Richard's case was assigned to St. Christopher's Jennie-Clarkson Child Care Services, one of 68 private agencies providing foster-care services in New York.

Most are assigned to one of the 57 voluntary child-care agencies with whom the city contracts for foster-care services.

But because the plan assumes that many people will not succeed in ending their addiction, it would set aside money to expand foster-care services for several thousand more children.

Rather, the city, using population and service figures in the early 1980's that seemed to indicate a coming decrease in need, underestimated the number of children who would require foster-care services.

There is little reason to think the city would be better able to respond to the problem if foster-care services were provided entirely by the city.

That part involves the legal standard for releasing names to potential employers, adoption agencies and foster-care services.

With no way to pay bills or meet payrolls, these agencies, including a foster-care service and a program that feeds some of Harlem's poor, found themselves in need.

There in 1988, when the Foundling moved again, to Chelsea, where it continues to provide preventive and foster-care services to the children of the city.

New York State law requires employers like schools, day-care and foster-care services and adoption agencies to find out if a job applicant's name is listed in the registry before hiring.

Later he took a job at the Yonkers office of Leake & Watts, an agency that provides foster-care services and family counseling.