with St. Mary’s to build an $11-million, 12-bed facility on the agency’s North Providence campus for adolescent girls needing psychiatric care.

The facility would be completed by November 2024 with an anticipated opening date sometime in spring 2025.

More: Overdoses, assault and restraints: Inside a damning report on St. Mary's Home for Children

St. Mary's board makes management change

In a written statement Thursday, Bishop Knisely said St. Mary’s board of directors learned about the details in the child advocate’s report last month as it was being finalized and began meetings with officials at DCYF and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

“As soon as the board learned that St. Mary’s needed to do better for Rhode Island’s children, we committed to working actively with our state partners to make significant changes in St. Mary’s management, child safety procedures and protocols, and staff recruitment and training,” Knisely said.

Toward that end, the bishop announced that the board had appointed Charles A. Montorio-Archer, “an experienced executive leader of children’s services organizations,” as interim executive director effective Jan. 8. He is most recently president and CEO of One Hope United in Chicago, according to a spokeswoman for the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island.

“As we enter a new season of leadership at St. Mary’s, the whole board has confidence that Charles will bring the energy, focus and management expertise that our organization needs to serve Rhode Island’s most vulnerable children and youth,” Knisely said.

“Charles is committed to redoubling our commitment to providing the best possible treatment and care for children facing serious issues that include psychiatric illness, sexual abuse and trafficking, and special education needs. We are delighted to welcome him to the St. Mary’s team.”

“We are grateful for Carlene’s deep care for St. Mary’s and the children of Rhode Island, and we wish her well in retirement,” Knisely said.

Casciano-McCann did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment on the day’s events.

St. Mary’s Home opened its doors in 1877 as an orphanage within the Episcopal diocese.  According to the home's website, it maintains five residential units with a total occupancy of 37 children, between the ages of 6 and 18, though some residents stay until they “age out” of the DCYF system at 21.

DCYF has contracted with St. Mary’s for psychiatric residential treatment services since 2019. But on Wednesday, a DCYF spokeswoman said the department had imposed a ban on further placements “until further notice” because “significant issues” remain at the home.

Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: St. Mary's Home for Children head replaced after bombshell report