Section 7. The superintendent of each school or other institution, with the subordinate officers, shall have general charge of and be responsible for the welfare and custody of the children lodged therein, and for carrying out the rehabilitative program prescribed by the commissioner of youth services. He shall be a constant resident at the school, and, under the direction of the commissioner of youth services, shall seek to establish relationships and to organize ways of life that will meet the moral, physical, emotional, intellectual and social needs of the children under his care as those needs would be met in adequate homes.