Coping with child neglect

It's a story whose elements are all too familiar. It's easy to deem it another indictment of our failing child welfare system:

A drug addict who has already lost six children to the foster care system is jailed after her two little boys wander into a liquor store alone, hungry and looking for food. The toddlers — 2 and 3 years old — are wearing soiled diapers and dirty clothes.

It takes police two days to track down their mother whose rap sheet includes arrests for prostitution and theft. Sidnicka Wilson, 32, is nabbed several miles away, with, according to police, a crack pipe and cocaine.

Now the toddlers are in foster care, mom is behind bars and child welfare officials are trying to explain — again — how signs of trouble were missed in a dangerous home.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0318-banks-wandering-kids-20140318,0,7352691.column#ixzz2wXDYSQFO