INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Indiana child welfare officials have joined law enforcement officials, health professionals and others to develop statewide rules for protecting and removing children found in homes or other places where methamphetamine is produced.

The standards issued Wednesday by the Drug Endangered Children Advisory Committee spell out how safety personnel, child caseworkers and health professionals should respond to meth lab discoveries and busts.

The rules detail how lab sites should be secured, what steps should be taken to protect people inside, and how evidence should be handled and secured to ensure safety and successful prosecutions.

For example, any responder who suspects that a meth lab is present should leave the area without alarming potential suspects and request that a law enforcement official trained in chemical protocols be dispatched.

James Payne, director of the Indiana Department of Child Services, said truancy officers or caseworkers often find themselves in homes or apartments where meth is being produced and children are present.

He said one case manager investigating allegations of neglect came into contact with meth chemicals ''and literally staggered out of the home and passed out in the yard.''

''One of the changes will be that when we discover this is a meth home environment, individuals who are responding will leave and only those individuals who have been properly trained in chemical toxicity who have the proper gear should go into that home,'' he said.

Under certain circumstances, children should be taken to a safe location, photographed in their original clothing to document cleanliness, have their clothing removed down to their undergarments, have wet-wipes used to cleanse them of any chemicals or residue, and have them covered in a protective blanket.

Urine samples should be taken within 12 hours and trained personnel should conduct interviews to determine when the children last ate and bathed, how they feel physically and mentally, and what their home environments are like.

Chemicals used to make meth pose serious dangers to children, including toxic poisoning, chemical burns, fires and explosions. They are often victims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

Officials said Indiana will join about 20 other states sharing resources on lab discoveries and quickly addressing the safety and psychological needs of children.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Indiana now ranks second only to Missouri in the number of meth labs seized. Indiana State Police reported that police agencies dismantled 1,549 meth labs statewide last year, up nearly 25 percent from 2003.

The new protocols were being shared Wednesday with about 400 workers from law enforcement, child welfare, health professionals and other responders.

Eric Lawrence, program manager for the state police drug lab team, said some localities have specific protocols for handling meth lab seizures and protecting children.

''What this is going to do is for the first time in the state of Indiana, children will be handled in the same and effective manner,'' he said.