The Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) has decided to hold off on additional construction at the embattled St. Mary’s Home for Children in North Providence.

A construction contract for a new building with 12 beds on St. Mary’s campus was approved in February 2023 and enjoyed the support of lawmakers, DCYF and Gov. Dan McKee, all of whom pointed to the need for more facilities that can provide intensive psychiatric care for the state’s youth, especially adolescent girls and transgender kids. 

But Kerri White, a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said via email late Thursday afternoon that DCYF has asked the Division of Purchases at the Department of Administration to pause the contract.  

“This is a pause in construction, not a termination,” White wrote. “The reason for the pause is that DCYF is waiting for additional leadership and organizational decisions to be made by St. Mary’s and Tides Family Services.”

The nonprofit Tides Family Services provides services in youth and families’ homes and schools around Rhode Island. In a joint announcement on May 8, the two organizations revealed Tides Family Services was taking over the management of residential clinical services at St. Mary’s, which was the subject of a scathing report from the Office of the Child Advocate highlighting abuse, neglect and misconduct there. The report made public in January led to a number of sanctions from DCYF and the Rhode Island Department of Health. It also generated numerous discussions at the State House over whether the construction, tentatively priced at $11 million and funded by pandemic dollars, should continue.   

DCYF manages child protective services as well as the foster care system in Rhode Island. It can also coordinate behavioral health services, like residential treatment at St. Mary’s, for children not in state custody. That’s partially due to a Medicaid extension the state filed in 2018, one which allows kids otherwise ineligible for Medicaid to receive treatment in a psychiatric residential treatment facility, or PRTF — a federally regulated form of intensive, residential psychiatric treatment for people under age 21. The extension does not require parents to give up custody to DCYF.    

The discovery of contaminated soil at the Fruit Hill Avenue site had already delayed construction earlier this year. During a March hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance, DCYF Director Ashley Deckert expressed hope that the new facility could begin taking patients as early as April 2025.

Deckert also underlined the need for the facility at a House Oversight Committee hearing in January, shortly after the release of the child advocate’s report. “We can’t lose this capacity. So it’s almost like a too big to fail sort of situation,” she said then.

Katelyn Medeiros, who leads the Office of the Child Advocate, which completed the report on St. Mary’s last December, was recently confirmed by the Senate as the state’s permanent child advocate after serving as the interim leader for two years. In a May 23 committee hearing before her final confirmation, senators were curious about the ongoing St. Mary’s situation. What was she going to do about it? 

“I am hopeful that we are going to see an improvement at this facility,” Medeiros told senators. “But right now, I’ll say my sole focus is the safety and well being of the children that are still placed there.”   

That also seems to be the focus of DCYF and the office of human services. 

“At this point, our focus is on supporting St. Mary’s and Tides’ collaboration efforts,” White said. “We will continue to monitor the situation before we determine when construction will start.”

St. Mary’s announced last month that the children currently residing there would be placed elsewhere. That leaves another gap in the state’s array of psychiatric residential treatment and other intensive behavioral care services. The lack of services was the subject of an investigation by U.S. District Attorney Zacahry Cunha, who released a report last month documenting overhospitalization practices at Bradley Hospital, another provider of intensive psychiatric services for youth.