Zyphial

I really don't know the first thing about orphans and orphanages except what movies and a few novels have told me. I doubt these are credible sources, so I have a few questions. I ask these primarily on the basis of believability, but fact is also very good to know.

1) When an orphanage closes, what happens to the orphans therein? Are they ever transfered or moved out of state?

2) What is the average population of an orphanage in a small town (estimated population of little over 2,000)?

3) Are teenagers and small children often held in the same orphanage?

4) Are siblings separated (between orphanages) as part of a policy, or are they generally kept together? What if the orphanage is closed?

5) Do small towns usually have orphanages, or are they sent to larger cities?

6) Do large cities with overcrowded orphanages ever transfer orphans to smaller cities?

7) Do orphanages often double as semi-private day schools, or is it more likely that those who are orphaned are sent to public schools and merely live in an orphanage?

Can someone abandon their children - under the (false) pretense of being unable to support them - and give them to an orphanage?

alanmt

I am not sure where you're located, and whether you're asking a historical question or about current practices.

In the United States, orphanages no longer exist, per se. Where family fails to step forward, Child and Family service agencies assume temporary custody of children who are lose both parents. This agency has a mandate to try and find a family placement for the children. In the rare absence of that, they are placed in foster care until an adoptive family can be found. For orphaned children, foster placements are with a foster family in a private home, unles the children have special needs. Generally, the state attempts to keep siblings together in foster and adoptive placements, but it is not always possible.

If you want historical information about American orphanages, begin with google and hitting your library.

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Zyphial

I see... I tied google, but was far too tired to wade through the usual useless results to find the diamonds in the rough. I had thought an orphanage was a good explanation of why four unrelated children of very different ages might be living together. Two are siblings, and one of those is in their late teens alongside another. The parent's of the siblings abandoned them, and the parents of the other teenager and final child are dead (or presumably dead in the youngest's is case). The story is modern, or at least within the immediate past. I had no idea that orphanages no longer exist. I got side-tracked in my research on wikipedia and wound up reading about adoption and then - of all things - converting adult cells of either gender to sperm cells () rather than orphanages.

Does anyone have any suggestion? Thanks for the info, though.

Non Serviam

Yup. They live with a professional foster-carer.

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lin

Actually orphanages still exist, but mostly run by churches and other non-governmental charitable institutions.

In my experience it's more likely for urban orphans to end up in rural orphanges than the other way around.

Church orphanages attempt to keep families together. State foster care, in my experience, will break them up if that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Orphanges generally send their kids to local schools. With foster care system, I'd say they ALL do other than a few odd home-school holdouts. A practice which would probably be strongly frowned on and discouraged by state child welfare systems.
I worked at a rural orphanage that was a school years ago before there was even much of a town, but at the time I worked there kids bussed to school in town...a 45 minute drive.

Regarding age groups, I've seen little tendancy to age segregate in institutions and the state system generally has no policy on it. They kid of want to keep things as much like a normal family as they can, even in foster care.

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NaCl

Here in Sacramento, California, we have one of the oldest (over 100 years) private orphanages in the state. This link to their website will give you the ability to learn more about their services and structure. They are neither government, nor religious.

Sacramento Children's Home - Get Help for Children & Families

Sacramento is a fairly good sized city and they receive children from many nearby communities because their environment is excellent as compared to some of the pathetic "foster care" placements offered by the government.

.....NaCl

lin

How are they funded, NaCl? Donations?

Actually the one I worked at was neither state not church, though it got a lot of support from churches all over sending them things. It was a holdover from something that has almost died out in the U.S.--philanthropy.

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