COLUMBIA, S.C. - Law enforcement officials, broadcasters and Amber Alert coordinators will be traveling to the University of South Carolina's Newsplex this year to take part in a training program for issuing the statewide notices that a child has been abducted.

The training could help smooth what some consider inconsistencies in the way the program is administered in different states.

"That's one of the things we are very much looking at," said Hugh Munn, a public relations instructor at USC who will coordinate the $200,000 U.S. Justice Department grant that will fund the program.

Munn, a former journalist who worked for years as a spokesman for the State Law Enforcement Division, said 25 one-day sessions will be held from October through August 2006. Each class will be made up of 10 to 12 participants picked by the Justice Department.

The training is being done at the university's multimedia newsroom because participants can experience realistic scenarios, Munn said.

"That's what's unique about this program, our ability to do it at Newsplex," Munn said. "That's what the Department of Justice likes about it."

South Carolina has triggered its statewide Amber Alert system nine times, said SLED spokeswoman Kathryn Richardson. The most recent case came earlier this month when a 2-year-old girl was reported missing from her family's home on Lake Wylie near the North Carolina state line.

The alert was issued after local law enforcement had searched the lake and surrounding area for several hours. Investigators had vague descriptions of an unfamiliar man seen in the neighborhood.

Despite the proximity to North Carolina, that state did not issue an alert, though television stations in the area did broadcast the South Carolina notification.

The child eventually was found dead in the lake just feet from where she had last been seen on a dock. Nonetheless, York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant said he was disappointed North Carolina did not issue the alert.

North Carolina's Amber Alert coordinator said the case did not meet its criteria for an alert - mainly that the description of the alleged abductor was too vague to put on state highway signs.

An official analysis of the alert, which SLED does after each incident, has not been completed, Richardson said Wednesday. SLED uses the analyses and meets regularly with an advisory board to make adjustments to its Amber Alert procedures, she said.

SLED also conducts training for local law enforcement. Only agencies that have been through the training can request an Amber Alert, Richardson said.

About 200 to 250 Amber Alerts are issued nationwide each year. The information, which is flashed on highway signs on major roadways, is disseminated on the Internet and through radio and television stations. Several states also broadcast the information at electronic lottery ticket terminals.

Since the alert system began in 1997, more than 200 children have been recovered, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The system is named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Texas, who was killed after being kidnapped while riding her bicycle near her home in 1996.