Assemblyman Dario Frommer said Tuesday he will push to appoint an advocate for parents of autistic children and create a high-level state task force to improve coordination among agencies that provide services.

"It's very frustrating for parents going from agency to agency, place to place and not having someone to say, 'Here's how the pieces of the puzzle fit together and here's what you can do,'" he said.

Frommer, chairman of the Assembly Health Committee, made his remarks following a hearing in Sacramento on the state's rapid increase in autistic children.

The hearing brought together many of the experts at the forefront of the search to unlock the mystery behind the disorder.

Despite a projected $20 billion state budget shortfall next year, Frommer, D-Glendale, said he will introduce a resolution encouraging Gov. Gray Davis to aggressively seek federal funding and other means to ensure that ground-breaking research continues.

Rick Rollens, the father of an autistic child and a founder of the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute at UC Davis, argued that it will cost the state more in the long run if it cuts back on research now. He noted that the escalating number of autistic children costs taxpayers millions for a lifetime of care.

"You're seeing here today the cutting-edge research in autism in the world," he said.

Frommer said a parent advocate could be established at little cost by changing the focus of an existing state employee, who would attempt to reduce the "finger-pointing and buck-passing" among agencies that provide services.

The hearing came on the heels of a $1 million state-funded study by the M.I.N.D. Institute that concluded that the stunning increase in autistic children is a real phenomenon.

The study found that the increase cannot be explained away by changes in the definition of autism, by misclassification of children who used to be considered mentally retarded, or by people moving into the state to receive services.

The number of autistic children in the state jumped 273 percent between 1987 and 1998, and continues to rise. "We still don't know what's causing the increase," said pediatric epidemiologist Robert Byrd, the lead investigator on the study.

Robert Hendren, executive director of the M.I.N.D. Institute, noted that it may take three "hits" for a child to become autistic. Some children appear to have a genetic vulnerability, he said. The second "hit" may be some type of environmental toxin that pushes vulnerable children into full-blown autism. When such children are then removed from normal types of social interaction and do not receive early intervention, it may hasten their slide into autism.

To help discover whether there could be an environmental trigger, scientists have formed a Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research at UC Davis. Director Isaac Pessah, an expert in cellular signaling, said there appear to be as many as 10 to 15 genes that make some children susceptible to autism.

Pessah and his team are measuring toxic compounds present in the blood of autistic and non-autistic children to determine whether such things as pesticides, toxicants on closed military bases, a mercury-containing preservative that used to be contained in immunizations, and other toxins in the environment could also play a role in autism by affecting a child's nervous system while the brain is developing.

One of the limits of the statistics and studies in California, Byrd said, is that they are drawn from a pool of autistic children who are signed up to receive services from regional centers operated by the state Department of Developmental Services.

Critics maintain that it is possible that more children also are registering for services from regional centers, without there being an overall increase in autistic children in the state.

To address this question, the state Department of Health Services in conjunction with Kaiser has launched a study of six Bay Area counties, including Contra Costa and Alameda. Researchers are attempting to identify all autistic children in the area, including those who receive services from private clinics.