BUREAUCRACY WATCH : One for the Books

There is always something terribly wrong when a homeless child falls through the holes in society’s safety net. But the horrifying story of the 4-month-old homeless boy in Orange County who lived in a station wagon and was bitten to death by his family’s pet rat while it was running loose in the car surely warrants a special place in the annals of societal neglect.

The parents, who deny any wrongdoing, have been arrested and charged in the death of Steven Giguere Jr., who bled to death on the night of Aug. 26 in the car where the family lived. Beyond the prosecution of the case, however, there are good questions being raised about county government.

The county’s Children’s Services Department received five complaints about the Giguere family over a period of three years.

The boy’s grandmother and officials differ over a crucial final complaint received shortly before the death.

But the department says that its earlier investigations produced insufficient evidence to remove the family’s two children--the other is a 3-year-old girl--because, they insist, the parents were meeting minimal standards of care.

The truth is that thousands of such children in Southern California scratch by, skirting other untold disasters by chance. Social services officials are right to study this horrid case, and they deserve credit for instantly launching an internal probe.

They must find much more reliable ways of reaching such families in need--and intervening before it’s too late.