Los Angeles loses almost 500 foster children

Hundreds of foster children in the Los Angeles County child-welfare system can’t be found, and officials believe most of them have been abducted by relatives or guardians.

A study by the Department of Children and Family Services found the United States’ largest foster care system – with about 50,000 children – was unable to find 488.

“This is yet another shocking revelation of a beleaguered child-welfare system that puts children at more risk in the system than if they had remained with their families,” said lawyer Linda Wallace Pate said.

Pate represents the family of a child who ran away from foster care and was later found dead.

County officials believe more than 50% of those missing were taken by a relative or parents. The rest are presumed to have run away.

The report showed that only 64 children who were first declared missing were recovered or returned voluntarily. At least eight were killed or died in accidents after running away or being abducted.

“It’s shocking,” said county Supervisor Michael Antonovich. “We are working together to ensure that every child is accounted for. These eight deaths are examples of how dysfunctional the system is.”

Florida has been scandalised by similar allegations over the disappearance of a five-year-old girl who disappeared from the home of her caregivers. The case resulted in the resignation of top child welfare administrators in Florida and fraud charges Wednesday against the two women with whom the girl lived.

Family Services Interim Director Marjorie Kelly said she wants to step up efforts to find the missing children, despite the heavy caseload social workers already carry.

“I think what we need to improve on is a sustained effort to find these children,” Kelly said. “There is a fairly aggressive search initially. But after a child is missing for a couple of weeks, I think we need to improve on our efforts to find them.”