Butler Co. demands changes:
Stricter requirements urged for foster parents
Baker, Jennifer. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 1, 2006. Metro pg B1.
HAMILTON - Slamming a state report released this week that reviewed Marcus Fiesel's deadly foster-care placement, Butler County Commissioner Mike Fox called Thursday for most of the report's recommendations to be implemented locally.
"I don't want to wait for the state. Most of their recommendations do not need a change of law," Fox said. "In fact, many of them do not need any state action at all. They can be adopted as policies and practices by the local agency.
"Let's be the leader and get it done," he said.
The report identified problems in the child-welfare system and made about four dozen recommendations, many that can't be accomplished without a big infusion of staff and money.
Details of Marcus' placement and other aspects of the case were not included in the report, which Fox criticized for its secrecy.
The report reviews state laws and makes recommendations to strengthen them.
The report contained 58 recommendations. Fox said about 40 of them can be adopted locally.
They include:
-Require Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and FBI criminal checks for all foster care applicants.
-Require a minimum of three face-to-face interviews with prospective foster parents in the applicants' home and individual interviews with each household member before completing the certification process.
-Maintain documentation of applicants' attendance at training sessions by requiring them to sign in and out on a dated sheet.
-Require private agencies that contract to place children in foster care to notify the county of any criminal offense brought against the foster parent or any resident of the home.
The other two commissioners, Greg Jolivette and Chuck Furmon, agreed to pass Fox's proposal along to Butler County Children Services, which will review the recommendations and report back on which ones it can implement.
The agency also is expected to estimate how much it would cost to make the changes.
Jolivette suggested Fox's proposal also be reviewed by the state.
Some recommendations can be made free or at minimal cost with the stroke of a pen, Fox said, such as requiring foster parents to provide proof of car, homeowner or renter's insurance.
Butler County has already instituted some stricter requirements.
FBI criminal checks for everyone - a change not mirrored in the state's recommendations - are already required.
"To the (Children's Services) board's credit, some of these things they already are moving on," said Bruce Jewett, director of Butler County's Department of Job and Family Services.
That includes looking into the Ohio State Attorney General's Office's database that tracks offenses of those who hold concealed-carry permits to see if it could also be used to track offenses of foster parents, he said.
Denise Winkler, spokesperson for Butler County Children Services, said the agency will respond to Fox's proposals in a timely manner.
"We really are trying," she said. "The state report offers recommendations that counties can do. We are already looking at those."
Jann Heffner, executive director of Butler County Children Services, also plans to attend a meeting next week in Columbus of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, Winkler said. That organization is looking at how to help enact reforms statewide and locally, she said.
"Butler County Children Services supports all the recommendations in the state report without reservation," Winkler said
On Monday, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services issued the report that called for stricter licensing requirements, better monitoring of foster children and increased state oversight of private agencies.
The report concluded that Lifeway for Youth, a private agency that contracted with Butler County to place foster children, shouldn't have allowed the Carrolls to be foster parents because they weren't qualified or trained.
Fox said he is disappointed by the secrecy still surrounding Marcus' death and the people responsible for placing him.
"In the face of hundreds of thousands of Ohio residents who were repulsed by the horror and brutality of the tragedy, the public cry for bold action fell on deaf ears," Fox said in a prepared statement made public prior to Thursday's meeting. "People wanted details of how it happened - they got secrecy. They wanted bold and meaningful ideas to protect other children from similar fates - they got bureaucratic gobbledygook.
"The 8,000-word report that bore his name mentioned the name 'Marcus Fiesel' only two times - in the report title page and the preface. Of the 117 paragraphs contained in the report, only five paragraphs in the 33-page report mentioned Butler County, the county responsible for his care and well being."
Fox also rapped the state in comments during the commission meeting. "The (state) report's failing is in its lack of vision," he said. "People are looking for someone to provide leadership to make significant improvements in the system, not tinker at the edges. The report did not touch on any subject that was the least bit controversial. There was no boldness in the report."
The state exonerated Butler County Children Services of any missteps in the 3-year-old boy's placement with the Carrolls.
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