StepStone shuts down boys group home in Calloway, more closures planned

By Jessica Paine/The Murray Sentinel | Sept. 29, 2024

Residents gather for a public meeting to discuss the proposed relocation of boys group home to the Elm Grove community.Photo byJessica Paine/The Murray Sentinel

MURRAY – After operating two group foster homes in Calloway County for over a decade, StepStone Family and Youth Services shuttered its boys facility on Rockwood Road earlier this month and plans to close its girls facility on Robertson Road South by the end of the year, ceasing all operations in a community known as the “Friendliest Small Town in America,” according to several anonymous sources.*

“We can’t place children where they are not wanted,” one source with direct knowledge of the situation told The Sentinel last week.

StepStone is a for-profit company that specializes in providing qualified residential treatment services to 10- to 17-year-olds, who are in the state’s foster care system. The company, which is a subsidiary of BrightSpring Health Services, operates group homes for boys and girls across the commonwealth, including, until recently, four in the Purchase Area – one each in McCracken and Graves counties and two in Calloway – one for boys and one for girls.

“StepStone is always focused on our commitment to the safety and well-being of children in foster care across the Commonwealth of Kentucky and throughout our entire network,” BrightSpring Vice President of Communications and PR Leigh White wrote last week in an emailed statement. “As we prioritize our foster services through foster families, our focus remains on helping all children find a loving, welcoming, and safe place to call home. We thank our employees, community leaders in the Purchase Area, and the Department of Community-Based Services for their ongoing support and commitment to the well-being of the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable children.”

The company began experiencing significant pushback from the community in the summer of 2022 as it began efforts to relocate the boys facility it operated on Back Street. Well over 70 people attended a public meeting regarding the proposed relocation of the home to a property in the Southwest Villa subdivision that July to voice their opposition to the move.

Chris Hempfling, BrightSpring’s vice president of service excellence and stakeholder relations, said in an interview that, because of the comments made during that meeting, the company did not feel that the children would be in a “safe, loving and supportive community” at that location.

After finding a suitable property on Rockwood Road in the Elm Grove community, StepStone held another public meeting last October, and while the atmosphere was tense and emotions were high, many expressed empathy for the plight of the children at the heart of the discussion in addition to their concerns.

Calloway County Sheriff Nicky Knight attended the meeting to voice his concerns about the potential strain on county resources if the home was moved into his jurisdiction.

“I’ve got two units,” Knight said. “Other people in the county need my help, too. So, leave it in the city; we’ll be glad to help the city if we need to help the city because the city can’t come all the way out there to where you’re going to help us.”

Ultimately, StepStone decided to proceed with the relocation to Rockwood Road, and residents moved into the new facility last month. Four days later, a 17-year-old male living in the home allegedly attempted to assault an employee. When Calloway County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at the home, the juvenile fled into the surrounding cornfield, commencing an hours-long manhunt that required assistance from Calloway County Fire-Rescue and two K-9 units with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office.

In an interview after the incident, Knight said that he met with representatives from StepStone after the October meeting and told them, “‘We’ll give it a try because you’re going to do it. But the first time we have something,’ I said, ‘I will do everything I can to shut you down… on both places,’” referring to the girls facility on Robertson Road South.

“I’ve complained to everybody I know to complain to; and I’m still looking for somebody else to complain to, and I’m not done looking,” he said, adding that he wants the public to know his office is “doing the best we can to keep it contained, and I’m doing the best I can to get it shut down.”

But StepStone’s experiences with blowback from the communities in which it operates are not limited to Calloway County. Graves County Sheriff Jon Hayden said that, because of his experiences with the StepStone group home in his county, he understands Knight’s concerns.

“In the past, we have experienced some of the issues that authorities in Calloway County have experienced,” Hayden said. “Our problems got so bad that our county attorney got involved and we had a meeting with the administration of that company and expressed our concerns in that there wasn’t enough staffing present in the homes, wasn’t enough supervision and we demanded – demanded – that problem be corrected because we were being called out to this location multiple times a week, sometimes multiple times in a 24-hour period for the same children. It was absolutely exhausting our resources.

“They could be charged with neglect if their custody and care of these kids is so subpar that they allow these kids just to run off – they don’t go try to find them. It’s just like your own children – I mean, they are their children legally – you have to control them. And if you don’t have the staffing to do it, then that’s neglect. That’s what they were threatened with, and that got their attention.”

Since then, Hayden said that his office has not really had problems with the home. Regardless of improved relations between the company and officials in Graves County, a source with knowledge of the situation, StepStone plans to close that facility as well as the one in McCracken County by the end of the year.

The company will, however, continue to operate traditional foster homes in the area and encourages anyone interested in serving as a foster parent to visit their website.

The Sentinel reached out to Knight, but he declined to comment on this story.

*View our anonymous sources policy here.