Foster Mother Held in Abuse of Toddler : Investigation: She is charged with attempted murder of 19-month-old, who suffered severe head injuries.

A Long Beach foster mother has been charged with the attempted murder of her 19-month-old foster daughter, who suffered head injuries so severe that authorities say she may be mentally and physically disabled for life.

The arrest Monday of Mary Lee Walker, 34, came one month after another Los Angeles County foster mother was charged with murder in the beating death of a 23-month old toddler.

Both incidents follow a recent shake-up of the county foster care system that was designed to weed out abusive foster parents. The system underwent an overhaul last year, after county officials came under scrutiny for allegedly permitting abusive foster parents to continue caring for children.

Walker was arrested after a two-month investigation that began Oct. 18 when she called paramedics to her home to report that her foster daughter was experiencing convulsions. The woman told them the toddler--identified by county child welfare officials as Shonisha Manning--had fallen from a jungle gym an hour earlier.

According to Deputy Mary Landreth, a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman, Shonisha underwent emergency surgery at Long Beach Memorial Hospital to relieve pressure on her brain. Landreth said doctors called sheriff’s deputies because they believed the injuries “were not consistent with those reported by the foster mother.”

Landreth would not provide details of what happened to the child, but said the girl sustained severe head injuries that could result in blindness and other medical problems. She said Shonisha was hospitalized until Thursday, when she was placed in the care of a foster parent who is trained to tend to “medically fragile” children.

Four other foster children--all under the age of 2--who were in Walker’s care have been removed from her home. Three of them left immediately after Shonisha was injured; the fourth, who was to be adopted by Walker, was not removed until Monday. The other children have not suffered any injuries, deputies said.

Walker, who has been a foster parent for three years, had been caring for Shonisha since July. County child welfare officials said her home was part of a network operated by the Institute for Black Parenting, a private agency that is licensed by the state.

The institute’s mission is to recruit black families to care for and adopt black foster children. A spokesman for the county Department of Children’s Services, which contracts with the institute, said the county paid the agency $1,500 a month to operate and monitor the foster home, with $500 of that going to the foster mother.

The institute’s executive director, Zena Oglesby, declined comment on Walker’s arrest, saying the agency was trying to sort out the details.