A plan to target babies and toddlers for removal from institutional care in Clark County "seems to be working," a representative of the Children's Attorney Project said Friday.

Steve Hiltz, the project's directing attorney, listened Friday as Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle reviewed the cases of 54 children and learned that many of them have been placed with relatives or in foster homes. All of the children are under the age of 3 and have been kept at hospital nurseries or at Child Haven, the county's emergency shelter for juveniles who have been removed from parental custody.

"Our goal behind this is to stop kids this age from going into Child Haven at all, except in an emergency situation for a couple of days," Hiltz said.

Hardcastle scheduled Friday's hearing to review the cases of all children under the age of 3 who have been kept at hospitals for more than 10 days after being deemed ready for discharge or at Child Haven for more than 40 days.

Hospitals are holding the children whom Child Haven has no room to accommodate. That situation began in June when the county issued a hold on hospital referrals for abuse or neglect because other placements were not available.

On Friday, Hardcastle reviewed the cases of 17 children from Child Haven and learned that homes have been found for 12 of them. Among the five who remain at the shelter are a group of three siblings.

Hardcastle also reviewed the cases of 37 children who have been hospitalized. Chief Deputy District Attorney Teresa Lowry said 22 of those names, including the names of two children who are undergoing medical treatment, probably made the list in error.

Ann Rubin, assistant director of the Department of Family Services, said the inaccuracy stemmed from the way case workers entered information about those children in the agency's computer system.

"Sometimes babies still show that they're in the hospital when they're not," she said.

Hardcastle has scheduled another hearing for Thursday to determine what has happened to 20 of the children on the list who have been removed from hospitals. No one had that information for the judge on Friday.

"The worst thing would be to find out they were moved to Child Haven," Hardcastle said.

Rubin said her agency has that information and will bring it to court next week. She said some children have gone to Child Haven after their hospitalization ended, but only for short periods of time.

Lowry said 14 of the children on the hospital list have been placed in homes, and one newborn is awaiting placement.

The Children's Attorney Project, part of the nonprofit Clark County Legal Services Program, declared its intent in September to provide representation for young children being housed in institutions. Several private attorneys also have volunteered to join the effort.

Hiltz said he does not envision the effort continuing indefinitely. He said he hopes the county eventually will develop a policy stating that Child Haven "will not be considered a resource for children this young."