For weeks after the terrorist attacks, secretaries at the New York State Office of Children and Family Services and press officers at the city's Administration for Children's Services could hardly answer the telephone without hearing from people who had read news of the "many," "hundreds," even "thousands" of orphans left in need of a home by the Sept. 11 disaster.

The problem is, officials say, there are none. Not a single child who needs foster care or adoption by strangers. Not a single documented case of a child who lost both parents. Just a handful of verified cases in which children "lost their only parent" — and all have close relatives who have taken over their care.