Lifeway reported to have decided not to challenge state decision to revoke its license

Foster care agency to leave Ohio
Zanesville Times Recorder, Feb. 10, 2007.

NEW CARLILSE (AP) -- A private foster-care agency losing its license following the death of a 3-year-old developmentally disabled boy it helped place will stop doing business in Ohio, founder and director Michael Berner said Friday.

Lifeway For Youth previously had said it would challenge the state's decision to revoke the license, made in the aftermath of the death of Marcus Fiesel, who was placed with a couple certified to be foster parents through the agency.

Liz and David Carroll Jr. face separate trials on charges accusing them of leaving Fiesel alone in a closet for two days, wrapped in a blanket and packing tape. Authorities say the boy was dead when the couple returned to their home in Clermont County in southwest Ohio from a family reunion in Kentucky.

Lifeway, based in this city near Dayton, had been licensed in Ohio since 1994 and also operates in other states, including Kentucky, Indiana and Virginia. Once the state sends a formal revocation notice, a license is canceled in 30 days if an agency does not appeal.

Under state law, the more than 300 families who worked through Lifeway will be able to work directly with county foster offices or through other private agencies.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said in January it notified Lifeway for Youth it would not renew its license, which was scheduled to expire. The state said that a review of 40 Lifeway for Youth foster homes and investigations following the boy's death found 147 violations of state rules, 27 in the Carroll case.