The Glen Mills Schools was founded in 1826, originally incorporated as the Philadelphia House of Refuge. The Philadelphia House of Refuge was the third school of its type in the country, following the New York House of Refuge in 1824 and the Boston House of Refuge in 1825.

In 1892, the school relocated to its current campus in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on nearly eight hundred acres, and in 1911 changed its name to the Glen Mills Schools. Today, the Glen Mills Schools is the oldest existing school of its type in the United States, continuously providing services to troubled youth for over one hundred and eighty-nine years.