One child swallowed a handful of nails, hoping they would pierce his intestines and he would die. Another teenager took every pill she could find in the cabinet, believing those surely would do the trick, and she would be free of her nightmares. What do these two children have in common? Both were foster children — and both survived their attempts — and neither of them was considered at serious risk by a mental health system that declined to treat them.

California’s foster youth, already suffering from the trauma of being abused or neglected by their caretakers, are victimized again by a mental health system that consistently fails to deliver reliable care. The Legislature has the opportunity to take small steps toward fixing a broken system and beginning the healing process for the most vulnerable members of our society.

This newspaper’s series, “Drugging Our Kids,” exposed one of the worst aspects of the state’s culture of treatment: Far too many foster youth are prescribed psychotropic and antipsychotic medications in bizarre cocktail combinations that result in horrific side effects and do nothing to address the underlying trauma that these children have endured. When trauma is untreated, children act it out in predictable ways, and too often they are given drugs as “chemical straitjackets,” rendering them easier to manage but postponing real treatment.

Others have noticed: In its most recent “Children’s Report Card,” the Children Now advocacy group has given California a D-minus for its efforts in addressing childhood trauma. That’s our lowest grade in the report. We deserve it. Recent reports show the percentage of foster children receiving specialty mental health care continues to decline, and shocking disparities make it clear that black and Hispanic children are less likely to receive care than their white counterparts.

As California’s senior Social Services director, I have watched the steady decline in mental health services to the foster children for whom I am responsible. Our federal agencies estimate that more than 90 percent of foster youth have suffered emotional trauma, yet a fraction of that number receive care from our local mental health systems. I see the effects of this institutional neglect, expressed in suicide attempts, delinquency, addiction and homelessness, and I am ashamed of my state and especially of the State’s Department of Health Care Services, charged with providing vision and leadership in this area.

This month, the Assembly Appropriations Committee will consider three bills that give me hope: The first, state Sen. Holly Mitchell’s SB 1466, will require that all foster children be assessed for trauma. It shouldn’t require a law to make this happen, but it’s clear that only legislation or litigation will move the system in the right direction. I know that these assessments will reveal the degree of trauma, but the treatment has to fit the diagnosis: Sen. Mike McGuire’s SB 1174 will require that the state review prescribing patterns to ferret out those psychiatrists whose first instinct is to “Drug Our Kids,” rather than to prescribe a broad spectrum of therapy that will address underlying trauma. Finally, Sen. Jim Beall’s SB 1291 will require counties to provide documentation every year that describes what they’re doing for foster youth, and whether it is working.

Small steps? Yes, but it’s a long journey, and we need to be good “parents” for these foster kids that we have taken into our care on the promise that they’ll be safer and healthier than they were in the homes of their caretakers.

Lee Collins is California’s senior Social Services director, with more than 30 years experience as a director. He is retiring at the end of this year. He wrote this for the Mercury News.