Response to boy's murder
Bill would toughen foster-parent checks
Price, Rita. Columbus Dispatch, May 11, 2007, pg. B1.
Protecting children
Some of the proposed changes to Ohio's foster-care law:
* Create a fingerprint database that would notify state and county agencies if a foster parent has been arrested for certain offenses.
* Require FBI-level background checks for prospective foster parents and for their certificate or license renewal. Now, most foster parents undergo a more limited background check.
* Expand the training for prospective foster parents from 24 hours to 36 hours and allow experienced foster parents to receive continuing-education credits by mentoring new caregivers.
* Establish a pilot program in 10 counties that seeks to better assess the child's needs and match them with the foster parent's abilities.
* Specify that "identifying information" about foster and prospective foster parents held by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services or a county agency is not public information.
Six days after the remains of a murdered foster child were buried in a toy-box-size casket, Ohio legislators proposed laws to strengthen background checks of foster parents and improve information-sharing among child-welfare agencies.
The changes would mandate FBI-level background checks, searches through the state's automated information system and creation of a fingerprint database.
"Last Friday, Marcus Fiesel was finally laid to rest," state Sen. Gary Cates said. "Today, I like to think that we start his legacy."
The 3-year-old died in August after his foster parents, Liz Carroll and David Carroll Jr. of Clermont County, bound him in a blanket and left him in a closet while they went to a family reunion for the weekend.
"He ended up with some very evil people," said Cates, a Butler County Republican.
But under the proposed legislation, the identities of all foster-care providers could become much more difficult to obtain.
It would exempt names and addresses of foster caregivers from Ohio's public-records law.
About 10,000 Ohio children are in foster care, and nearly half of their cases are managed by private agencies.
State Rep. Jeff Wagner of Sycamore, a former foster parent, said the identities need to be secret to protect children and caregivers from angry parents.
"This is more of a safety issue," the Republican said.
Wagner said current law is "gray" on the question of whether the identity of a person paid to provide foster care is a public record. "This makes it black and white," he said.
The public-records exemption reflects concern over a demand by The Cincinnati Enquirer, said Crystal Ward Allen, executive director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.
The newspaper has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to hear arguments on its request that the names of foster parents be public information. The request was made in light of both the Fiesel case and that of a foster parent accused of molesting children. It was denied by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Although the Enquirer did not request information on foster children, the state said they could be endangered in the process.
Allen said her organization is "strongly supportive" of the exemption.
The laws proposed yesterday also call for increased training for prospective foster parents, mentoring by experienced foster parents and reviews to keep special-needs children, such as the developmentally disabled Marcus, from being placed with families ill-equipped to handle those challenges.
The Carrolls had been investigated before for child abuse and neglect. Mrs. Carroll had been hospitalized for suicide attempts. Mr. Carroll recently had been charged with domestic violence and couldn't even pass a background check to become an assistant baseball coach.
But the private agency that was supposed to screen the Carrolls on behalf of Marcus, Lifeway for Youth, did not report the information, state officials said.
Allen said the new fingerprint database, when complete, will be able to communicate with the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System. That system includes 15 of 88 Ohio counties and is expected to include the rest within the year, she said.
Private child-placing agencies and noncustodial agencies would have access to the system.
Wagner said he's satisfied that the proposed changes will help protect children without diminishing the pool of badly needed foster caregivers.
Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said the state would do better to focus on reducing the number of children who enter the foster-care system in the first place. - BECAUSE HE IS OBSESSED WITH THIS TOPIC
"The bigger issue is that Ohio is never going to fix child welfare as long as it remains mired in background-check fetishism," he said. "There were plenty of red flags in the Fiesel case. They were ignored."
The Carrolls were convicted of murder and other charges. Mrs. Carroll was sentenced to 54 years in prison and her husband will serve at least 16.
