Orphanages, in the dormitory-style sense most people picture, no longer exist in the United States. The last large institutions closed during the twentieth century, and children who cannot live with their parents today are placed with licensed foster families, with relatives, or, in a small minority of cases, in specialized residential programs that provide clinical treatment rather than long-term housing. On any given day, about 350,000 children are in foster care nationwide.
How the Country Moved Away From Orphanages
At the peak of the institutional era in the early 1900s, hundreds of orphanages housed children whose parents had died, were too poor to care for them, or were otherwise absent. The turning point came with the 1909 White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children, the first federal gathering on the subject. It concluded two things that still shape policy: children should not be removed from their families simply because of poverty, and children who do need placement belong in family homes, not institutions.
States responded by creating “mothers’ pensions” to help single parents keep their children at home. By 1920, most states had some version of these payments. Over the following decades, foster care expanded and orphanages either closed outright or converted into smaller residential programs. The transition was slow and uneven, but by the late twentieth century the institutional orphanage had essentially disappeared from American child welfare.
Where Children Without Parents Live Today
The modern system is run by state and county child welfare agencies, with funding and oversight from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Administration for Children and Families and its Children’s Bureau.1Administration for Children and Families. Grants | The Administration for Children and Families The governing principle is that children do best in families. When home is unsafe, the first move is to try services that let the child stay or come back quickly. When removal is unavoidable, the system looks for the closest thing to an ordinary family it can find.
Foster Family Homes
The most common placement is with a foster family: adults licensed by the state to care for a child on a temporary basis while the case is worked out. Federal law requires that foster care maintenance payments cover food, clothing, shelter, daily supervision, school supplies, personal incidentals, liability insurance, and reasonable travel for visitation and school stability.2US Code. 42 USC 675 – Definitions What foster parents actually receive varies widely by state, the child’s age, and the level of care required.
Kinship Care
Federal law directs states to prefer relatives over unrelated caregivers. Within 30 days of removing a child, the state must exercise due diligence to identify and notify all adult grandparents, parents of the child’s siblings, and other adult relatives, and explain how they can participate in the child’s care.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 671 – State Plan for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Some relatives become licensed foster parents and receive the full maintenance payment; others take the child in through less formal arrangements with less financial support. Research consistently shows better outcomes for children placed with kin than with strangers.
Residential Treatment Programs
A small share of children in care live in group settings, but these are not orphanages in any meaningful sense. They are typically small, licensed facilities serving children with serious behavioral health needs, trauma histories, or disabilities that require round-the-clock clinical care. The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 tightened this considerably: to draw federal funding, a congregate care setting must qualify as a Qualified Residential Treatment Program, which means using a trauma-informed treatment model, employing licensed nursing and clinical staff, assessing each child through a qualified individual, and getting court review of the placement within 60 days.4Child Welfare Information Gateway. Family First Prevention Services Act – P.L. 115-123 The whole framework treats residential care as short-term treatment, not a place to grow up.
Why Federal Law Now Pushes Against Institutions
Family First is the clearest expression of the modern policy stance. It did two big things. It opened up Title IV-E federal funding for prevention services, including mental health treatment, substance abuse programs, and in-home parenting support, so families can get help before a child ever enters foster care. And it restricted federal funding for group placements to Qualified Residential Treatment Programs meeting the clinical standards above.4Child Welfare Information Gateway. Family First Prevention Services Act – P.L. 115-123 The federal government will pay to keep children with families. It will not pay to warehouse them.
Earlier laws set the same direction. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 made child safety paramount and shortened the timelines for moving children into permanent homes, requiring states to begin terminating parental rights once a child had been in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months, with some exceptions.5Child Welfare Information Gateway. Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 – P.L. 105-89 The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 added the 30-day relative notification rule, created kinship guardianship assistance, and let states extend foster care past age 18.6Congress.gov. H.R.6893 – Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008p>
How Children Reach a Permanent Home
Federal law sets an order of permanency goals, and caseworkers and courts work through them in sequence.7Child Welfare Information Gateway. Permanency
Reunification
For most children entering foster care, the first goal is going home. The agency works with the parents on whatever led to the removal, whether substance abuse, domestic violence, housing instability, or mental health. Courts check progress at set intervals. When the parents complete their plan and the home is safe, the child returns. This is by far the most common outcome.
Adoption
When reunification is not safe or cannot happen within the timelines the law allows, the goal shifts to adoption. A court must first terminate parental rights before a child is legally free to be adopted. In federal fiscal year 2024, roughly 47,000 children were adopted from foster care, while about 70,000 children with an adoption goal were still waiting for a permanent family, including about 35,000 who were already legally free at year’s end.
Families who adopt from foster care can claim a federal adoption tax credit of up to $17,670 in qualified expenses for tax year 2026, of which up to $5,120 is refundable.8Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 Children adopted from foster care who meet the state’s special needs definition may also qualify for ongoing monthly adoption assistance payments through Title IV-E.9Child Welfare Policy Manual (CWPM). TITLE IV-E, Adoption Assistance Program, Eligibility
Guardianship
Guardianship creates a permanent legal relationship between a child and a caregiver, usually a relative, without fully terminating the birth parents’ rights. The guardian handles day-to-day and major decisions. Under the Fostering Connections Act, states can offer kinship guardianship assistance payments to relatives who take legal guardianship of children they previously fostered, including up to $2,000 for the nonrecurring legal costs of obtaining guardianship.6Congress.gov. H.R.6893 – Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement
APPLA is the least preferred goal and is available only for youth 16 and older. It applies when reunification, adoption, and guardianship have all been ruled out and the agency documents compelling reasons why. In practice it often means a long-term foster family or committed mentor. Courts treat it as a fallback.
What Happens When Youth Age Out
Not every child in care finds a permanent family. Youth who remain in foster care until the age of majority “age out,” and their outcomes are hard. Studies show elevated rates of homelessness, unemployment, incarceration, and substance dependence compared with peers who grew up in families. Fewer than three percent earn a college degree.
Several federal programs are meant to soften the landing. The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood funds state services including education support, employment training, financial literacy, housing help, and connections to caring adults. The Educational and Training Voucher Program, funded through Chafee, provides up to $5,000 a year for post-secondary education, available to eligible young people up to age 26 for a maximum of five years.10Administration for Children and Families. John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood
Twenty-six states have federal approval to extend foster care to eligible youth up to age 21 under the Fostering Connections Act.11U.S. Government Accountability Office. Foster Care: States with Approval to Extend Care Provide Independent Living Options for Youth up to Age 21 In those states, an 18-to-21-year-old can stay in a supervised independent living arrangement, such as an apartment with regular caseworker contact, while finishing school or working. Extended care is optional for the young person, and eligibility depends on staying engaged in education, employment, or another approved activity.
So the short answer holds. There are no American orphanages to send a child to. There is a system, imperfect and uneven, built on the premise that a family, someone’s family, is where a child belongs.