KIDS' DEATHS SHOCK OFFICIALS; RECENT FATALITIES UNDER REVIEW.

Byline: Douglas Haberman Staff Writer

The deaths of three children since Friday in county care, or whose families have had some contact with the county's child welfare system, renewed calls Tuesday for action and reform.

The recent deaths bring to 17 the number who have died since May - a number that child welfare experts said is intolerable.

For the same May-through-August period last year, the department recorded seven deaths. And there's still one week left in this August.

``It's an unusual number of deaths in such a short period,'' said Victor Greenberg, the county's Children's Services inspector general.

He said he will search for a pattern, including mistakes by employees of the Department of Children and Family Services, flaws in the department's policies and procedures, and similar holes throughout county government - from law enforcement to mental health services - that might have contributed to the children's deaths.

It's still too early to say whether there are any patterns emerging to explain the rash of deaths, Greenberg said.

``This just isn't supposed to happen,'' said Andrew Bridge, executive director of the nonprofit Alliance for Children's Rights. ``It's unacceptable. It's horrible.''

``Any way you look at it, it's very high,'' said Deanne Tilton, executive director of the county's Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, which tracks all child deaths countywide attributed to abuse and neglect.

``I've been getting calls from commissioners saying, What the heck is going on?'' said Patricia Curry, chairwoman of the county's Commission for Children and Families.

Curry has scheduled a September closed-door meeting with top officials of the Department of Children and Family Services to discuss specific cases in an effort to spot possible trends, she said.

While several deaths in the foster care system recently prompted the Board of Supervisors to create a task force to look into ways to improve monitoring of foster care, some experts said the county also needs to look at better monitoring of children who are allowed to remain with their parents.

At least seven of the 17 children who have died since May died in their own homes, according to department memorandums to the Board of Supervisors.

Tilton said 80 percent to 90 percent of children under 5 who die from abuse or neglect die in their own homes, while only about 5 percent of such deaths occur in foster homes.

``I think the monitoring system needs to be looked at very carefully for all 69,000 kids'' the department has under its supervision, said Bridge, who chairs the foster care task force.

He called for greater self-monitoring by the department, saying it's begun the process but ``it definitely needs to be built up.''

The department held its first internal child fatality review board meeting Monday to look into some of the recent deaths. Interim Director Sandra Davis said the intent is to take an immediate look at the deaths to look for potential problems. The goal is to improve the department's processes in an effort to prevent further child deaths, she said.

Tilton said it will take greater coordination and communication among all agencies, public and private, who come into contact with children to raise awareness of the signs of abuse and neglect. Expanded outreach to parents of newborns also could help prevent child deaths, she said.

Alex Morales, executive director of the Children's Bureau of Southern California, agreed with Tilton. Family-friendly programs can help parents who are potential abusers of their children connect to services they might not be getting, such as drug abuse counseling, he said.