Foster parents mentoring one another

New foster care law will protect kids
Carey, Jim. Chillicothe Gazette, Feb. 13, 2008.

The tragic murder of a 3-year-old foster child from southwest Ohio in the summer of 2006 has been at the center of an ongoing campaign in the General Assembly to address problems in the state's foster care system. Last Tuesday, the Senate took an important step forward in this effort.

As some of you may recall, in August 2006, a developmentally-disabled boy from Clermont County named Marcus Fiesel was killed by his foster parents Liz and David Carroll, who bound him in a blanket and left him alone in a sweltering closet while they traveled to an out-of-state family reunion. The couple returned home to find him dead, then proceeded to burn his body and dispose of the remains.

News of this gruesome event sent shockwaves through communities across the state and rallied legislators, government agency representatives and child advocates to the table to take a close look at Ohio's system of placing foster children. After receiving a detailed report on the Fiesel case from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services shortly after his death, the group conducted an extensive review of the state's foster care system and laid-out several key recommendations for change.

One of these recommendations is at the heart of legislation which was passed unanimously by the Senate this past week. House Bill 214, a measure that I am proud to co-sponsor, would increase the number of training hours required to be a foster parent in Ohio from 24 to 36.

And, importantly, at the urging of current foster parents, the bill allows prospective parents to complete this training requirement through mentoring programs that pair new foster parents with experienced foster caregivers.

This means families looking to take in a foster kid will not only receive more hours of training but will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with men and women who have been in their shoes before and have valuable knowledge to share about the process.

In addition, HB 214 includes a measure that seeks to weed out "bad actors" in Ohio's foster care system and protect foster children from potentially harmful, unlawful caregivers. Should a foster parent have their license revoked or be accused or convicted of a crime, the bill would require information about that foster parent and the placement of children with that individual to become public record.

With this measure in place, the state not only ensures proper oversight of the system, but works to protect the privacy of honest caregivers, who could be discouraged from becoming a foster parent if their personal information was publicly-accessible.

The General Assembly has also taken other important steps to strengthen Ohio's foster care system. In House Bill 119, the most recent state budget bill, a provision was included to create a 10-county pilot program through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, designed to give foster care placement agencies more resources to measure a child's placement needs. For instance, Marcus Fiesel was reported to be autistic and needed more specialized care than other children in the system.

The Senate has also passed legislation, Senate Bill 163, which incorporates other recommendations from the working group of state leaders and child advocates, including added protections for foster kids, improved cooperation among government agencies to prevent children from being placed in dangerous homes and more information to public service agencies, better enabling them to remove a child should problems develop. This bill is now under consideration in the Ohio House.

Ohio's children are the future of our state, and we should do everything possible to ensure all kids have the support and protection they need. Many foster children are already in a difficult situation, moving from home to home. They should not have to worry about whether their new family will harm them.

The General Assembly has taken important steps to keep foster children safe and place them in loving homes. I will work to see that this effort continues.

Carey, R-Wellston, represents Ohio's 17th State Senate District. This includes Chillicothe.