RESUMO
We studied 56 boarding institutions caring for 834 children and adolescents with different kinds of difficulties or handicaps in the Swiss Canton of Vaud. In order to weigh the purely qualitative approach we performed two different statistical analyses: 1) a correlation matrix between all qualitative and quantitative variables with the daily individual cost of the institutional care. This cost has been calculated in a standard manner and independently of each institution's accounts. 2) a factor analysis of the collected data led us to the identification of different patterns of institutional functioning. This study stresses the importance of the staff/pupil coefficient, i.e. the richness of the pedago-therapeutic framing--the intervention of specialists such as special teachers, psychologists, and speech and/or motor therapists-, and more particularly the higher ratio of specialist help compared to pure educative staff. The severity of the cases, evaluated by independent specialist observers, was in direct relation to this factor independently of the kind of difficulty or handicap.
