OFFICIALS CALL FOR SYSTEM OVERHAUL.(News)

Byline: Troy Anderson

Staff Writer

Concerned about a disproportionate percentage of minorities in foster care, California judges, attorneys and child advocates are calling for changes in the system.

And they say a variety of steps need to be taken to address problems created by a toothless maternal substance-abuse law and an overreaction in the 1980s and 1990s to a "crack baby" epidemic.

"From the mid-1980s to the mid-90s, our system was primarily impacted by the crack cocaine epidemic, and I think far too many children were probably taken away from their families without enough consideration given to determining family supports and the …