In Elwood, Ind., investigators found evidence of malnutrition and bedsores in an 8-year-old boy with disabilities after he perished in a house fire.

In Newark, N.J., a 7-year-old boy placed in a home by New Jersey child welfare officials was found dead in a basement. His twin brother and 4-year-old brother also were in the basement╤starving.

In Chicago, a 3-year-old boy living in a foster home was found chained to a bedpost. The chain was wrapped around his neck and padlocked.

News reports of serious child abuse and neglect are surfacing everywhere these days, all pointing to the same uncomfortable truth: The child welfare system in America isn't functioning the way it should.

Anita Barbee, an associate research professor in the University of Louisville's Kent School of Social Work, hopes to change that.

Barbee, who once served on the front lines of child protective services in Jefferson County, directs U of L's National Resource Center on Child Welfare Training and Evaluation. The center helps states, public and private agencies and Native American tribes across the country find better ways to evaluate training for those whose job is to protect children. Its goal is to help them fully prepare for their heavy responsibility and massive workload.

Opening in July with $250,000 in seed money from a congressional appropriation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Anne Northup (R.-Ky.), the center has received other grants from state and federal governments totaling about $1.1 million.

Barbee's staff is surveying training programs in all 50 states. In June, she will report on those findings to the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Recommendations based on the survey could then be incorporated into federal policy.

Nationally, child welfare workers investigate more than 3 million abuse and neglect allegations each year.

"These workers are operating with limited training and resources," Barbee says. "It is a job where life and death decisions about how to keep children safe and attached to loving adults are made daily. It is a job in the midst of a huge bureaucracy, too many cases, the most complex situations and too little time."

It also is a stressful job and one that can be highly dangerous. Angie Simpson, a full-time child welfare caseworker in Metcalf County who is pursuing a master's degree in social work at U of L, says, "We get threatened all the time.

"You're usually the last person people want to see if you're coming to check on their children. In some cases, we have to take the police with us when we make the visit."

On the front of one home Simpson was scheduled to visit was a sign that said: "Will shoot social worker on sight."

Sarah Williams, a full-time child welfare caseworker in Woodford County, says seeing children day after day who have been physically or sexually abused or neglected is emotionally wrenching.

"The first time I saw a beaten child, it was totally upsetting," she says. "But you keep seeing them, so you put up that emotional barrier."

And, she adds, the endless paperwork and red tape only add to the stress of caseworkers doing their job.

At a recent press conference, Anita Barbee talks about U of L's child welfare training and evaluation efforts as U.S. Rep. Ann Northup (R.-Ky.) and U of L President James Ramsey lok on.

The states and federal government spend billions of dollars every year training child welfare workers but the quality is inconsistent, Barbee says. Only 10 states, including Kentucky, conduct comprehensive training evaluations.

Some, such as Wisconsin, have so little money for child welfare they can barely afford training. Other states spend plenty of money on training but have no way to assess it, Barbee says.

"You can pour millions into training, but if you don't evaluate it, you don't know whether it's really working. In some cases, like the one with the dead child in New Jersey, child welfare workers are visiting homes but missing what's really going on.

"Training helps workers detect abuse and neglect," she adds. "It helps them see when someone is lying to them. It helps them look beyond the surface."

The center has developed a Web site, http://olav.usi.louisville.edu/nrc.htm, to inform states of the most effective training and evaluation efforts. The site is also a place where states can share ways to improve the lives of abused and neglected children.

Barbee predicts the center's work could lower turnover among child protection workers.

"If you have too many cases and not enough preparation to handle them, you are just putting out fires," she says. "But if you can get on top of the cases and work more strategically with families, you can begin to prevent abuse and neglect."

Other Kent School faculty members involved in the center are Pamela Yankeelov, Becky Antle, Mavin Martin, Dana Christensen, Riaan van Zyl and Tangerine Holt. Assisting are Althea Allen Dryden, Liz Dumbaugh-Martin, Shannon Frey, Karin van Zyl, Joyce Borders, Shelly Gerahhty and Larry Michalczyk.

Kentucky and U of L already have a solid tradition on which to build in the field of child welfare training.

A team of researchers at Kent School first led by Rod Barber and now Barbee has been evaluating training in Kentucky since 1992, says Terry Singer, Kent School dean.

"Because we are actually measuring the impact of child welfare training on job performance, our team is contacted frequently by other states to consult with them on developing similar evaluation systems," he says.

So U of L's system quickly is becoming a national model.