Heather Vogell

Reporter

Photo of Heather Vogell

Heather Vogell is a reporter at ProPublica. She is currently investigating the rental housing market.

Previously, she wrote about President Donald Trump’s business entanglements and collaborated with reporters at WNYC on the podcast “Trump, Inc.” Her 2019 stories on discrepancies between what the Trump Organization told New York City property tax officials and what it reported on loan documents won an award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.

She has also exposed abuse at group homes for the developmentally disabled and high schools that push out low-achievers to goose their graduation rates.

Previously, she was a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where her work on test cheating in the public school system resulted in the indictments of the superintendent and 34 others.

A series she co-authored, “Cheating Our Children,” examining suspicious test scores in public schools across the nation, was a 2013 finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. She has also received a Sigma Delta Chi Award for non-deadline reporting, the Hillman Prize and multiple Education Writers Association awards for her investigative work.

Before the Journal-Constitution, she worked at The Charlotte Observer, Chicago Tribune and The Day, in New London, Connecticut.

Camera Catches Shoving Match with Group Home Worker Before Teenager’s Heart Stopped

A video shows a healthy 15-year-old going into her bedroom at a for-profit AdvoServ facility. Thirty-two minutes later, she had no pulse. Nobody’s saying what happened.

Maryland’s Move to Pull Children From Group Homes Came Too Late for Teenager Who Died

After unannounced inspections revealed deficiencies, Maryland stopped placing young people at Delaware facilities owned by AdvoServ.

Teenage Girl Dies After Incident at For-profit Group Home

The 15-year-old was a resident at a Delaware facility owned by AdvoServ, which has faced decades of reports of abuse.

Florida Cracks Down on Troubled For-profit Facility for the Disabled

After years of reports of abusive treatment, Florida is moving residents out of Carlton Palms.

FDA to Massachusetts Group Home: Stop Shocking Disabled Residents

The government questions whether The Judge Rotenberg Center has been straight with families about the risks of its electrical shock devices and alternative treatments.

Restraints

It took one mother seven years to learn that the for-profit school she trusted with her son had strapped him down again and again, one time after not picking up his Legos.

What Happened to Adam

It took one mother seven years to learn that the for-profit school she trusted with her son had strapped him down again and again, one time after not picking up his Legos.

Unrestrained

While evidence of abuse of the disabled has piled up for decades, one for-profit company has used its deep pockets and influence to bully weak regulators and evade accountability

Virginia Passes Bill to Rein in Restraints of School Kids

Many schools in the state still have no policies or rules around pinning kids down.

Massachusetts Tightens Rules on Restraining, Secluding Students

Under new rules, Massachusetts schools will not be allowed to use certain techniques to restrain or isolate students as frequently and will have to report all restraints and injuries.

New York City Sends $30 Million a Year to School With History of Giving Kids Electric Shocks

New York City kids make up the vast majority of the students at Massachusetts’ infamous Judge Rotenberg Center, and keep getting sent there despite repeated evidence of abuse.

Federal Investigators Crack Down on Two Virginia Schools’ Use of Restraints

Investigators found that children were being regularly pinned down or isolated and that their education was suffering as a result.

Meet the Groups Fighting Against Limits on Restraining School Kids

Republicans say it is a matter of states' rights.

Can Schools in Your State Pin Kids Down? Probably.

Public schoolchildren across the country were physically restrained or isolated in rooms they couldn’t leave at least 267,000 times in the 2011-2012 school year, despite a near-consensus that such practices are dangerous and have no therapeutic benefit. Many states have little regulation or oversight of such practices. This map shows where your state stands.

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