City officials and private child-welfare agencies also contended that the system itself was flawed.

In releasing a 112-page report, the Attorney General asked the Legislature to change provisions of state law that distinguish the societies from other child-welfare agencies.

Her case drew national attention, exposed problems in Florida's child-welfare agency and became an issue in the governor's race last fall.

But that does nothing to change his high hopes for what he calls the nation's premier child-welfare agency.

If they decide there is imminent danger, the workers conduct a full interview and quickly transmit the information by fax to the appropriate child-welfare agency.

At any given time, the city's child-welfare agency is investigating or monitoring 20,000 families.

Other children sought refuge today with Costa Rica's child-welfare agency.

The evidence is in newspaper headlines and in the files of the over burdened caseworkers of child-welfare agencies.

But they did not, and despite the Mailgram threat, neither the child-welfare agency nor school officials sought a routine search warrant.

Across the country, between 1997 and 2003 (the most recent year for which statistics are available), adoptions through child-welfare agencies increased by more than 60 percent.