stuck kid
n.— «Ms. Sudders explained that when she was commissioner of the Department of Mental Health, the term “stuck kids” was used to describe the phenomenon of children being backlogged and kept in emergency rooms because there weren’t enough psychiatric beds for them. The term was later used for children in psychiatric beds who were not being moved into the community.» —“’Stuck kids’ are on the decline” by Lisa D. Welsh Worcester Telegram & News (Massachusetts) Dec. 18, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
After our conversation about nighttime wakefulness, a Sacramento, California, woman shares the funny story behind the term she and her husband use for that phenomenon: squeegee. This is part of a complete episode.
Related
Ribbon fall. Gallery forest. You won’t find terms like these in most dictionaries, but they and hundreds like them are discussed by famous writers in the book Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape. The book is an intriguing collection...