The third volume of a series on child variance discusses delivery systems that service emotionally disturbed children, including educational, legal-correctional, mental health, social welfare, religious, and counter-cultural institutions. Each type of institution is described extensively in terms of the history of its delivery systems in the United States; its current organization and operating principles; and the way in which it handles children in a fictional, typical community (Noah). Examined are such historical developments as the growth of public school involvement circa 1915-1946, the evolution of an independent juvenile court apparatus, the emergence of mental asylums in the Jacksonian era, and the antecedents of American colonial poor relief. Subtopics considered in relation to the structure of various service delivery systems include client population; personnel; programs, facilities, and intervention techniques; informational resources; power and political structures; and patterns of interaction with other systems. The roots of counter institutions (for example, free health clinics and communes) are examined in the context of historical radicalism, cultural rebellion, trancendentalism, and Bohemianism. The authors stress the importance of client focus (through cooperative interdisciplinary professional efforts to provide improved service), of advocacy for the whole child (rather than emphasis upon particular services provided by individual agencies), and of the need for schools to fulfill central roles as clearinghouses for clients of alternative systems. References are listed at the end of each major section. (LH)