Multiple psycho-social risk factors are common in children and adolescents in the youth welfare system. Residential care and day care are two intensive support measures of the German child welfare act. The indication for one of these two interventions depends from age, psychosocial burdens, regional disposability of day care and scholastic achievement or need for support in this area. The aim of this study is to compare psychiatric symptoms of 86 (mean age 11.6 years, SD = 2.8, 23% female) children and adolescents in day care and 689 (mean age 14.4 years, SD = 2.9, 30% female) in residential care. The psychiatric symptoms were assessed with the child behavior checklist and related to the German reference population. Both study groups reached high average scores in almost all scales and subscales of the CBCL. 72% (residential care) respectively 85% (day care) scored within the clinical range. The children in day care showed more symptoms in the Child Behavior Checklist then the children in residential care.