Facility profile Utah

Discovery Ranch

Open

Professional affiliations:
National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (member since 2005)
Northwest Association of Accredited Schools (accreditation)1, 2, 3

Utah licenses:
Discovery Ranch, Mapleton, license 93408, residential treatment
Discovery Ranch South, Cedar City, license 93244, residential treatment, capacity 60
Mapleton placed on conditional status with admissions halted on November 28, 2024, after a resident’s death; the admission ban was later lifted by letter4, 5, 6, 7

Discovery Ranch (boys)
1308 S 1600 W, Mapleton, UT 846641, 4

Discovery Ranch South, also marketed as Discovery Ranch for Girls
4928 N 4500 W, Cedar City, UT 84721 (girls program, moved from Mapleton in 2013)2, 4, 8

Founded August 21, 2005
Operated by Ascent Companies (Ascent OPCO, LLC; Discovery Ranch, Inc.; Discovery Ranch for Boys, LLC)
Sister programs: RedCliff Ascent, Discovery Academy, Discovery Connections, Oxbow Academy1, 9, 10

Marketed to boys aged 13 to 18; capacity about 60; average stay about ten months; tuition reported between $6,500 and $12,000 a month1

Introduction

Discovery Ranch is a residential treatment program for teenage boys in Mapleton, Utah, opened in 2005 by the Ascent Companies, the Enterprise, Utah operator that also runs RedCliff Ascent, Discovery Academy, Discovery Connections and Oxbow Academy. Its girls program, opened on the same campus, moved to Cedar City in 2013 and operates there as Discovery Ranch South, marketed as Discovery Ranch for Girls. The program’s motto is “Strength in the Struggle,” and it is best known publicly for its “calf program,” in which each new resident is given a calf to raise.1, 2

Survivors describe a merit-and-demerit level system, censored and monitored contact with parents, seclusion and restraint, food used as punishment, and sexual abuse by peers that staff failed to prevent. Two lawsuits allege repeated sexual assault of a resident by another resident, in 2014 and again in a three-month placement described in a 2026 federal complaint. On November 5, 2024, 17-year-old Biruk Silvers died by suicide at the Mapleton campus after telling his therapist he had a plan; Utah licensers substantiated that staff failed to supervise him and failed to follow the program’s own suicide prevention policy, placed the campus on conditional status, and his parents sued in 2025. Both campuses remain licensed and open.1, 10, 9, 11, 4, 12

Discovery Ranch is also part of a lineage: Discovery Academy, its Provo sibling, was founded in 1989 by former Provo Canyon School staff, and several Discovery Ranch leaders began their careers at Provo Canyon School.13, 1

Disclaimer: This overview is intended for informational and educational purposes only. It is based on publicly available materials, including news reporting, Utah Office of Licensing records, court documents, and survivor testimonies that have been shared publicly. Allegations are described as allegations unless a court or regulator has made a finding. Kids Over Profits does not independently verify each account.

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History

  • 1989: Discovery Academy opens in Provo, founded by Dennis Eugene Thorne, Robert Crist and Brent Hall, all formerly of Provo Canyon School. It becomes the seed of the Discovery family of programs.13
  • August 21, 2005: Discovery Ranch opens in Mapleton as a co-educational program with boys and girls kept on separate parts of the campus. It joins NATSAP the same year and is listed in NATSAP directories from 2005 through at least 2024.1, 3
  • 2009 to 2013: Woodbury Reports, the newsletter that steered educational consultants toward programs, features Discovery Ranch repeatedly; the program’s own marketing, cost sheets and admissions materials from this period are in the document library below.3
  • 2013: The girls program moves to a new campus in Cedar City and is marketed as Discovery Ranch for Girls. Mapleton becomes boys only. A 2013 log of police calls to the Mapleton campus is in the document library.2, 1, 3
  • January to February 2014: A resident is repeatedly sexually assaulted by another boy in his dorm, according to a family’s later complaint; the assaults come to light only when the other boy is removed after being found engaging in bestiality with a horse. The family sues in 2015, alleging the program failed to screen and supervise the assailant and that its merit system deterred the victim from reporting.1, 14
  • 2015: A George Washington University thesis by Catherine Kushan cites Discovery Ranch as an example of how the industry markets legitimate diagnoses to solicit clients.15
  • 2016 to 2018: Utah inspection reports from June 2016, January 2018 and July 2018 are preserved in the document library.3
  • August 18, 2017: Frederic Yeomans IV, an Arizona resident, files suit against Discovery Ranch, Inc. in Utah County alleging repeated sexual assault by another resident that the program failed to prevent.10, 16
  • September 2019: A sexual misconduct report dated September 5, 2019 is preserved in the document library.3
  • 2020: Survivors post detailed accounts on Yelp and Google after Paris Hilton’s documentary draws attention to Utah programs; several describe reviews being removed. A July 2020 runaway (AWOL) report is in the document library. A former Discovery Ranch for Girls staff member reports a male staff member was fired that year for a sexual relationship with a minor resident.1, 2, 17, 18, 3
  • 2022 to 2024: Utah licensers cite the Cedar City campus repeatedly for late reporting of critical incidents, supervision lapses, staffing ratios and facility conditions, many marked as repeat noncompliance. The Mapleton campus is cited for late critical incident reports in October and November 2023 and July 2024.4
  • November 5, 2024: Biruk Silvers, 17, dies by suicide at the Mapleton campus. A state investigation on November 6 substantiates four violations: failure to provide supervision matching a client who had expressed suicidal intent, failure to protect him, failure to follow the suicide prevention policy, and failure to report the incident on time to the state and to his guardians.11, 4, 19
  • November 28, 2024: The Utah Department of Health and Human Services places the Mapleton license on conditional status, halts new admissions and orders suicide prevention training and compliance plans. The notice, the December 12 inspection and the later letter lifting the admission ban are in the document library.5, 6, 7
  • December 31, 2024: A complaint investigation at Discovery Ranch South substantiates eight violations in one visit, including a ratio of five staff to 22 clients for four hours, a client left unsupervised for about three hours, meals used as punishment, staff calling clients liars and attention seekers, and two clients reaching a sharp object in the staff office and injuring themselves.4
  • February 21, 2025: Katy Silvers tells the Utah Senate Judiciary Committee that her son told his therapist he had a detailed plan and the program never informed the family, in support of SB297, which would fund an independent ombudsman for the industry.20
  • March 2025: A parent reports that Utah’s professional licensing division disciplined Discovery Ranch therapist Ray Orbin for handing a self-harming, suicidal resident a knife, that the Division of Child and Family Services substantiated emotional abuse, and that leadership including Ascent owner Steven Nadauld, executive director Clint Dorny and clinical director Matt Child defended him.21, 1
  • May 17, 2025: The Silvers family sues Discovery Ranch Academy, the University of Utah, which employed Biruk’s psychiatrist, and Pilcrow Advisors, the educational consultant that recommended the program.12, 16
  • April 28, 2026: An Associated Press investigation into adopted children confined in for-profit facilities names Discovery Ranch among the programs.22
  • May 28, 2026: Landen Liparote files a federal suit against Discovery Ranch, Inc., Discovery Ranch for Boys, LLC, Ascent OPCO, LLC and therapist Dorothy Ah Quin, alleging repeated sexual assault, forced unpaid labor, food deprivation and trafficking violations during a three-month placement.9, 16
  • June 2026: The Cedar City campus is cited twice more for late critical incident reporting, the state noting repeat noncompliance dating to 2024 and 2025. Both campuses remain licensed.4

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Ownership and Staff

Ascent Companies. The operator, based in Enterprise, Utah, traces to RedCliff Ascent, a wilderness program opened in 1993. Its programs include RedCliff Ascent, Discovery Academy in Provo, Discovery Connections in Orem, Oxbow Academy and the two Discovery Ranch campuses. Court filings name the entities Ascent OPCO, LLC, Discovery Ranch, Inc., Discovery Ranch for Boys, LLC, Discovery Ranch for Boys Real Estate, LLC and Discovery Ranch Holdings, LLC. Steven Nadauld is identified by a parent as the owner.1, 8, 9, 10, 21

Leadership. Clinton (Clint) Dorny is executive director; he began his career in admissions at Provo Canyon School. Matt Child is clinical director; Craig Smith held the role earlier. Brent Hall, co-founder of Discovery Academy and its executive director, formerly of Provo Canyon School and for a time a NATSAP director, is reported by survivors to have run the ranch. At Discovery Ranch for Girls, Andrea Burgess is executive director after leading RedCliff Ascent from 1996, and Jennifer Hedrick is clinical director after the same role at Moonridge Academy and RedCliff Ascent; Jack Hinman, an earlier clinical director, went on to run Moonridge Academy and Kolob Canyon RTC.1, 2, 21

Other staff named in records. Therapist Dave Blackwell came from Provo Canyon School. Residential director Leslie Glies moved to RedCliff Ascent. Therapist Tim Lowe worked at both campuses and at Outback Therapeutic Expeditions. Academic director Clint Firth taught at Logan River Academy. Therapist Ray Orbin was disciplined by Utah’s licensing division after the 2025 knife report and remained on staff. Therapist Dorothy Ah Quin is a named defendant in the 2026 Liparote complaint.1, 2, 21, 9

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Program and Practices

Levels and merits. Residents move through five levels by earning points and avoiding demerits. Survivors describe privileges as basic as sitting on a couch, speaking aloud or eating an apple being withheld, and level drops for infractions as small as a facial expression. The Yeomans complaint alleges the merit system itself deterred a boy from reporting sexual assault, because he believed his low status would get him punished.1, 17, 10

The calf program. Each new resident is assigned a calf to raise. Survivors report the animals are later slaughtered to teach residents “how to deal with loss,” and describe daily manure duty and ranch labor. The 2026 Liparote complaint frames unpaid labor at the ranch as forced labor under federal trafficking law.1, 23, 9

Contact with family. Letters are read and censored and phone calls are monitored, by several accounts limited to one supervised call a month. Survivors describe parents being told their children were lying or manipulating when they reported mistreatment.1, 2

Seclusion, restraint and food. Accounts from 2013 through 2020 describe residents held in isolation for days or weeks, physical restraints that left bruising, staff refusing bathroom access, undercooked or insufficient food, and, at the Cedar City campus in 2024, state findings that meals were used as incentive or punishment.1, 23, 17, 18, 4

Supervision. Utah’s substantiated findings at both campuses cluster around supervision: line-of-sight checks not performed, staffing ratios not met, staff sleeping on shift, uncleared staff working unsupervised, residents with self-harm histories left alone, and critical incidents reported late to the state again and again.4

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The Death of Biruk Silvers

Biruk Silvers was 17 when he died by suicide at the Mapleton campus on November 5, 2024. According to his parents’ legal notice and later lawsuit, he had shared suicidal thoughts with his psychiatrist and told a therapist he had engaged in a dangerous oxygen-deprivation behavior, yet staff allowed him to be alone and did not restrict access to a belt. His family says they raised concerns in the days before his death and were told not to withdraw him.11, 12

The Utah Office of Licensing investigated the next day and substantiated four violations: supervision not commensurate with a client who had expressed suicidal ideation and intent, failure to protect him, failure to follow the program’s suicide prevention policy, and failure to report the incident within one business day to the state and within 24 hours to his guardians. On November 28 the state placed the license on conditional status and halted admissions. The program was fined and remains licensed. Biruk is remembered on the In Loving Memory page.4, 5, 12, 19

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Utah Licensing Record

Kids Over Profits mirrors Utah Office of Licensing records on the Utah inspection reports page. From March 2023 to June 2026 the Mapleton campus (license 93408) was inspected 47 times with 9 substantiated findings: late critical incident reports in October and November 2023, July 2024, November 2024 and January 2025, and the four findings from the November 6, 2024 death investigation. From November 2022 to August 2026 the Cedar City campus (license 93244) was inspected 53 times, including 21 investigation inspections, with 26 substantiated findings. Among them:4

  • December 6, 2023: a client ingested non-edible objects on six occasions, requiring repeated emergency room visits, without a higher level of supervision.4
  • September 18, 2024: fifteen-minute check-ins not performed, a repeat finding.4
  • December 31, 2024: eight findings in one complaint investigation, including five staff for 22 clients, a client unsupervised for about three hours, meals used as punishment, staff telling clients to shut up and calling them liars, alcohol-based perfume accessible to clients, environmental hazards in the cabins, and two clients injuring themselves with a sharp object taken from the staff office.4
  • February 12, 2025: a client with a history of sexual misconduct was able to act sexually with a peer for want of supervision.4
  • March 20, 2025: two clients went missing, were marked present, and the incident was not reported; a client with recent self-harm was not supervised for that risk.4
  • May 14, 2025: a night staff member found sleeping on shift, a repeat finding.4
  • June 12, 2025: a staff member working unsupervised before background clearance, pre-service training not completed, and an initial background screening not submitted on time.4
  • November 4, 2025: a non-functional bedroom light and mold on a shower ceiling, a repeat facility finding.4
  • June 9 and 10, 2026: a May 28 critical incident reported days late, cited twice as repeat noncompliance going back to March 2024.4

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Lawsuits

  • Family v. Discovery Ranch (reported February 2015). A former resident and his family alleged he was groomed and violently sexually assaulted by another boy in his dorm in early 2014, that the merit system kept him from reporting, and that the program failed to screen the assailant.14, 1
  • Frederic Yeomans IV v. Discovery Ranch, Inc. (Fourth Judicial District Court, Utah County, filed August 18, 2017). Negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, medical negligence and sexual abuse claims over repeated assault by another resident. The complaint is in the document library.10, 16
  • Silvers v. Discovery Ranch Academy, et al. (Utah, filed May 2025). Biruk Silvers’ parents allege negligence leading to his death, violation of the program’s suicide prevention policy, failure to create a care plan and supervise him, and failure to restrict harmful items. The University of Utah and Pilcrow Advisors are co-defendants.12, 16
  • Liparote v. Discovery Ranch, Inc. et al. (U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, 2:26-cv-00503, filed May 28, 2026). Landen Liparote alleges repeated sexual assaults, forced unpaid labor, food deprivation and other mistreatment during a three-month placement, with claims including negligence, fraud, labor trafficking, failure to report and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the operating entities and therapist Dorothy Ah Quin. The complaint is in the document library.9, 16

All three filed cases are in the lawsuits directory.

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Survivor Voices

Content warning: the accounts linked here describe sexual abuse, restraint, seclusion, self-harm and suicide.

Anonymous (2013), who attended at 15 in the co-educational years, describes being forced to lick manure from another resident’s boots and unclog a toilet by hand, male staff watching residents shower, days locked in a dark closet for “inappropriate facial expressions,” and a friend beaten and assaulted after trying to run away. She writes that the days were pleasant enough that she doubted her own memory until a psychology class brought it back.23, 1

Jackson (2020), transferred from RedCliff Ascent, describes privileges reduced to sitting on something other than a wooden chair, hearing friends screaming during restraints, a friend stabbing his own arm with a pencil, and a boy raped repeatedly under threat of the merit system until he left the program.17, 1

Jack (2020) counts two suicide attempts witnessed, a resident isolated for about four weeks before transfer, higher-level residents expected to reassure touring parents, and staff refusing bathroom access.17, 1

A parent (March 2025) describes the knife incident with therapist Ray Orbin, the licensing discipline and child welfare finding that followed, and leadership’s defense of him.21, 1

From Discovery Ranch for Girls: Annie (2019) describes two weeks in a room, let out only to shower in front of staff; Daniela (2020) describes being denied a vegan diet she had kept for three years and developing bulimia as a result; a former staff member (2020) describes underfeeding and a male colleague fired for a relationship with a minor.18, 2

These and further accounts, with links to the original posts, are collected in the r/troubledteens wiki entries for Discovery Ranch and Discovery Ranch for Girls, which Kids Over Profits mirrors, and at HEAL.1, 2, 24

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Document Library

Kids Over Profits holds NATSAP directory listings from 2005 to 2024, Woodbury Reports coverage from 2009 to 2013, admissions packets and the admission agreement, cost sheets, a 2022 outcomes report, the 2024 license re-application, Utah inspection reports from 2016 and 2018, the 2013 police call log, the 2019 sexual misconduct report, the 2020 runaway report, the November 2024 conditional license notice and December 2024 inspection, the letter lifting the admission ban, and the Yeomans and Liparote complaints. The full folder is also on the Discovery Ranch document library page.3

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News

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Related on Kids Over Profits

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Sources

Bracketed numbers in the text refer to these sources. Kids Over Profits pages are linked directly; outside links open in a new tab.

  1. r/troubledteens wiki, “Discovery Ranch” (mirrored by Kids Over Profits). reddit.com/r/troubledteens/wiki/index/discoveryranch
  2. r/troubledteens wiki, “Discovery Ranch for Girls” (mirrored by Kids Over Profits). reddit.com/r/troubledteens/wiki/index/discoveryranchgirls
  3. Kids Over Profits document library, Discovery Ranch folder. /document-library-discovery-ranch/
  4. Utah Office of Licensing inspection records for licenses 93408 (Mapleton) and 93244 (Cedar City), mirrored by Kids Over Profits. /ut-reports/
  5. Shaylee Navarro, “State agency restricts license of Utah County treatment center where teen died,” The Salt Lake Tribune, November 28, 2024. sltrib.com/news/2024/11/28/limits-put-discovery-ranchs/
  6. Utah Department of Health and Human Services, conditional license notice F22-93408, Discovery Ranch Mapleton, November 26, 2024 (PDF). kidsoverprofits.org/wp-content/uploads/2024-11-26-Discovery-Ranch-M…
  7. Utah Department of Health and Human Services, letter lifting the admission ban, Discovery Ranch Mapleton (PDF). kidsoverprofits.org/wp-content/uploads/Letter-lifting-admission-ban…
  8. Kids Over Profits program index records for Discovery Ranch and Discovery Ranch South. /tti-program-index/?search=Discovery%20Ranch
  9. Liparote v. Discovery Ranch, Inc. et al., No. 2:26-cv-00503 (D. Utah), complaint filed May 28, 2026 (PDF). kidsoverprofits.org/wp-content/uploads/Liparote-v-Discovery-Ranch-C…
  10. Frederic Yeomans IV v. Discovery Ranch, Inc., complaint, Fourth Judicial District Court, Utah County, filed August 18, 2017 (PDF). kidsoverprofits.org/wp-content/uploads/Yeomans-vs-Discovery-Connect…
  11. Shaylee Navarro, “Discovery Ranch staff failed 17-year-old boy before his death, family alleges in legal notice,” The Salt Lake Tribune, November 19, 2024. sltrib.com/news/2024/11/19/discovery-ranch-academy-staff/
  12. Jessica Schreifels, “Parents sue Utah’s Discovery Ranch over teen’s death,” The Salt Lake Tribune, May 17, 2025. sltrib.com/news/health/2025/05/17/parents-sue-utahs-discovery-ranch/
  13. r/troubledteens wiki, “Provo Canyon School,” on the founders of Discovery Academy. reddit.com/r/troubledteens/wiki/index/provocanyon/
  14. Courthouse News Service, “Family alleges bestiality at alternative school,” February 13, 2015 (archived). web.archive.org/web/20150225214720/https://www.courthousenews.com/2…
  15. Catherine Kushan, “The Troubled Teen Industry: Commodifying Disability and Capitalizing on Fear,” George Washington University, 2015. scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/downloads/rb68xb93w?locale=en
  16. Kids Over Profits lawsuits directory. /lawsuits/
  17. Survivor and parent reviews of Discovery Ranch, Mapleton, Yelp (reviews not currently recommended). yelp.com/not_recommended_reviews/discovery-ranch-mapleton
  18. Survivor and staff reviews of Discovery Ranch for Girls, Cedar City, Yelp (reviews not currently recommended). yelp.com/not_recommended_reviews/discovery-ranch-for-girls-cedar-city
  19. Kids Over Profits, In Loving Memory, record for Biruk Silvers. /in-loving-memory/
  20. Jessica Schreifels, “Their kids died in Utah teen treatment programs. Now, these parents are asking Utah lawmakers to beef up oversight,” The Salt Lake Tribune, February 21, 2025. sltrib.com/news/health/2025/02/21/troubled-teen-industry-utah/
  21. Parent account of therapist Ray Orbin and the licensing findings, r/troubledteens, March 15, 2025. reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/1jbotr4/discovery_ranch_child_a…
  22. The Associated Press, “AP investigation: Adopted kids confined in private for-profit facilities,” April 28, 2026. apnews.com/article/adopted-children-boarding-schools-treatment-inve…
  23. Anonymous survivor account, Tales from the Black School, October 13, 2013. tales-from-the-black-school.blogspot.com/2013/10/drruinedmylife-at-…
  24. HEAL, program information, Discovery Ranch. heal-online.org/discoran.htm

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