CHILD SERVICES AGENCY LOOKING INTO DEATHS.

Byline: Douglas Haberman Staff Writer

With at least three more children dying since Friday, the county's Department of Children and Family Services held the first meeting Monday of an internal group that will look into the deaths of children who had some contact with the child welfare system.

``We're trying to find out whether there was any further evidence of abuse or neglect'' of children who were in the care of the county or whose families previously were contacted because of allegations of neglect or abuse, said Sandra Davis, the department's interim director.

``When there is a death of a child, there aren't enough hands you can throw in'' to find ways to prevent something similar from happening again, Davis said. ``This is to better our processes.''

A 1-month-old infant whose family previously had come to the attention of the department, and two children whose cases are being handled by the DCFS, have died since Friday, according to department memos to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The department's new panel will review deaths of children allowed to remain at home with their parents under DCFS supervision as well as fatalities involving children in foster homes and group homes. The panel will meet as often as needed, Davis said.

Ideally, the board will meet within 48 hours after the death of a child who had some involvement with the child welfare system, she said.

This will allow the department to act quickly if flaws in the system are revealed, Davis and interim chief deputy director Walt Kelly said.

The review board will comprise five or six DCFS staffers from the deputy director level or higher. The department also invited the County Counsel's Office to send a representative and extended an invitation as well to Children's Services Inspector General Victor Greenberg, who does longer and more thorough investigations than the review board is designed to conduct.

Greenberg said he is worried about maintaining his independence from the department and hasn't decided if he will attend review board meetings. But the review board is a good idea, he said.

``The more they self-examine themselves for purposes of improving the system, the better,'' Greenberg said.

``Anything the department can do to make its monitoring more effective is a good thing,'' said Andrew Bridge, executive director of the Alliance for Children's Rights. He is chairman of a new task force looking into how the county monitors its foster care system.