STATES STRIVE TO PROTECT YOUNGEST METH VICTIMS

Protocols Tell What To Do With Children Found At Drug Labs

These are the children of meth labs: Babies burned from crawling on
chemical-soaked carpets. Toddlers reeking of ammonia smell. Adolescents
hungry for fresh food and a little nurturing.

For so long, as Kansas and Missouri fought against methamphetamine, when
police raided a working meth lab in a home where children lived, the kids
were taken to a relative's home or foster care.

Methamphetamine, an addictive stimulant, is cooked with an easy recipe that
includes toxic chemicals, including some that can be bought at a drugstore.

Little thought went into what effect those chemicals might have on
children, even as police entered these homes in biohazard suits and took
precautions when cleaning up the labs.

"About two years into fighting this drug, and fighting it hard, we
realized, 'We're missing the boat here. We need to be doing something for
these kids, too,' " said Crawford County, Kan., Sheriff Sandy Horton. "We
began to realize what these chemicals could do. Then all of a sudden we
say, 'What about the kids we took out of the house?' "

Missouri and Kansas now are addressing that question in a concerted effort.

Starting in October, Missouri will use a federal grant to create a
statewide checklist and protocol for handling children found at meth labs.
Some counties already have plans in place - Crawford County was one of the
first in Kansas to establish one in 2003 - and the Missouri Department of
Social Services last month issued a policy requesting its employees
coordinate with county agencies to address the issue.

In Kansas, a statewide alliance is helping counties establish plans. To
date, nine Kansas counties - including Johnson, Crawford and Harvey - have
policies detailing how to handle children of meth labs. An additional 22
counties, including Wyandotte, are in the process.

"The children, the youngest victims of this, have been, for the most part,
an afterthought," said Harvey County Attorney David Yoder, who earlier this
month signed a new set of protocols for his county. "In the Midwestern
states, we were caught flat-footed. We've been in a reaction mode instead
of prevention."

Last year, children were present at 20 percent of all meth labs seized
nationally. Kansas does not have specific figures showing the number of
children removed from a home because of meth labs.

Last year in Missouri, 23 percent of the children taken into protective
custody were removed from their homes because of drugs. Though the
Department of Social Services does not specify meth cases, the number of
removals related to drugs has increased each year as meth has become more
prevalent.

Experts say children of meth labs are prone to be hyperactive, impulsive
and may have long-term learning disabilities. Extreme exposure to the
chemicals causes burns and respiratory problems. If ingested, the chemicals
can be fatal.

Other states newer to the meth epidemic quickly implemented protocols
requiring certain care for children at labs.

As for Missouri and Kansas, the states were too consumed with fighting the
drug, which gained a foothold nearly a decade ago in Missouri and soon
after in Kansas.

"I don't know if we had a chance to be preventive," Horton said. "It hit so
fast and so hard."

Horton said that before his Kansas county established a plan in 2003, when
children were found at a working meth lab the main goal was to find a safe
place for them. No thought was given to automatic medical attention,
intense bathing or collecting evidence from them.

"We owed it to them in the beginning, but we were so busy kicking in doors,
getting the bad guys and destroying the toxic chemicals," Horton said.
"Now, they are our first priority."

Cristi Cain, state coordinator for the Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention
Project, said a county-by-county adoption of policies is better than
statewide protocols. Because Kansas comprises rural and urban counties,
what would work in one area may not apply to another, she said.

Protocols typically are designed by task forces made up of county agencies,
including fire and police departments, state social-service agencies,
medical experts, juvenile-justice officials, county attorneys and biohazard
teams. The protocols include everything from immediate disposal of clothes,
showering the children several times, shampooing their hair where the
chemical residue can set in and requiring various tests at hospitals.

If protocols are not in place, "what happens is you go in and each agency
might know what their own response is and might assume another agency is
responsible for something else, another need of the child," said Julie Cole
Agee, executive director of the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association,
which received the grant to create the statewide interagency protocol and
provide training. "You can't be assured a child's needs are being met
unless protocol is set up."

When a county does not have a set protocol and law enforcement finds a
child at a home with a meth lab, the policies of both states'
social-service agencies come into play, said officials with each agency.

"We've always stepped up to make sure children are safe and protected,"
said Sandra Hazlett, director of children and family policy for the Kansas
Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. "As more information
began to come out about the physical effect of exposure, we looked at
health needs."

Hazlett said that having more Kansas counties adopt protocols will better
serve children because every agency will know its role.

"There won't be a discussion about what needs to happen," she said.
"They'll just do it."