REPORT CITES HORRORS IN COUNTY FOSTER CARE.

Byline: Janet Gilmore Daily News Staff Writer

Many children in the Los Angeles County foster care system were given an allowance of only $1 a week.

One child in a county-run group home received little more than a pair of socks over the course of two years.

Others youngsters were dragged across floors, plied with unauthorized sedatives, assigned menial tasks or denied the basic comforts of a caring home.

It might sound like something out of a Charles Dickens novel, but a Los Angeles County grand jury report released Wednesday found these dire conditions have existed long in the county foster care system.

The $238-million-a-year program is responsible for placing children in foster homes and larger group homes.

``Group home owners and directors may make substantial profits, with little or no monitoring, while many children are lacking the bare essentials,'' the grand jury report says. ``They are going without adequate clothes, food, allowance, tutoring, psychological services and communication with their school.''

Although the report found homes with no problems, it concluded that the county needs independent oversight.

According to the 50-page report, a random sampling of 29 of the county's 476 group homes revealed these problems in many of these facilities that house six or more children.

The grand jury's Juvenile Services Committee found fault with state and county agencies that oversee the foster programs, home operators who profit from them, and those who are expected to support and guide the children.

Problems identified by the grand jury include a failure to measure children's needs, therapists who seemed uninterested in helping children and social workers too overworked to care.

Some county officials and operators of foster-care agencies said the criticisms are far too sweeping.

``It makes it sound like all of our group home providers are not doing a good job,'' said Beverly Muench, a deputy director with the county Department of Children and Family Services.

Muench conceded that problems exist, but she said the county's lack of money has hobbled some efforts to find solutions.

State social services officials, who oversee the licensing of group homes, could not be reached for comment.

Ivelise Markovits, executive director of Penny Lane, a child placement agency with homes in the San Fernando Valley, said that she believes most group home operators do a good job, despite the difficult task of handling children whom no one else wants.

``These are very, very difficult kids to manage and difficult programs to run,'' she said. ``We need the support of the county all the time, not just when things go wrong.''

At least one child-care advocate said the report is accurate.

Andrew Bridge, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Alliance for Children's Rights, said many of these children have mental disorders that existing group homes are not trained to handle.

Workers' frustrations may lead to incidents identified in the report, among them dragging a child by the arm, he said.

``It didn't really surprise me,'' Bridge said of the report's conclusions about group homes.