Marcus' death snarling foster care:
Lifeway's fall leaves void in local parent network
McLaughlin, Sheila and Eileen Kelley. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 3, 2006.
The 7-month-old baby tested positive for cocaine at birth. Still, she was considered normal and healthy.
An African-American infant from Cincinnati, she should have been easy to place in foster care, like many other children without emotional and physical issues. Eager, loving foster parents usually snap up those kids.
That's changed in the four months since 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel died and his foster parents, Liz and David Carroll Jr., were charged with killing him.
Many county child-protection agencies stopped using Lifeway for Youth, the private company that placed Marcus with the Carrolls, for foster care.
The company's fall from grace created a shortage of available foster homes, forcing counties here to ship children well beyond Greater Cincinnati.
The infant girl wound up in Greenfield, a small town in northeastern Highland County, more than 80 miles from Cincinnati.
Other children are being shipped to Dayton, Hillsboro and Sabina, about an hour's drive away in Clinton County.
"It's always been a problem because we need foster parents. But it's more of a problem now because of Lifeway," said Brian Gregg, a Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services spokesman. The agency was one of Lifeway's top clients.
"Now, we're going pretty far with the kids. Before, we overwhelmingly placed them in the Hamilton County area," Gregg said.
The impact of Marcus' death on foster care goes beyond Lifeway.
Caseworkers are being asked to do more to safeguard children. For some counties, such as Butler, that comes without more staff, something some advocates say is needed to do the job right.
"The caseloads are pretty high," said Rebecca Palmer, a union president for Butler County social workers.
Palmer said Marcus' death prompted new orders that caseworkers visit all Butler County foster children at least once a month and also see both biological parents each month.
For many workers, that means crisscrossing not only Greater Cincinnati, but traveling much farther away to where the children are now being placed. "That gets overwhelming if you've got 70 kids in your caseloads."
Compounding the Butler problem is a lack of caseworkers.
Palmer said eight caseworkers have quit since Marcus' death. "You'll find with caseworkers that this job can be really sad and awful," she said. "And sometimes, you just have to become numb to it. You really have to or you cannot do your job anymore."
From another angle, Lifeway foster parents are left with empty beds. Some want to switch to other agencies, but the agencies won't take them.
"We've told them we need to play this out with the state and the counties and see what happens," said Jim Mason, chief executive officer and president of Beech Acres. The 157-year-old organization is one of the few that serve the same types of serious cases that Lifeway does.
"We're not inclined to be involved in the dwindling of another agency's program. But we hope whatever happens, the state will make plans to preserve the homes one way or another," Mason said. "The system needs the capacity."
Finding good foster homes is not easy.
"We never have enough foster families," said Denise Winkler, a Butler County Children Services Board spokeswoman.
Alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence and untreated mental illness tend to be the three big reasons children are taken away from their parents and put in foster care.
"Our children coming into care have more serious issues that require more services and higher levels of care," Winkler said.
Lifeway facing closure?
Lifeway has taken the brunt of criticism over Marcus' death in August.
The New Carlisle (about 70 miles north of Cincinnati) company now faces possible closure in Ohio after a state investigation revealed it fudged training hours the Carrolls were supposed to receive and didn't adequately check the couple's background before certifying them to become foster parents.
The Carrolls, the state concluded, never should have been given the OK by Lifeway to get a state license.
After Marcus' death, county child protection agencies in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren froze foster-care placements with Lifeway although they kept the children already placed with Lifeway in those homes. Other counties around the state have done the same.
Lifeway, licensed to operate in five other states, including Kentucky, has 523 foster homes in Ohio. Only 475 children are currently placed in them, state officials said. A Lifeway Web site said 600 children were in Lifeway homes.
The numbers underscore the effect of Marcus' death on Lifeway.
Two of Lifeway's largest clients are Hamilton and Butler counties. They have about 220 kids still with Lifeway.
Franklin County currently tops the list of Lifeway clients with 198 children placed in the agency's homes.
Franklin continues to place new children with Lifeway in the Columbus area but has decided not to send any more to Lifeway homes in the Greater Cincinnati area because of questions that arose after Marcus' death.
"What's difficult is finding placement for children with more severe issues. Those are the ones that are being placed somewhere further from home," said Winkler of Butler County.
The agency, which averages 30 new children in foster care each month, has 149 children with foster parents from private agencies. Two-thirds of them are in Lifeway homes, she said.
Hamilton County's Gregg said the freeze on Lifeway has created a competition among counties to find homes through the other private agencies. Counties also certify their own foster homes, which are closer and typically take in kids who don't have psychological or physical problems.
The Lifeway ban has jammed Hamilton County's foster homes "to the seams," and Gregg said his agency has trouble finding homes for "traditional" foster children - those who are considered normal.
Organizations such as Beech Acres, which has 50 therapeutic or treatment foster homes, typically reject the normal kids.
"We can't place kids in homes where they might be at risk when we are maxed out with therapeutic kids," Beech Acres' Mason said. "If you have a 13-year-old sex offender, you can't place a 2-year-old kid in that home."
Lighthouse Youth Services is doing what it can to make up for the lack of available foster homes. The network has about 70 licensed foster homes and generally only accepts children with the most difficult emotional and behavioral problems.
Bonita Campbell, the company's director of foster care, said it might have to begin recruiting foster families to help the area cope with the lack of homes since Marcus' death.
"We are pretty saturated," Campbell said.
Lifeway cuts staff
Michael Berner, Lifeway's executive director, said fallout from Marcus' death forced him to cut staff and other costs to survive. Some employees have quit.
Some foster families, he said, are aggressively being recruited by other private agencies, raising Berner's ire. He called the practice unethical.
"There is a lot of unethical behavior down there. We're disappointed how some of our colleagues have reacted to this. I like to think I wouldn't do it if I was in the same position," Berner said.
The state pays the agency a daily stipend of about $60 per child in its care. Lifeway keeps a little over half of that money for administrative costs; the rest goes to the foster parents.
Berner said the company he started in 1994 was "struggling to survive" and he defended it.
"Lifeway was caught holding the ball, and probably if any other agency in the state would have been caught with the same ball in their hands, it would have been 10 times as ugly with some agencies and twice as bad as almost all," he said.
"We've been victimized. We know that. There's nothing we can do except stay focused on kids we do have. If we can save the program, we don't know."
An African-American infant from Cincinnati, she should have been easy to place in foster care, like many other children without emotional and physical issues. Eager, loving foster parents usually snap up those kids.
That's changed in the four months since 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel died and his foster parents, Liz and David Carroll Jr., were charged with killing him.
Many county child-protection agencies stopped using Lifeway for Youth, the private company that placed Marcus with the Carrolls, for foster care.
The company's fall from grace created a shortage of available foster homes, forcing counties here to ship children well beyond Greater Cincinnati.
The infant girl wound up in Greenfield, a small town in northeastern Highland County, more than 80 miles from Cincinnati.
Other children are being shipped to Dayton, Hillsboro and Sabina, about an hour's drive away in Clinton County.
"It's always been a problem because we need foster parents. But it's more of a problem now because of Lifeway," said Brian Gregg, a Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services spokesman. The agency was one of Lifeway's top clients.
"Now, we're going pretty far with the kids. Before, we overwhelmingly placed them in the Hamilton County area," Gregg said.
The impact of Marcus' death on foster care goes beyond Lifeway.
Caseworkers are being asked to do more to safeguard children. For some counties, such as Butler, that comes without more staff, something some advocates say is needed to do the job right.
"The caseloads are pretty high," said Rebecca Palmer, a union president for Butler County social workers.
Palmer said Marcus' death prompted new orders that caseworkers visit all Butler County foster children at least once a month and also see both biological parents each month.
For many workers, that means crisscrossing not only Greater Cincinnati, but traveling much farther away to where the children are now being placed. "That gets overwhelming if you've got 70 kids in your caseloads."
Compounding the Butler problem is a lack of caseworkers.
Palmer said eight caseworkers have quit since Marcus' death. "You'll find with caseworkers that this job can be really sad and awful," she said. "And sometimes, you just have to become numb to it. You really have to or you cannot do your job anymore."
From another angle, Lifeway foster parents are left with empty beds. Some want to switch to other agencies, but the agencies won't take them.
"We've told them we need to play this out with the state and the counties and see what happens," said Jim Mason, chief executive officer and president of Beech Acres. The 157-year-old organization is one of the few that serve the same types of serious cases that Lifeway does.
"We're not inclined to be involved in the dwindling of another agency's program. But we hope whatever happens, the state will make plans to preserve the homes one way or another," Mason said. "The system needs the capacity."
Finding good foster homes is not easy.
"We never have enough foster families," said Denise Winkler, a Butler County Children Services Board spokeswoman.
Alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence and untreated mental illness tend to be the three big reasons children are taken away from their parents and put in foster care.
"Our children coming into care have more serious issues that require more services and higher levels of care," Winkler said.
Lifeway facing closure?
Lifeway has taken the brunt of criticism over Marcus' death in August.
The New Carlisle (about 70 miles north of Cincinnati) company now faces possible closure in Ohio after a state investigation revealed it fudged training hours the Carrolls were supposed to receive and didn't adequately check the couple's background before certifying them to become foster parents.
The Carrolls, the state concluded, never should have been given the OK by Lifeway to get a state license.
After Marcus' death, county child protection agencies in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren froze foster-care placements with Lifeway although they kept the children already placed with Lifeway in those homes. Other counties around the state have done the same.
Lifeway, licensed to operate in five other states, including Kentucky, has 523 foster homes in Ohio. Only 475 children are currently placed in them, state officials said. A Lifeway Web site said 600 children were in Lifeway homes.
The numbers underscore the effect of Marcus' death on Lifeway.
Two of Lifeway's largest clients are Hamilton and Butler counties. They have about 220 kids still with Lifeway.
Franklin County currently tops the list of Lifeway clients with 198 children placed in the agency's homes.
Franklin continues to place new children with Lifeway in the Columbus area but has decided not to send any more to Lifeway homes in the Greater Cincinnati area because of questions that arose after Marcus' death.
"What's difficult is finding placement for children with more severe issues. Those are the ones that are being placed somewhere further from home," said Winkler of Butler County.
The agency, which averages 30 new children in foster care each month, has 149 children with foster parents from private agencies. Two-thirds of them are in Lifeway homes, she said.
Hamilton County's Gregg said the freeze on Lifeway has created a competition among counties to find homes through the other private agencies. Counties also certify their own foster homes, which are closer and typically take in kids who don't have psychological or physical problems.
The Lifeway ban has jammed Hamilton County's foster homes "to the seams," and Gregg said his agency has trouble finding homes for "traditional" foster children - those who are considered normal.
Organizations such as Beech Acres, which has 50 therapeutic or treatment foster homes, typically reject the normal kids.
"We can't place kids in homes where they might be at risk when we are maxed out with therapeutic kids," Beech Acres' Mason said. "If you have a 13-year-old sex offender, you can't place a 2-year-old kid in that home."
Lighthouse Youth Services is doing what it can to make up for the lack of available foster homes. The network has about 70 licensed foster homes and generally only accepts children with the most difficult emotional and behavioral problems.
Bonita Campbell, the company's director of foster care, said it might have to begin recruiting foster families to help the area cope with the lack of homes since Marcus' death.
"We are pretty saturated," Campbell said.
Lifeway cuts staff
Michael Berner, Lifeway's executive director, said fallout from Marcus' death forced him to cut staff and other costs to survive. Some employees have quit.
Some foster families, he said, are aggressively being recruited by other private agencies, raising Berner's ire. He called the practice unethical.
"There is a lot of unethical behavior down there. We're disappointed how some of our colleagues have reacted to this. I like to think I wouldn't do it if I was in the same position," Berner said.
The state pays the agency a daily stipend of about $60 per child in its care. Lifeway keeps a little over half of that money for administrative costs; the rest goes to the foster parents.
Berner said the company he started in 1994 was "struggling to survive" and he defended it.
"Lifeway was caught holding the ball, and probably if any other agency in the state would have been caught with the same ball in their hands, it would have been 10 times as ugly with some agencies and twice as bad as almost all," he said.
"We've been victimized. We know that. There's nothing we can do except stay focused on kids we do have. If we can save the program, we don't know."
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