Rethinking 'Orphanages' for the 21st Century:
Residential Schools As An Option For At-Risk Children and Youth

A Forum — January 29, 1999

While families with economic resources have traditionally enrolled their children in "prep schools," residential schools for poor children are surrounded in controversy, states Heidi Goldsmith, Executive Director of the International Center for Residential Education (ICRE). ICRE is a Washington, DC-based, non-profit organization founded in 1993 to educate the public and policy makers about residential schools for at-risk children and youth, share best practices and offer technical assistance to new schools.

According to Goldsmith, residential schools for children who are orphaned or are from destitute or single parent homes have existed in this country since 1629. Many children educated in those schools became well-adjusted adults with fulfilling personal and professional lives and a few of them are currently administrators and staff in the same schools where they were raised. However, the debate on residential schools has been tarnished by Dickensian images of abuse and neglect and in the past three decades, their number and influence has decreased.

A new interest in residential schools has resurfaced in the past few years and some states, such as Minnesota, have passed, or are about to pass, legislation to create residential schools, most as charter schools. Residential schools follow different models and receive different sources of funding. Job Corps, with 116 centers nationwide, is the largest federally-funded residential school model. Some schools, such as Indiana's Sailor's Home are funded by the states. Others are privately funded, such as Eagle Rock in Colorado, funded by Honda Corporation, or the Milton Hershey School, funded by a private endowment. Residential schools may seem expensive, with an average cost of $25,000 a year to educate and provide room, board and clothes to each student. However, in the long-run, Goldsmith says, these schools prove to be a cost effective way to ensure high quality education and support to children who would otherwise run the risk of dropping out of school, remaining unemployed or getting involved with the court system.

Joseph Devlin is Head of Girard College in Philadelphia, PA, one of the oldest residential schools in the country. The College was founded by an endowment from Steven Girard and accepts about 100 children each year from an application pool of 3,000. The school is geared toward preparing students for college, and emphasizes high academic standards, moral education and community service. Girard students are involved in after-school athletic programs and in a diverse array of arts and science clubs. In addition, they are provided health services, including mental health. Their retention rate is as high as 87 percent and 95 percent of their graduates go on to college. Bamidele Oluwole is a Junior at Girard. Growing up in New York, Oluwole stayed mostly alone, while his mother worked long hours to raise him. After coming to Girard, he found a second family in the staff and his peers. Oluwole plans to return to Girard after he graduates from college to help his younger peers because, "it takes a village to raise a child." For Oluwole, Girard has been this village.

C. Frank Frame is Superintendent of the Scotland School for Veterans' Children, in Scotland, PA. The school was founded after the Civil War to care for orphans of veterans and later evolved into a residential school for economically disadvantaged children who had a veteran in the family. The school receives state funding. A recent survey of Scotland's graduates showed that 70 percent of Scotland's students go on to college, 15 percent join the military and at least 10 percent are gainfully employed. Scotland alumni include judges and university professors, and some have attended the West Point Academy and other prestigious universities. Chrissie Rodgers, a junior at Scotland, stated that the school has changed her life from an under-achiever without plans for the future to a member of the National Honor Society. Although her family has given her the opportunity to leave Scotland and return home, Rodgers decided to stay because she realizes that at Scotland, "students are not numbers, but individuals." Grady McBride is also a junior at Scotland, where he attends the ROTC program and is a residential assistant, responsible for watching and mentoring a group of twelve third graders. McBride came to Scotland when he was five years old because his mother believed that he would have more chances to succeed at the Scotland school than in the Philadelphia neighborhood where they lived. Scotland taught him that he should always try and not be afraid of failing. Now McBride looks toward his future with hope and pride.

Boston University Residential Charter School at Granby, MA, opened in 1998 and serves adjudicated youth. The school receives part of its funds from the state Department of Education and part from the Departments of Social Service and Juvenile Justice. Edward J. Gotgart, Head of the School, cites the story of one student aged 13 who had lived in 14 foster homes and attended eight different schools before entering the charter school. Another student, a 17 year-old still in middle school, was witness to a murder committed by members of his own gang and cannot return home. Being a charter, the school creates its own rules and searches for creative ways to expand funding, as students arrive with such complex problems and require so many services, expenses remain very high. Currently, Massachusetts has 17,000 youths in custody and not enough foster homes to accept them, explains Gotgart. Some are sleeping in hotels with no one to care for them. However, professionals and the public continue to distrust residential schools and resist sending youth to them.

The main problems faced by residential schools are funding, governmental regulations and public attitude. The schools are expensive and need continuous funding for operational expenses, maintenance and repair of facilities, and retention of good faculty. Governmental regulations, such as Child Labor Laws, make it difficult for school administrators to require students under 16 to do chores. The schools and the students are also hurt by the general lack of understanding about what residential schools are and what they can do students. Residential schools are not for everyone and cannot be a solution for all the problems that afflict youth. However, for disadvantaged youth, they can provide a safe and structured environment, good education and a family atmosphere that is essential for success in life.

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