Corri Planck and Dianne Hardy-Garcia were overjoyed when they got the call.
Driven by a hope they might someday adopt a needy child, the Los Angeles couple had spent months training to become foster parents. Now, county welfare officials were looking for a safe home for Sarah Chavez, a 2-year-old girl.
Like giddy new parents, Planck and Hardy-Garcia rushed to buy furniture, toys and a stroller for the toddler. "We felt like, wow, what an amazing gift," Hardy-Garcia said recently.
Over the next three months, the women took Sarah to the zoo and on long walks in the neighborhood, where the little girl waved at strangers. Sometimes they would stay up at night just watching Sarah sleep.
Then it all changed. On a Monday afternoon last April, the couple was told to pack up Sarah's clothes because a court referee had ordered the toddler returned to her aunt and uncle, even though social workers had once suspected them of abusing her.
By fall the little girl with pigtails, who liked snails and dancing to show tunes, was dead -- beaten, prosecutors now allege, by the same aunt and uncle. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Sarah's death in October marked a grim episode in a gargantuan child welfare system that struggles each year to rescue thousands from abuse or neglect while still preserving families whenever possible. Deaths like hers are not unheard of, but they are rare.
But the tragedy highlighted what many say is a widespread, if sometimes overlooked, weakness in child welfare systems nationwide: As social workers, attorneys and judges look to reunite children with their parents or relatives, they too often ignore the voices of the foster parents who have been tucking the children into bed every night.
Local child welfare officials acknowledge they must do more to reach out to foster parents like Planck and Hardy-Garcia.
"It's really critical that we have information from them," said David Sanders, director of the county Department of Children and Family Services. "They spend 24 hours a day with the children, while our social workers spend maybe two or three hours a month.
"Unfortunately, our system is not at that ideal," said Sanders, who added that since Sarah's death, he has begun working on ways to ensure more involvement by foster parents.
For Planck and Hardy-Garcia, joy quickly turned to heartache, followed by agonizing months of frustration over a system they believe repeatedly let Sarah down.
