The Region - News from April 8, 1986

There is not enough money available to meet all the goals that have been set to help abused children, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services told a watchdog commission. Robert Chaffee said that the agency has a budget of $103 million but it needs at least $120 million in the coming year. The Commission for Children’s Services recently issued a report that said the department, created more than 18 months ago, has made little or no progress on most of the 48 goals it was charged with meeting by the Board of Supervisors. “There simply aren’t the resources to implement all the things we want in a few months,” Chaffee said. Nancy Daly, the commission’s chairwoman, called the inaction “a disaster” that needed to be turned around. Daly also asked the department to investigate cases last month involving at least four toddlers who were beaten to death by their parents. Daly said it was not clear whether abuse of the youngsters had been reported to the department before their deaths.