Using the cantons of Geneva, St. Gallen and Uri as examples, this article describes the development of legal instruments within the residential care sector for children and ado- lescents since 1940, with a strong emphasis on the means of the state to secure the quality of care. The goal of this article is to show that the quality standards resulting from the legislation processes were a product of political debates in which child protection was weighed against organizational and financial considerations. Furthermore, this article draws on a comparative perspective to illustrate the significant differences between can- tons when quality standards were implemented. Central to this was not only federalism, but also the concept of subsidiarity as a mode of statehood – meaning that the lowest possible level should be activated for a task – which resulted in a complex division of responsibility regarding control and financing between the different governmental and private actors.