L.A. FOSTER KIDS MISSING BOARD OKS ACTION TO LOCATE CHILDREN ON GULF COAST.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Alarmed that nearly half of Los Angeles County's 69 foster children living with families along the devastated Gulf Coast cannot be located, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ask federal and local officials to send helicopters or boats to find them.

``Right now, it's a very grim situation,'' said David Sanders, director of the county's Department of Children and Family Services. ``It's just really tragic. These kids went there for a better life, to be with relatives or to be in adoptive families.''

Since Hurricane Katrina struck the region, DCFS social workers have been unable to contact government officials who monitor the children or the families caring for the 25 young people - including 10 in Louisiana, nine in Mississippi and six in Alabama.

Of the 23,366 children under DCFS supervision and placed in foster homes, 690 live out of state, DCFS spokeswoman Louise Grasmehr said.

The DCFS places children in other states primarily to keep them within the homes of extended family members or people going through the process of adopting the children.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who sponsored the motion, said the DCFS needs to quickly contact federal, state and local officials for assistance.

``We have primary responsibility for those children,'' Burke said. ``We don't know if they are separated from family members or what their status is. We need to have some sort of extraordinary action taken, in the event they are not being cared for, to ensure they are being taken care of.''

Sanders said he is especially concerned because his social workers have been unable to contact local government officials in the three states charged with monitoring the children.

``The way the process works, when you go out of state, the receiving state has responsibility of assessing the family home and so forth. We rely on them to provide oversight contact,'' he said.

``Being unable to contact them as well as being unable to contact the family really is a very, very difficult situation.''

The names and photographs of the missing children will be posted on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Web site at www.missingkids.com. The site was set up to help locate and reunite Hurricane Katrina victims in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. The Katrina Missing Persons Hotline is [phone].

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com