Timeline shows how students’ stories, Star coverage led to Missouri reform school law

Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday signed House Bill 557 into law, ending a practice that for nearly four decades allowed Missouri’s unlicensed boarding schools to operate with no state oversight.

The bill signing capped an effort to regulate the state’s Christian reform schools that began in early 2020 with former students and gained momentum last summer after authorities raided Circle of Hope Girls Ranch in Cedar County. That school’s owners now face 100 charges including statutory rape, sodomy, physical abuse and neglect, and another Cedar County facility — Agape Boarding School for boys — is currently under investigation for allegations of abuse.

Under the Child Residential Home Notification Act, Missouri’s unlicensed boarding schools now must register with the state, submit to health and safety inspections and conduct background checks on all employees.

Failure to comply with notification and health and safety inspections, or if a facility is suspected of abuse or neglect, could result in the boarding school being shut down or the removal of children.

Here’s a timeline of key events in the process.

▪ Aug. 14-15: Amid an abuse investigation, state and local authorities remove about two dozen students from Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville in Cedar County.

▪ Early September: Rep. Keri Ingle, a Lee’s Summit Democrat, calls for a legislative hearing after reading The Star’s investigation of abuse allegations at Circle of Hope.

▪ Sept. 12: Boyd and Stephanie Householder, Circle of Hope owners, speak to The Star for two hours and proclaim they’re innocent. They also say they have closed the school permanently. Story here.

▪ Oct. 1: The Star reports that the Missouri Highway Patrol spent months in 2018 investigating physical and sexual abuse allegations at Circle of Hope but federal prosecutors declined to file charges against the Householders.

▪ Nov. 8: Former students at Agape Boarding School, also in Cedar County, tell The Star that they reported abuse at the boys school for years but no one listened. Story here.

▪ Nov. 9: Shocked at the reports of abuse at some of the state’s reform schools, members of a Missouri House committee hold a hearing in Jefferson City and vow to take action.

▪ Nov. 14: Former boarding school students hold a rally in Stockton calling on lawmakers to stop abuse inside unlicensed facilities.

▪ Nov. 17: Gov. Mike Parson directs the Missouri Attorney General to assist Cedar County authorities in the investigation of Circle of Hope Girls Ranch.

▪ Dec. 18: Rep. Ingle and Rep. Rudy Veit, a Wardsville Republican, pre-file two identical bills that, if passed, would for the first time give the state oversight of unlicensed reform schools.

▪ Feb. 11: Emotions run high at a House hearing as former students of Missouri’s unlicensed boarding schools testify and plead with legislators to stop the abuse they say has gone unchecked for years.

▪ Feb. 26: The highway patrol confirms it’s conducting a criminal investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at Agape Boarding School.

▪ March 9: The Householders are arrested and face 102 criminal charges, including statutory rape, sodomy and physical abuse and neglect. Attorney General Eric Schmitt calls the abuse “extensive and horrific.”

▪ April 14: At a Senate hearing on the reform school legislation, senators vow to do “whatever we can” to stop the abuse at unlicensed facilities.

▪ May 13: Legislation implementing oversight of Missouri’s unregulated Christian boarding schools overwhelmingly passes both chambers and is sent to the governor.

▪ June 13: Two former Agape students tell The Star they were gang raped by staff members in 2009 and 2010. Several other students have reported being sexually abused at the school by individual staff members and students.

▪ July 14: Gov. Mike Parson signs House Bill 557 into law. Because lawmakers attached an emergency enactment clause to the measure, it becomes effective immediately.