The paper is an initial attempt to establish the quality of residential care for children in Berlin and to develop a draft evaluation procedure for residential educational support services. Until now, there have been only a few studies on the criteria for good residential care. Furthermore, there has been significant resistance within the professional field and possibly in education as a whole to engage with the issue of quality. Residential care has faced and continues to face strong criticism in the public eye. In particular, providers of outpatient services, such as daycare centers and youth recreational facilities, argue that residential care is not worth the considerable expense. The costs of residential care far exceed those of outpatient services. Therefore, the question arises whether preventive support in education should be preferred over residential placement.