Has Lifeway been singled out unfairly?

Lifeway's exec: Agency singled out after death
MacLaughlin, Sheila. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 3, 2006.

State deciding operation's future
The executive director and founder of the embattled foster care company that placed Marcus Fiesel with his accused killers said his company provides quality foster care, even as the state decides whether it will be in business past mid-January.

In an exclusive interview with The Enquirer in the wake of a scathing state review last week of Lifeway for Youth's actions in Marcus' deadly placement with Liz and David Carroll Jr., Michael Berner touched on the state's criticisms.

He implied he felt Lifeway was singled out by the state, but wouldn't elaborate. "Lifeway is taking the brunt of this situation. I think that speaks a world.

"There have been several deaths of children in the foster care system in Ohio. People do bad things and these situations are looked at, or should be, and we learn and go on.

"This one has been handled with special interest, and it's been handled differently. This case has been given a lot more attention than any other death in the system over the years."

Berner disputed the state's contention that Lifeway foster parents weren't getting the proper training.

The state requires 36 hours of training for therapeutic foster homes and a set curriculum before parents can be certified and take any children.

The state review found that while Lifeway's program was supposed to include four-hour sessions, the Lifeway trainer was finished 90 minutes early each night.

"Everybody's been through the classes and trained to the content that was required," Berner said. "I did not authorize that. Our trainer's been doing that. When I found out. . . that was corrected."

While class material was covered in 2½ hours, the trainer stayed 90 minutes more to answer questions and offer parents more personalized attention, Berner said.

"It's not like she closed her book and ran out of the building. She delivered her content and stayed for the duration of those classes," he said. "Those content areas were delivered in every case."

Berner said he continues to cooperate with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which is auditing his agency's operation as part of the process to recertify Lifeway's foster-care license.

"We're just taking care of business. I don't know what else we can do. We will cooperate with the auditors. We're professionals. I don't have any sour grapes here. I'm not here to complain or disparage anyone else that's in this fray," he said.

Since the state review was released Monday, Berner said he's been barraged with calls from juvenile court judges, county commissioners, state legislators and county children services officials.

"They want the facts. They are processing this," Berner said.

Because of Marcus' death, the state made more than four dozen recommendations to tighten the screening requirements and other measures to weed out bad foster parents and make sure children are safe.

Berner said he doesn't have a problem with that.

"Everybody in foster care is talking about this right now. What is the most we can do right now? What level of screening has to be done?" he said.

"We'll have to see how things go in the next year or two, and I'm sure the whole system will be tweaked. I don't think we'll come up with something in the next two months that will be the perfect system and solve all the problems."