The scope of this article, founded on a nationwide survey in Denmark, is first to describe the social characteristics of families with a child placed outside home, and, further, to examine whether differences in regard to the parents’ social background are correlated with different placement courses. A range of hypotheses on the correlation between social background and the course of placement are examined. It appears, for example, that children from low‐resource families come into contact with the social system earlier, and are placed outside the home at an earlier age than children from high‐resource families. Low‐resource children are more often placed in foster care, and are more often subject to contact restrictions. The article discusses whether these differences reflect a socio‐cultural discrimination. Secondly, a discussion is raised whether the supportive measures available are adequate in relation to the serious problems of the families concerned.