Marcus Fiesel legislation is finally being implemented

Boy's death leads lawmakers to propose foster care changes
Majors, Stephen. Akron Beacon Journal, Sept. 11, 2007.

Names of foster parents who fall on the wrong side of the law will be flagged in a statewide law enforcement database, and caregivers will receive more extensive training, under a plan state lawmakers are poised to approve roughly a year after an Ohio boy was killed by his foster parents.

The proposals are the result of discussions among foster care advocates, lawmakers and foster parents and children following the August 2006 death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel. The developmentally disabled boy died after being left bound in a closet by his foster parents in their Cincinnati-area home for two days while they attended a family reunion in Kentucky.

"The goal from my perspective was to make the system better but not drive foster parents away," said Rep. Jeff Wagner, a former foster parent and Sycamore Republican who is sponsoring a bill in the House to provide more training for parents. "It's awfully easy for government to overreact and cause a bigger problem because of its overreaction."

The House and Senate each have bills addressing the database proposal and separate bills addressing the training proposal. The Senate has passed both of its bills. The House has passed its database bill and is expected to take up Wagner's training bill this week as the Legislature returns from summer recess.

The investigation by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services into Fiesel's death showed there was a wealth of information available on the criminal records of foster parents, but the information had no way of being shared easily with those who make foster placement decisions, said state Sen. Tom Niehaus, the Columbus Republican who sponsored the database bill in the Senate.

"We need to break down barriers to make sure reliable information can be shared with both public and private agencies," Niehaus said.

After Fiesel died, a domestic violence charge against his foster father David Carroll became known to foster care officials. The June 2006 charge was later dropped, but observers in hindsight have said knowledge of the charge could have led to more investigation of the family and possibly the removal of the boy from the home.

The database bills in the House and Senate would require law enforcement agencies to relay up-to-date criminal information into a database containing names of current and prospective foster parents. The state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation would then be required to notify public and private foster-care agencies of criminal activity.

Under the plan, county-level state employees and private agencies making placement decisions would know when a potential or current foster parent has been arrested, for example, and what the arrest was for.

The training bills in both chambers increase the amount of pre-placement training for foster parents from 24 hours to 36 hours. They also enable current foster parents to meet some of the requirements for continuing training by teaching training classes or mentoring other foster caregivers.

The best recruiters are current foster families, said Greg Kapcar, assistant legislative director for the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, a private, nonprofit advocacy group focused on children's issues. The association worked on the proposals and supports them.

Kapcar said training is vital because it informs parents-to-be about the effects of abuse and neglect on children and how to positively discipline children who have been through emotional trauma.