Children's Aid Society

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New York City founded in 1853. It serves 150,000 children per year, providing foster care, medical and mental health services, and a wide range of educational, recreational and advocacy services through dozens of community centers, camps and other locations in the New York area. CAS has originated a series of child welfare innovations that have since become commonplace, such as:

  some of the first industrial schools

    the first parent-teacher associations

    the first free school lunch programs

    the first free dental clinics for children

    the first day schools for handicapped children

    the first kindergarten in the United States

    the first foster homes

    the first “fresh air” vacations, in which urban children visit host families in the country for the summer.

In 2011, The Children's Aid Society was rated 4/4 by charities rating organization Charity Navigator, for the 11th consecutive year.