Program for surrender of infants languishes

California’s “safe surrender” program, allowing parents to leave unwanted newborns at fire stations and hospitals without penalty, has become an orphan, with little money and no state agency responsible for publicizing or overseeing it, according to a highly critical state audit released Tuesday.

Although 218 California babies have been surrendered safely since the state approved the practice in 2001, the audit said, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Gov. Gray Davis vetoed bills that would have directed the state to mount a public awareness campaign so young parents would know there was an alternative to abandoning a child. The latest veto was due to other provisions in the bill.

State Auditor Elaine Howle said money and the assignment of responsibility to a state agency were needed if California was to be successful in preventing the dumping of newborns, many of whom do not survive.

“The safe-surrender law is not as effective as it might be because it does not give state agencies rigorous, ongoing responsibilities for publicizing the law’s benefits, and the state has not funded the administration or promotion of a safe-surrender program,” Howle’s audit concluded.

The findings did not surprise Debbe Magnusen, founder of Project Cuddle, a private program in Orange County that has rescued 631 babies separately from the state program. She said the state wasn’t doing enough to avoid the tragedy of having infants die after being abandoned.

“It’s gut-wrenching,” Magnusen said. “I think the state can do so much more if they collaborate with private groups.”

Responding to a series of incidents in which abandoned babies died, the state enacted a law that allows a parent or other person having lawful custody of a baby 72 hours old or younger to surrender the baby confidentially and legally to staff at a hospital or other designated safe-surrender site.

Under Davis, who directed that existing resources be used for the program, the state spent $1.8 million on a public education campaign through December 2003. Auditors found no further state effort.

The state Department of Social Services’ legal obligation to oversee the program ended in 2006. Each county has thus been left to promote and oversee the programs, and the results have varied considerably, with some counties doing little, the audit found.

The review credited Los Angeles County with the most comprehensive effort in the state to promote safe surrender of infants, but said that although the county spent $500,000 on the effort during the first four years, it has spent only $15,000 in the last four.

The county has no money currently to promote the program, so it is relying on pro bono services to produce and air a television commercial on local cable stations starting next week, according to David Sommers, an aide to county Supervisor Don Knabe.

“It is a true problem that there is not a consistent source of funding,” Sommers said.

A record 15 babies were surrendered safely at fire stations and hospitals last year in the county, but officials said funding and state coordination could help further reduce the number of infants who die after being abandoned.

“If we had some money, we would get the word out and make it much more effective,” said Kristina Hajjar, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Since the state law took effect, 57 babies have been abandoned in Los Angeles County, 45 of whom died. Last year, three infants died after being abandoned, including a girl found in a plastic bag stuffed under clothes in a laundry basket in a house in Lakewood, and a boy found wrapped in a towel in the bathroom closet of a Los Angeles residence.

Deanne Tilton, director of the nonprofit Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect in Los Angeles County, noted that the three deaths were the lowest number in eight years and that no babies had been abandoned in the county so far this year.

Still, she said, any success has been without help from the state. “There has been none,” Tilton said.

Department of Social Services spokeswoman Shirley Washington said the agency welcomed the audit findings and was committed to protecting children. She said promotion of the law in its early years was “above and beyond” what the law required of the agency, and no state money had been made available since then.

“Although the law did not provide any resources, we will continue to identify every opportunity to leverage resources and promote the law,” Washington said.

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patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com