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SACRAMENTO (AP) ― The state social services agency on Wednesday was moving to shut down nine homes used for child daycare and foster care after an audit found registered sex offenders living there in violation of state law.

The revelation came after state auditors compared the addresses of 75,000 licensed facilities, including foster family homes and in-home daycare centers, with the state's database of registered sex offenders.

California Department of Social Services Director John Wagner said the audit found that the addresses of 49 sex offenders matched those of 46 child care facilities.

The department was able to confirm nine of the cases during inspections of all 46 facilities that were completed Monday, Wagner said.

Three license suspensions already are in effect -- two in Los Angeles and one in San Bernardino.

Two foster children were removed Wednesday by Los Angeles authorities responding to one of the cases, Wagner said. In another case, a sex offender was living in a home with three children and two grandchildren.

The department would not immediately give details on the other six pending suspensions.

"It goes without saying, anyone convicted of a sex offense has no business being anywhere near a licensed facility for children," Wagner said. "Protecting children in our licensed facilities is our highest priority."

The Bureau of State Audits asked for the department's database of licensed facilities in November, but the social services agency did not learn of the matches with sex offenders until last week, Wagner said. The audit is due for release on Tuesday.

Of the 46 address matches, 25 were in Los Angeles, eight in the Central Valley, seven in the San Francisco Bay area, four in San Diego, and one each in San Bernardino and Sacramento.

In most cases, the department's inspectors could not verify that a sex offender was living at the address or found that the offender was there but children were not present.

It is a violation of state law for daycare and foster care licensees not to report the names of any adults living in or associated with their facilities, Wagner said.

The Department of Social Services needs that information to conduct background checks on the license holder and others living at the home or child care center. Had the department discovered a resident was a sex offender, the license would have been denied or suspended, Wagner said.

In the three cases in which licenses were suspended this week, one offender had been convicted of sexual battery while the other two had been convicted of oral copulation with a minor, said Larry Bolton, the department's chief lawyer.

Investigators are interviewing the children who had contact in each of the homes or day care centers.

"We haven't finished the interviews, but no indication yet" that any child was actually abused, Bolton said.

State Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, said the revelation that sex offenders were associated with foster homes and daycare centers was outrageous.

"If we've actually provided licenses to operate where there are indeed registered sex offenders, that certainly is a big hole in the system," said Runner, author of the Jessica's Law initiative, which prohibits sex offenders from living near schools or parks. "We apparently have a group of licensed care homes that are willing to put young people ... at risk."

Robert Coombs, spokesman for the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, a Sacramento-based victims' organization, cautioned that many offenders might not be a danger to children.

"This is much more about perceived risk," he said. Nonetheless, he added, "This is not the type of person we want living in one of these facilities."

Three of the 49 sex offenders are on parole, but none was found to be living in improper housing, said Gordon Hinkle, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

One of the three was living in an elder care facility that occasionally might have taken in foster care children. That person was moved to a different location Wednesday as a precaution, Hinkle said.

State Auditor Elaine Howle declined to comment about the Department of Social Services action on Wednesday.

She and the two state lawmakers who asked for the audit -- Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, and Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia -- scheduled a news conference for Thursday to discuss the findings.

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