COUNTY TO SCREEN AT-RISK CHILDREN

Program Hopes To Catch Issues Early In Growth

ONTARIO - No one disputes that drugs and alcohol in a pregnant
mother's system can wreak havoc on the baby-to-be.

What hasn't been determined is who should be responsible to treat the
developmental needs of the child that baby will become.

Right now, it falls under the county, and eventually the educational
system, to help the more than 4,000 drug-exposed babies born each
year in San Bernardino County.

Disjointed at best and ineffective at worst, it is akin to tossing a
life preserver a little too late to children in need of help.

"We need to find out who's throwing them in and stop them," said High
Desert educator Ronald Powell, who presented a new screening and
treatment program for at-risk children Thursday, the last day of the
19th annual Children's Network Conference at the Ontario Convention Center.

Starting next month, the Screening, Assessment, Referral and
Treatment system will begin screening High Desert children from birth
to age 5 for the kind of developmental and behavioral problems that
will land them in special education, mental health treatment and
incarceration if left untreated.

Already, 12 of 20 children screened early were found in need of
occupational, physical, speech or behavioral therapy.

Supporters said Thursday that they believe they can remediate as many
as 70 percent of the High Desert's at-risk children "simply if we
catch them early," Powell said.

Just a year ago, at last year's conference, the program was a glint
in the eyes of organizers.

What took five years to create in Fresno County was fast-tracked in
just nine months here, said Kent Paxton, who runs the county's
Children's Network, which coordinates public services and programs.

Today, Paxton will present a plan for a second screening center to
school superintendents from the county's west end. Within a year, he
expects the second center to be operating and planning to be under
way for the third and final center, targeted for San Bernardino.

Cost estimates won't be known until December, he said. The program is
being carved out of existing budgets of the county's Department of
Children's Services, which is financing the effort with the
Department of Public Health, First 5 San Bernardino, the Children's
Fund and the Desert/Mountain Special Education Local Plan Area.

Throughout the two-day conference, social workers and others learned
about other successful programs that can break the chain of at-risk children.

For example, the county's new Dependency Drug Court program allows
parental drug offenders to make concessions, such as giving up
temporary custody of children, to get clean.

After eight years of using methamphetamine, Adrienne Phillips, of San
Bernardino, said she expects to graduate from the program next month.

Phillips, 43, once jobless and homeless with her children while
using, realizes now that, while on drugs, "one bad decision would
lead to another."

Her three youngest children, who are now back with her in
transitional housing, see differences, too.

"They can tell that they have a mama," she said.

Public programs aren't the only solution, said Kiti Freier, associate
professor of psychology and pediatrics at Loma Linda University
School of Medicine and an expert in early childhood drug exposure.

Faith groups, mentoring programs, senior citizens, educators, doctors
and the business community have a lot to offer children in need. And
as individuals, she said, we can guide children in our everyday life
by simply knowing them by name, offering them ways to stay busy and
teaching them by modeling proper behavior.

"They are not doomed. We will not call this a throwaway generation.
. They will be our children," she said.