Hi Elisabeth,
I'm a foster parent in Indiana. In our community there are several possible reasons why a child might live in a group facility instead of a foster home:
1) The child has medical problems that require full-time care in a hospital or nursing home.
2) The child has mental health issues that require full-time care (i.e. schizophrenic adoloescents).
3) The child has behavioral issues that prevent her adjusting to family life. We have a residential mental health facility that takes kids as young as 10. These are kids that start fires, sexually act out with other kids, beat up other kids, constantly run away, make serious suicide attempts--the kind of behaviors that require 24-hour adult supervision. The show implied that this was what the Beckworth School was. I believe the term they used was 'problem kids.' Amy's little sister was much too young for a place like that, and all the Smart Kids were way too well-behaved for one.
4) The child is incarcerated because of criminal behavior (that would be Jimmy & Jack's juvie hall).
5) There aren't enough foster homes available. In that case, the youngest kids get 'first dibs' and the older teenagers could wind up in a group home whose focus is teaching them to live on their own when they age out of the system.
Ten is the youngest age I've heard of for a child to be placed in a group setting.
Hope that helps. If you have specific questions, shoot me an e-mail.
