Medicaid coverage expanded for foster kids, pregnant women
New provision in Ohio law means at least 4,000 state residents will get help with their medical bills.
Bischoff, Laura. Dayton Daily News, Jan. 16, 2008.
COLUMBUS — Each year more than 1,000 young Ohioans leave the state foster care system without getting adopted, immediately losing their homes and medical insurance on their 18th birthdays.
But a new provision in state law will extend Medicaid coverage to these Ohioans until their 21st birthdays.
"It is very important. We feel that youth who go out to the work force or go off to college should not be cut off from medical coverage," said Adrian McLemore, 21, a junior at Wright State University who left foster care at age 18. "I aged out of foster care. When I turned 18 and went off to college, it was a struggle."
McLemore, who is involved in a foster kids advocacy group called Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio, said he is still facing about $1,000 in medical bills from a car wreck his freshman year. He applauded state officials who put the Medicaid expansion into the state budget.
Medicaid coverage also is being expanded for about 3,000 pregnant women whose household incomes are between 150 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. That translates to incomes up to $41,300 for a family of four.
The expansion is expected to cost $19.6 million a year in state and federal funds for the pregnancy coverage and $19.6 million a year for foster kids.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Newspaper argues for open foster parent records
Editorial: Foster-care insider understands the danger of closing records
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 16, 2008.
The General Assembly should uphold its duty to foster children and pass a Senate bill that keeps open foster-care records. The bureaucrats who want to hide them are interested only in protecting other bureaucrats, not children.
And that's not just the opinion of this newspaper. It's also the opinion of a conservative Republican, a 22-year state legislator, who is now reforming Butler County Children Services.
Marcus Fiesel, an autistic 3-year-old, was Butler County's ward. Lifeway for Youth, a private agency working with the county, placed Marcus in foster care in suburban Cincinnati. In August 2006, the foster parents killed Marcus because, to put it plainly, he got in the way of some weekend plans.
Marcus' murder was so horrific - he was alive when he was wrapped and taped into a blanket, then lodged in a bedroom closet in a Southern Ohio summer; he was dead when his "caretakers" returned two days later - it got Ohio lawmakers all the way out of their hammocks.
The Senate and the House each passed "reforms." Neither has become law because of a key difference. The House, with Gov. Ted Strickland's support, wants to hide the names and addresses of foster parents. That information is now public, though the Department of Job & Family Services is, wrongly, asking the Ohio Supreme Court to hide it from the Cincinnati Enquirer.
A year after Marcus died, the Butler County commissioners named a colleague, former state Rep. Michael A. Fox, to run the county's Children Services. He was a House member for two decades ending in the 1990s.
Fox said last week that he "absolutely" opposes making foster parents' names and addresses secret. "Marcus Fiesel died because we knew too little about his foster parents, not too much," Fox said.
Fox countered two arguments of those legislators who seek secrecy. Some claim, without evidence, that open records would discourage Ohioans from becoming foster parents. Not so, said Fox. Research shows the "No. 1 reason people don't become foster parents is because they aren't asked." That is, they don't know of the need or the opportunity.
A second claim about open records, also without concrete evidence, is that they endanger children taken from abusive parents. But judges already have power to shroud specific records when there is a probability of harm to specific children, Fox said.
The General Assembly must learn, as Fox already has, the crucial lesson of Marcus Fiesel's murder: "If you know too little, children get hurt."
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 16, 2008.
The General Assembly should uphold its duty to foster children and pass a Senate bill that keeps open foster-care records. The bureaucrats who want to hide them are interested only in protecting other bureaucrats, not children.
And that's not just the opinion of this newspaper. It's also the opinion of a conservative Republican, a 22-year state legislator, who is now reforming Butler County Children Services.
Marcus Fiesel, an autistic 3-year-old, was Butler County's ward. Lifeway for Youth, a private agency working with the county, placed Marcus in foster care in suburban Cincinnati. In August 2006, the foster parents killed Marcus because, to put it plainly, he got in the way of some weekend plans.
Marcus' murder was so horrific - he was alive when he was wrapped and taped into a blanket, then lodged in a bedroom closet in a Southern Ohio summer; he was dead when his "caretakers" returned two days later - it got Ohio lawmakers all the way out of their hammocks.
The Senate and the House each passed "reforms." Neither has become law because of a key difference. The House, with Gov. Ted Strickland's support, wants to hide the names and addresses of foster parents. That information is now public, though the Department of Job & Family Services is, wrongly, asking the Ohio Supreme Court to hide it from the Cincinnati Enquirer.
A year after Marcus died, the Butler County commissioners named a colleague, former state Rep. Michael A. Fox, to run the county's Children Services. He was a House member for two decades ending in the 1990s.
Fox said last week that he "absolutely" opposes making foster parents' names and addresses secret. "Marcus Fiesel died because we knew too little about his foster parents, not too much," Fox said.
Fox countered two arguments of those legislators who seek secrecy. Some claim, without evidence, that open records would discourage Ohioans from becoming foster parents. Not so, said Fox. Research shows the "No. 1 reason people don't become foster parents is because they aren't asked." That is, they don't know of the need or the opportunity.
A second claim about open records, also without concrete evidence, is that they endanger children taken from abusive parents. But judges already have power to shroud specific records when there is a probability of harm to specific children, Fox said.
The General Assembly must learn, as Fox already has, the crucial lesson of Marcus Fiesel's murder: "If you know too little, children get hurt."
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Meet the Parents
Children found in squalor are in foster care. Miller, Donna J. Cleveland Plan Dealer, Jan. 11, 2008.UPDATE:
The 2-year-old girl and 9-month-old boy who were taken from their parents' house in the 3700 block of West 13th Street on Tuesday are in foster care. A police report was not correct in saying the children were given to their maternal grandmother.
"There were some scratches and bruises on the children, but no major medical problems," Children's Services Director Jim McCafferty said this morning. One child was overdue for a vaccination, "but miraculously, there weren't flea bites or scabies or anything like that."
Kelly M. Szakacs, 23, and Jarrett J. Turney, 24, remain in jail, charged with child endangering and contempt of court for unpaid traffic citations. Szakacs is six months pregnant, McCafferty said.
Cleveland police said the house was strewn with human and cat feces, rotting food, other trash and pornography. They also found clothes stacked next to a working space heater that could have started a fire.
Officers watched cats and the children eat out of the same food containers, they said in their report. The toilet hadn't been cleaned, the children slept on bare, stained mattresses and there was a chain mounted to the outside of the older child's bedroom door and feces on the walls.
A litter box in the kitchen was overflowing and cats were jumping from it to the counters, police said.
The couple lived in the lower half of a duplex. The woman upstairs is an in-home babysitter. Turney's uncle said the woman who owns the house is giving a deposition at 11 a.m. today.
Police were called to the house at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday by two women who had entered the couple's unit to adopt one of the cats. The Cleveland Animal Protective League has taken the cats.
The couple will be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in Cleveland Municipal Court.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Richard Wexler is an extremist - and that is dangerous
NO ABSOLUTES IN FOSTER CARE DEBATE
My gratitude for the attention and support that the Ohio foster care situation is receiving is mixed with a deep level of concern that some would-be advocates, such as Richard Wexler, seem biased in favor of returning a child to his/her family, in any and all situations.
As a former foster child and current advocate for people in and from foster care, I am troubled by ultimatums when individual situations can be so diverse. It troubles me to hear that foster youth should "always" be placed back with their biological families. Or that custody should "never" be severed.
This type of extremism is dangerous. It can lead to child deaths, the perpetuation of sexual abuse and other horrors.
There is no magical formula for families that break down. Sometimes biological parents are willing and able to change. Sometimes not. Sometimes children who are forced to stay with abusive parents die or are forever scarred (physically or emotionally) by their parents' actions.
What is needed is a balanced approach, with the bottom line being the physical safety of the child and their long-term emotional well-being.
Professionals should start by listening to the young people themselves, as well as eliciting feedback from former foster children who have not only experienced foster care firsthand, but have had time to process their experiences and make sense of them.
I hold firmly to the credo of Foster Care Alumni of America: “Our experience is our expertise.”
-Lisa Dickson, Ohio
My gratitude for the attention and support that the Ohio foster care situation is receiving is mixed with a deep level of concern that some would-be advocates, such as Richard Wexler, seem biased in favor of returning a child to his/her family, in any and all situations.
As a former foster child and current advocate for people in and from foster care, I am troubled by ultimatums when individual situations can be so diverse. It troubles me to hear that foster youth should "always" be placed back with their biological families. Or that custody should "never" be severed.
This type of extremism is dangerous. It can lead to child deaths, the perpetuation of sexual abuse and other horrors.
There is no magical formula for families that break down. Sometimes biological parents are willing and able to change. Sometimes not. Sometimes children who are forced to stay with abusive parents die or are forever scarred (physically or emotionally) by their parents' actions.
What is needed is a balanced approach, with the bottom line being the physical safety of the child and their long-term emotional well-being.
Professionals should start by listening to the young people themselves, as well as eliciting feedback from former foster children who have not only experienced foster care firsthand, but have had time to process their experiences and make sense of them.
I hold firmly to the credo of Foster Care Alumni of America: “Our experience is our expertise.”
-Lisa Dickson, Ohio
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