DATABASE TO TRACK CHILD ABUSE\Computer links agencies to promote early intervention.

Byline: Susan Goldsmith Daily News Staff Writer

Los Angeles County on Wednesday began what officials say is the nation's first computerized system to track child-abuse cases.

The High Risk Family and Children's Index is a centralized database that is storing information about families and children who have been identified by public agencies as possibly at risk for abuse and neglect.

Information that once took months or years to collect is instantly available to public agencies through the $400,000 computer system.

"Because of the many thousands of children who are abused in our county, it is critically important agencies share information before children are hurt or killed," said Sheriff Sherman Block.

Funded with state and federal grants along with private donations, the index initially is housing information collected from three Los Angeles County agencies - the Sheriff's Department, the Department of Children and Family Services and the Department of Public Social Services.

A number of other public agencies - such as the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office - will be added within six months, Block said.

He described the network as an index where sheriff's deputies, social workers, police officers and others will be able to note a child or family's name where there is suspected or potential child abuse or neglect.

Once two or more agencies name a family or child, a Department of Children and Family Services social worker can follow up and decide whether intervention is warranted, said Deanne Tilton Durfee, the director of the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.

"This connects people together to discuss whether a child needs some kind of protection or if a family needs help to prevent a child from being hurt," she said.

She said that in the past, some children have been killed or severely injured because agencies were not communicating adequately with one another.

Legislation approved in 1992 authorized counties to establish computerized database systems to allow specified agencies to share certain information regarding families at risk for child abuse and neglect, Durfee said.

"This is not intended to be punitive and does not reveal confidential information," she said.

"It's simply speeding the process up and making it more efficient."

Bruce Rubenstein, deputy director at the Department of Children and Family Services, said that the index will be connected to other children's service agencies around the state within one year.