By Debra Jasper and Spencer Hunt
Enquirer Columbus Bureau

Kentucky parents turned over at least 14 children to the state in 2001, a General Accounting Office report found. State officials haven't tracked the last two years, but say the practice still occurs.

"We're getting anecdotal reports about it happening, and we're still very concerned," says Bruce Scott, director of the Kentucky Division of Mental Health.

Instead of giving up custody, Scott says some parents are going bankrupt so they can qualify for Medicaid.

Kentucky served 40,413 mentally ill children in 2003. Some are in state custody; most are still in their parents' custody. Officials send up to 2,000 kids into residential treatment each year. Unlike in Ohio, kids who are given up become wards of the state - not individual counties.

Harry Mills, executive director of the Kentucky National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, says the state hasn't increased funding for a decade, so waiting lists for help are common.

He says his group is "desperately working" just to make sure there aren't any more cuts. "The system is terribly underfunded," he says. "It's a struggle just for families to get adequate services."