The Dependent Child 171 



3. The plan of supporting public charges in 

 private institutions, which prevails in New 

 York, California, Maryland, District of Colum- 

 bia, and to some extent in several other states. 

 By per capita payments this plan encourages a 

 long retention and building up of large institu- 

 tions with a discouragement of placing-out. 



4. The boarding-out and placing-out system, 

 which is carried on directly by the public author- 

 ities in Massachusetts ; through a private organ- 

 ization — the Children's Aid Society — in Penn- 

 sylvania ; and has recently been undertaken by 

 the state authorities in New Jersey. 



Thus in three states dependent children are 

 directly boarded-out in family homes, followed 

 by eiforts made to place them in perma- 

 nent free homes. This plan was earliest 

 developed in Massachusetts, where it has been 

 successfully carried out on a large scale since 

 1882, when the children began to be removed 

 from the state primary school. The latter was 

 entirely abolished in 1895, since which time all 

 the state dependent children have been boarded 

 out. Three years later (1898) the city of Boston 



