Link to learn more about SB 163

Foster care regulation sought
Selak, Ron. Tribune Chronicle. April 7, 2008.

WARREN — A push in Columbus to improve Ohio’s foster care system would increase background check requirements on foster parents and put in place safeguards to keep some adults from entering the system.

Senate Bill 163 is a companion piece to one lawmakers passed earlier this year that increases foster parent training from 12 to 36 hours and has a provision for improved care and placement of developmentally and mentally disabled foster kids. It becomes law on May 15.

Child protection advocates hope the measures go a long way toward upgrading the system in the wake of the 2006 death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel, who died after being tied up and wrapped in a blanket when his foster parents went on a weekend trip.

‘‘We believe that the two bills help us and agencies like Trumbull County Children Services to recruit good people and support those people to become good foster parents,’’ said Greg Kapcar of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.

Trumbull CSB already requires 39 hours of training for foster parents.

The measure still being discussed would add mandatory FBI criminal background checks on all foster and adoptive parent applicants and adults in the home and add their fingerprints to a statewide database.

Included is a way to notify agencies if a licensed foster parent is convicted of or pleads guilty to any of several offenses related to sex, robbery and burglary and drugs, among many others.

Some of the safeguard provisions include expanding the list of prohibited offenses to include, among others, identity fraud, cruelty to animals and inciting violence. There’s also a ban on becoming a foster parent in Ohio if a foster care license was revoked in another state within five years prior to the Ohio application.

Trumbull CSB director Marcia Tiger said she doesn’t think the new rules would scare off potential foster parents. The process of becoming certified is intrusive already, she said.

‘‘The people know that there is going to be a lot of digging into their stuff,’’ she said.

Cynthia Mason, supervisor of Trumbull CSB’s resource department, said potential foster parents undergo financial audits, psychological evaluations and police checks in communities where they previously lived. Applicants who lived outside of Ohio within five years undergo an FBI check, and the others are given a background check through the Ohio Bureau of Identification and Investigation.

Other adults in the home also are inspected as well, Mason said.

And if someone mentions they were a Boy Scout pack leader, Tiger says, workers try to track people down to inquire about that experience.

‘‘Anything with children, we have to go back and determine if it was a good experience,’’ Tiger said.

For more information on Senate Bill 163, the measure that would strengthen requirements on foster parents, see www.pcsao.org or www.legislature.state.oh.us/