South Carolina's social services director is studying whether the state should start reviewing the deaths of children known to the child welfare system the way North Carolina does.

This could signal that, under Kim Aydlette's leadership, the S.C. Department of Social Services will be more willing to work with other agencies and involve the public in carrying out its mission than in the past.

Aydlette said this week that she began researching whether to create local review teams after The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer published stories in August about 112 S.C. children who'd died after contact with social workers since 1994.

Abuse or neglect killed about half those children, including Amanda Cope, 12, and 6-week-old Donovan Franks of Rock Hill. Social workers knew of complaints against both families.

But lessons from the children's deaths remain locked away in Columbia because the S.C. Department of Social Services does not release results of its internal investigations.

In contrast, when children die north of the state line, local and state experts convene in the child's home county to study the death. They issue a public report suggesting how to prevent future tragedies.

Appointed by S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, Aydlette is a former prosecutor who took the reins of the money-starved social services agency this year.

She said the Observer's series - which tracked the findings of North Carolina's fatality reviews over five years - prompted her to ask staff members to contact their N.C. counterparts to learn about their system.

Aydlette said she likes that N.C. review teams bring together many groups involved in children's welfare, including law enforcement, health officials and social workers.

That interagency, interdisciplinary approach could help the state care better for vulnerable children, she said. And it's less threatening to her department, she added.

Aydlette said South Carolina should develop local teams in all counties to examine each child's death. She said she doesn't yet have a clear idea what those teams' structure, specific mission or public reporting responsibilities should be.

"I think we need to have a consistent system in place for doing it, from county to county," she said.

Local health and safety councils were started in 16 S.C. counties in recent years. But they receive no funding, and their missions and members' involvement vary greatly.

Laura Hudson of the Victims Assistance Network said that group pushed legislation four years ago to create the councils in all counties. The bill failed, partly due to lawmakers' fears that they'd need to give the councils money, she said.

Hudson said she hopes to try again next session with Aydlette's backing. She'd like the legislature to require counties to assemble teams of volunteers who could review the deaths of children who'd had contact with social workers, along with other categories of preventable child fatalities and injuries.

Funding still would be a problem.

"The state is broke," Hudson said. "I'm sure anything we'd ask for in funding, we'd be laughed out of the state Capitol."

Several rounds of budget cuts have forced the social services agency to reduce funding for training, Aydlette said.

But one new source soon should be available.

Since January, the Children's Emergency Shelter Foundation has raised $25,000 through the sale of NASCAR vanity license plates issued by the S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles. Half the price of the plate goes to the charity.

The Observer's stories on child deaths prompted the foundation to direct most of the money it raised to training programs for social workers and other caretakers of children in need, foundation Chief Executive Officer Robert Muckenfuss said this week.

If used for training, the S.C. social services agency could tap a federal grant that would match 70 percent of the gift, said Teresa Arnold, director of governmental affairs.