He received his Ph.D. in 1931, having served an internship in child guidance. He wrote his dissertation on the measurement of personality adjustment in children. For 12 years, from 1928 to 1940, Rogers served on the staff of the Child Study Department of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Rochester, New York. Most of that time was spent in the diagnosis and treatment of delinquent and underprivileged children, and, in 1939, when the agency was re-formed into the Rochester Child Guidance Center, he was made director.