FCAA Ohio Thanksgiving 2009

The Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America greatly appreciate the sponsoring organizations that made this year's Thanksgiving event possible, and the press representatives who shared our message with the local community:

• Congregation Agudas Achim
  
• Capital University Student Government
• Kappa Sigma Upsilon
• Jewish Student Organization of Capital
• Catering By Scott
• Franklin County Children Services
• ODJFS
• Columbus Dispatch
• 10-TV
• Fox News
• Columbus Literacy Council

We thank Ohio First Lady Frances Strickland for taking time out of her busy schedule to attend, and participate in, this year's Thanksgiving gathering of current and former foster youth from all across Ohio.

Foster Care Alumni of America Ohio chapter Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving dinner provided for those who have experienced foster care
Crane, Misti. Columbus Dispatch front page, Nov. 23, 2009.

SHARI LEWIS | Dispatch
Riccardo Rushin, 19, of Canton, talks with his Stark County group at a Thanksgiving dinner in Bexley that drew about 100 Ohioans, many of whom are or have been in foster care. Rushin has lived on his own since he turned 18 and "aged out" of foster care.

They might have nowhere to go Thursday, or somewhere that feels safe but is only temporary.

Young people who've known the hardship of living without family and who've been challenged to find strength despite a shaky foundation found communion yesterday at a meal that came four days before the holiday but embodied its spirit.

Thanksgiving is about family. It's about grace and gratitude.

For foster children and young adults who've moved beyond their temporary homes, family in its conventional sense can be elusive.

About 100 people from across the state, many of whom are in foster care or recently "aged out," as they say, gathered yesterday afternoon at Agudas Achim, a Bexley synagogue.

Thanks to the kindnesses of others and the dogged advocacy of former foster child Lisa Dickson, they found camaraderie and Thanksgiving.

Dickson founded the Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America. She's 36 and has a family of her own, but she remembers the feeling of isolation that could accompany the holidays, particularly when she was a young adult.

"There wasn't a family to come back to; there weren't those roots," Dickson said.

"For a lot of people, the holidays can be the loneliest part."

In and of itself, being a foster child can be lonely, said Alex McFarland, who is 19 and president of the Ohio youth advisory board. He said it's worse when those outside the situation misunderstand.

"A lot of people have the image that we've done something wrong, when more than likely somebody's done something wrong to us," said McFarland, who lives in a suburb of Dayton.

The dinner was the third-annual -- the first in Columbus -- and was made possible because of a $1,000 donation from Capital University's student government that paid for food. The synagogue gave its space free, said Gabriel Koshinsky, vice president of student government and president of the Jewish Student Union.

The meal yesterday offered an opportunity to meet new people and learn about opportunities for foster children. It also gave guests the chance to reclaim the sense of belonging.

Dre Williams, who is 18 and lives in a foster home, and Kadeem Monroe, who is 19 and on his own, came to Columbus with a group from Stark County.

"I don't know how many days I felt like I was the only foster child in the world," Monroe said.

People who aren't part of the system don't understand the challenges or the emotional burdens or even how foster care works, the two said.

Williams said he wishes more good people would embrace children who can no longer live with their families, and that fewer people would invite foster children into their homes primarily for the money.

He's now living with Jodi Wilson, who has been a foster mom to 14 kids over 17 years. She maintains ties with many of them, and has a warm rapport with Williams.

"These kids are alone, or I believe they feel alone," said Wilson, who also works as supervisor of Stark County's independent-living program.

Bringing them together as a family of sorts is important, Wilson said.

"They have a common language, common experiences," she said.

"I'm 52, and I still talk to my mother every day. They don't have that."

SHARI LEWIS | Dispatch
Lisa Dickson, a former foster child who founded Ohio's chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America, snaps a memory of the event she sought.

We can do BETTER for Ohio's 3,000 waiting children

"I aged out of foster care in 1989 - but it wasn't until over a decade later, in the year 2000, that my picture frame was finally filled." (At this point Lisa held up her wedding photo). "I was 27 years old when I married my husband, and finally became a legal member of a forever family.”

“Our children shouldn't have to wait that long. We can do so much better for the young people in and from foster care today. Every year, over a thousand Ohio youth "age out" of the foster care system without being connected with forever families.”

"When I married my husband, I became a stepmother to his two beautiful daughters. We've been married for ten years now, and I learn more every day about what it's like to love two children who are not biologically my daughters - but whom I love more than anything.”

"As I watch my stepdaughters enter their teenage years, and young adulthood, I know that my husband and I will be there for them no matter what. They won't face the uncertainty that I faced as a child.”

"They will know that they are loved. They will know that they are safe. They will know that they have a place to belong to.”

"If they make a mistake while budgeting in college, they won't be homeless. If the road is difficult, I won't pull over the car, and tell them to get out. They will know that, even during the hard times, my love will still be there.”

"There are more than 3,000 children in Ohio who are waiting for that kind of assurance and certainty today.”

"Right now, at this moment, is an opportunity to fill their picture frames with our love. Our consistency. Our perseverance.”

"We who are here today have the strength to love, and the confidence to let adoptees tell us their story. We can build pictures of the future, and face pictures of the past. We can open our hearts and our homes, and provide FOREVER.”

Lisa Dickson, Communications Chair of Foster Care Alumni of America's Ohio chapter, speaks from the heart at the Nov. 6th Adoption Rally “Filling Family Portraits” on the Statehouse Steps. OACCA Weekly, Nov. 9, 2009.

40 percent cut in Ohio adoption program hurts children

Vanishing family faces. Price, Rita. Columbus Dispatch, Nov. 7, 2009.

The Ohio Statehouse steps were covered today with hundreds of photo frames -- many of them empty -- to symbolize the 3,000 Ohio children who wait for a place in a family picture. The state cut $43 million for adoption services, about 40 percent of funding.

With a few clicks of his computer mouse, Ray Lees saw the face, read the story and fell a little in love.

"He came home with us in June," said the Worthington resident and adoptive father of 14-month-old Kalis.

The Web site listing Ohio foster children in need of homes is gone now, their smiling faces replaced by a gray directory of county agencies.

State officials had touted the site as efficient and effective, one of the best ways for parents and professionals to search for waiting children.

"It listed photos and stories," said Greg Kapcar of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. "And it's one of the casualties."

Slashing of the state budget eliminated the Adopt Ohio program and took away $43 million for adoption services -- about a 40 percent cut -- over the next two years, Kapcar said.

Money for recruiting and training parents is down, one-time assistance for adoption expenses has been cut in half, and the state has reduced its share of subsidies for families who adopt low-income or special-needs children through public systems.

Kapcar said the 3,000 Ohio children waiting to be adopted will pay a price.

He and other advocates covered the Statehouse steps yesterday with hundreds of photo frames -- many of them empty -- to symbolize the children who wait for a place in a family picture.

Christine Johnson told the crowd that she spent four years in foster care and was moved 10 times before she and her two brothers were adopted. She's now 24, but the pain still isn't gone.

"I learned that you had to start over each time with each family to try to earn their love," she said.

Declining subsidies are likely to have a chilling effect on adoption, which costs taxpayers less than foster care, said Ron Browder, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund-Ohio.

Many of the children who are adopted have expensive needs, while many of the families who take them in have incomes in the middle- to low-middle range, he said. "Why wasn't there some thought to finding ways to hold these families harmless?"

Monthly subsidies vary from less than $250 to more than $1,000 for a child with disabilities. The state has dropped its maximum contribution to $240 a month, down from $300.

The rest of the amount comes from federal or local funds, and county child-welfare agencies are struggling to make up the difference.

"Some counties are asking families to renegotiate their subsidies," Kapcar said.

State Sens. John A. Carey Jr., a Republican from Wellston, and Dale Miller, a Democrat from Cleveland, have sponsored a bill to restore about $8 million that was cut, advocates said.

Marynell Townsend, a mother of five from New Concord who adopted two children, said Ohio can't afford to go backward. Families who want to know about available children might turn to other states with better online resources, she said.

"We're a technological society. There are wonderful families in Ohio who are going to adopt. We want them to know about our children here."

Cuts in human services at a time when families need help more than ever

Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services tries to make do with less money, Dissell, Rachel. Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 19, 2009.

CLEVELAND -- Overwhelmed parents, calling from the last knot on their rope, won't get help from the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services.

That's because with a total of at least $19 million in state cuts last year, this year and the next, the department can no longer afford the services.

After years of building preventive programs to keep children out of foster care, the agency is making soul-churning choices.

"We have been all things to all people for a long time," department director Deborah Forkas said. "This will not be the same agency anymore. We will only be able to do what we are mandated to do and nothing more."

That means the agency, which has one of the largest budgets in the county, at $164 million this year, will wait until a baby is born drug-positive to step in. The agency will work with families only when abuse and neglect have been verified or other problems have actually occurred, rather than stepping in early to help.

And it will peel back efforts elsewhere to focus on its core mission: aiding seriously abused and neglected children, especially the youngest and most helpless kids.

So far, projected cuts from 2008 through 2010 amount to more than 10 percent of the agency's budget.

That does not take into consideration cuts to nonprofit and grant-funded agencies the county collaborates with. Many of those have suffered severe cutbacks as well. And more cuts could still come. It's depressing news for any county, which throughout Ohio are grappling with shrinking state aid and growing need.

So state officials are giving counties as much flexibility as possible in deciding what to cut.

"Each county has different priorities, different funding sources," said Brian Harter, a spokesman for Ohio Job and Family Services. "Some counties have levy dollars, some don't. It's up to each individual county to prioritize how they spend their money. They have a better sense of the needs of their county."

In that sense, Cuyahoga County is lucky. Sort of.

In addition to state and federal money for health and human services, the county began collecting money for needy families, elderly programs and MetroHealth Medical Center in 1976 when it passed its first health and human service levy. The county passed a second levy in 1989, and now, the two taxes are replaced or renewed by voters every four or five years, including one tax last year.

In 2004, county commissioners pledged to spend only levy money -- not general fund income -- on health and human services. That way, funding for the agencies remains separate from the pool of money that pays for most county services and offices.

Of course, both streams of money are fueled by taxes, mostly sales tax for the general fund, and property tax for the health and human services fund.

But county officials are not considering mixing the money, even while they bemoan what they call "devastating" state cuts.

The county is even shifting some costs, such as $365,000 for the public defender's social work staff, from the general fund to the health and human services levies.

Commissioners Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones said they don't believe the county should use general fund money to make up for health and human service losses. But every dollar spent reflects a choice, a point Hagan made at a commissioners' meeting last month.

"We should be investing in our children as quickly as we can," he said.

Still, county officials are independently elected and so, can choose how to spend their allotted budgets.

The county treasurer's staff can attend weekend festivals to share information about subsidized home loans and easy payment programs. The auditor can have three satellite offices.

Auditor Frank Russo spends about $45,000 annually to rent three offices throughout Cleveland, said Destin Ramsey, the auditor's chief of staff. Fourteen office assistants are paid a total of $560,000 to work at the offices, to answer questions and process licenses.

"Every agency has their budget," Ramsey said. "Either you spend it or you don't."

The county budget office calculates the spending for each office. But commissioners really have no control over elected officials' budgets, other than the total dollar amounts.

"It's a conundrum," McCafferty said. "You certainly want services for health and human services. But there are also services for the general population. You can't just cut out all other services to support health and human services."

In the past, Cuyahoga County had a strong reputation statewide for investing money in its children.

Forkas planned to develop a program for older foster-care children, about to "age out," or leave the system. But now the agency cannot afford to make those children a top priority, especially since Forkas said the agency has lost more than 200 positions though a combination of unfilled positions, layoffs and buyouts.

The layoffs included workers who supervised visitation. That work has now been shifted to social workers. The staff of special advocates and workers who assist drug-addicted parents also has been snipped.

Forkas said she's not sure state officials realize the actual impact of their cuts.

"They ought to be out here and see these families and these kids," she said. "Of course this is bad for us, but it is 10 times worse for our clients who are suffering."

Although doing less will save money now, it could end up costing more as untreated problems fester, experts say.

"Whenever we cut the up-front, early preventive services, the cases that come to us later on are further along and more intense," said Crystal Ward Allen, executive director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. "I do believe it will come back and be more costly, not only financially, but also in terms of child outcomes."

Jon Honeck, director of public policy for the Center for Community Solutions said that a few years ago, a poor family might be able to get help fixing a car so a parent could get to his job.

Now the money isn't available. "Having these prevention, retention and contingency funds, having them go away or be cut down to nothing, it's penny-wise, pound-foolish," he said.

But Honeck doesn't think counties can raid their general funds to pay for preventive programs. That's because of declining sales tax revenue and state budget cuts affecting other county functions.

"All the counties are in a revenue crunch, to one degree or another," he said. "I don't know if there really is anywhere they could do major shifts. You can't fix this just by tinkering around the edges."

Forkas agrees. Resigned to the fact she cannot prevent all the cuts, she has moved on to other strategies.

The agency plans to seek more grants. And it's reaching out to business and community groups.

Earlier this year, on a whim, Forkas wrote a letter to a Lowe's Home Improvement store, explaining that there was no adequate outdoor place for parents and siblings to visit each other at the agency's downtown office.

Parents attempting to reunite with their children often start visiting at the agency under supervision of social workers.

To her surprise, Lowe's donated nearly $4,500 worth of plants and materials for the visitation center and urban garden.

"We just have to get more creative now, I guess," Forkas said.

Child abuse escalates during a recession

Abuse of children escalating to brutality, experts say
Sullivan, Lucas. Springfield News Sun, Oct. 4, 2009.

Infants and toddlers have become helpless casualties of an economic crisis, suffering severe physical abuse at levels that rival anything local experts have seen in at least 20 years.

Investigations of physical abuse in Montgomery County increased from 817 in 2006 to 1,033 the next year and landed at 981 in 2008, according to county data. The numbers are rising more this year.

Dayton Children’s Medical Center, which handles patients from throughout the Miami Valley, reported an increase from 195 cases of possible abuse between January and August in 2008, to 326 during the same time period this year.

Caseworkers in Clark County also reported an increase in physical abuse, and like their counterparts in Montgomery County, they’ve gone from working about 15 cases at a time, to about 20. But Warren and Greene counties reported no increases in physical abuse.

The increase in physical abuse is concerning, but more alarming, “it’s more severe,” said Carol Griesdorn, a 20-year veteran with Montgomery County Children Services.

County Coroner Dr. James Davis said the abuse has not led to more child fatalities, just more violent deaths. “There needs to be a more appropriate word to what we’re seeing because it’s not abuse,” he said. “What we’re seeing is outrageous brutality.”

The rise in severe abuse mirrors a local unemployment rate that ballooned from 6 percent in 2005 to nearly 12 percent last month, according to data from the state department of Job and Family Services.

Griesdorn and caseworkers from area counties said the recession has stripped social services, leaving parents or caregivers with short fuses without a support system.

That means more helpless children in dangerous situations, Griesdorn said.

Every case of child abuse is disturbing, but images of the injuries that led to 3-year-old Hope Cook’s death won’t leave forensic or homicide investigators anytime soon.

Cook was beaten to death by her half-sister Kimberly Cook, 23, in July 2008. A Montgomery County jury took 90 minutes Thursday, Oct. 1, to find Kimberly Cook guilty of all murder and abuse charges .

Hope Cook’s head injuries were so severe, county Coroner James Davis used phrases like “Oh my gosh,” and “horrific brutality,” when talking about the case.

“Let’s just say there is no doubt Hope Cook was murdered,” Davis said. “I would rather spare the public the extent of the brutality and only say it’s the worse case I’ve seen in my 29 years.”

While Hope Cook’s death is an extreme case, child advocates say the instances of especially harsh abuse appear to be increasing.

“The past year I have noted (that) many infants and younger toddlers presenting physical abuse concerns have more severe injuries,” said Dr. Lori Vavul-Roediger, director for the Department of Child Advocacy at Dayton Children’s Medical Center. “There seems to be a slightly increasing trend (of) abusive head injuries in infants and younger toddlers.”

It’s difficult for medical experts to pinpoint why more children are suffering severe head trauma , but when it comes to head injuries from abuse or accident, the indicators are palpable, Davis said.

“It’s very difficult to fracture a child’s skull,” he said. “Bones in young children are more rubbery and much harder to break than in adults.

“We can see a pattern in the fracture (like a cracked egg) and tell right away. When you see a solid bone that’s fractured like that — they’ve sustained a severe blow.”

While Vavul-Roediger acknowledged the possibility of a link between the increase in violence and the economy, she said that increased awareness among professionals about the signs of abuse also is leading to more reported cases.

But there is still a long way to go, she said.

“A major factor is that family violence is exceedingly common, and sadly, overlooked by our society,” she said. “We as a community and a nation often fail to protect our children and respond appropriately to tragic family violence.”

Disbelief is not uncommon as well, particularly when a parent is confronted with allegations of child abuse by a loved one.

Homicide detectives believe that was the case in the death of 2-year-old Malechi Wilson.

The toddler was beaten severely in early June in the home of his mother’s boyfriend. Police said the boy suffered for hours before his mother, Denise Stinson, called 911.

The coroner said Malechi was beaten so badly his internal organs were severed.

Stinson would not say why she waited so long to call police , and she refused to blame her boyfriend Mark Newberry, whom police said beat the boy.

Without Stinson’s cooperation, the investigation into Malechi’s death stalled ; and to date, no one has been charged for Wilson’s death.

“It’s hard for some parents to accept that their significant other could do something like this,” said Carol Griesdorn, a caseworker with Montgomery County Children’s Services. “But things start piling up on people and they snap. We are seeing more and more heat-of-the-moment incidents.”

At the same time, support services are being cut, said Nancy Mahoney, of Clark County Children’s Services. “We are laying off 33 people here, including me. Families are losing safety nets.”

Mahoney said her agency is relying more on the families they serve to work out solutions.

“We had a mom that had a substance abuse issue, and her children were left in a questionable supervision situation while the mother decided to go out and use drugs,” Mahoney said. “We sat down with (the family) and they were able to work out a system to adequately care for the children.”

It’s not the best solution, she said, “but the children are in a safer environment.”

Foster-care cuts will be costly to kids, society

Op Ed: Foster-care cuts will be costly to kids, society
Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 5, 2009.

At a time when the needs of foster-care youths transitioning to adulthood are being recognized on the federal level through the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, Ohio has chosen to cut the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families-Independent Living Allocation by 100 percent.

The Independent Living Initiative was the only state program that provides transitional-living services to foster-care youths. These services include drivers' education, life-skills training, job-readiness preparation and food and housing assistance.

Gov. Ted Strickland eliminated this allocation, saying that it constrained county agencies' ability to use the allocated funds in a flexible manner that meets each county's needs to support children.

Approximately 1,300 Ohio teenagers emancipate from the foster-care system each year. Because they have no families to rely upon, these young people are at greater risk of poverty, homelessness, unwed pregnancies and incarceration.

Foster-care youths transitioning to adulthood are not a "line item." They are children who rely on the state to be their parents. They are teenagers entering into adulthood during a recession.

Ohio taxpayers will pay for their needs, whether now or later. Research by the Children's Advocacy Institute has shown that early investment leads to foster-care youths being three times more likely to enroll in college, 65 percent less likely to be arrested and 33 percent less likely to become pregnant.

According to Dr. Mark Courtney of the Chapin Hall Center for Children, every dollar invested in continued foster care supports and services results in a return of $2.40.

It makes better economic sense to intervene during their late teens and early 20s, a time when young people have open minds, high levels of energy and are actively engaged in the process of directing their future lives.

Lack of investment in independent-living preparation will lead more foster-care youths into situations of chronic homelessness, unwed pregnancies, unemployment and incarceration.

Left unchecked, the cycle will continue: One in four homeless adults is a former foster child.

Ohio's foster youths are "aging out" of care in the midst of a recession. They deserve far better than this.

LISA DICKSON
Founder, Communications chairman Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America Westerville

Ohio's transitioning youth face a scary future in terms of seeking employment

Jobless fund in red, still bleeding
By end of next year, state may owe U.S. government $3 billion
Candisky, Catherine. Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 15, 2009.

"Had we started charging more and limiting benefits a year ago, the hole wouldn't be quite as deep." -- Andrew E. Doehrel, state Chamber of Commerce

Ohio's ailing unemployment-compensation fund is $1 billion in the hole as of this week, and the shortfall is expected to top $3 billion by the end of 2010 -- six years sooner than projected.

Since Ohio's fund went broke earlier this year as the jobless rate soared, the federal government has been picking up the tab. But the money eventually must be repaid.

While the debt has gotten little attention from state officials, business and labor leaders agree a solution must be found.

"If we put this off until we owe $3 billion, now you're talking about having to jack up (employers') rates very, very high and doing something very questionable with benefits," said Andrew E. Doehrel, president of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and a member of the state's Unemployment Compensation Advisory Council.

Zach Schiller, spokesman for Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based research group, said, "At some point, Ohio will have to pay this back and we'll have to figure out how to do that. Nationwide, states are more than $12 billion in debt, so it's a national problem."

There is no deadline for repaying the money, although interest will begin to accrue on Jan. 1, 2011. By the end of that year, the state's interest payment alone would be $171 million, said Brian Harter, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

If the debt is not settled by Jan. 1, 2012, federal guidelines require that a tax be imposed on Ohio businesses to repay the money.

Ohio is among 17 states that have depleted their funds for paying unemployment compensation and are now borrowing from the national trust fund to cover jobless benefits. As of Monday, the states owed $12.6 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Ohio depleted its unemployment-compensation fund in January. It was drained amid rising unemployment and after years of collecting less in unemployment taxes than the fund paid out in benefits.

At that time, Ohio was among five states borrowing from the federal trust fund.

States operate unemployment-compensation systems under federal guidelines. If funds are depleted, states are required to borrow from the federal government to ensure that unemployed workers continue to receive benefits.

Earlier this year, Congress agreed to waive interest payments on such loans through the end of next year.

Ohio officials have known for years that the fund was in trouble. Since 2001, the fund has collected less in employer taxes than it paid out in jobless benefits in every year but one.

States set their benefit amounts and tax rates. In Ohio, employers pay on the first $9,000 earned by each employee, an amount unchanged since 1995.

The tax and benefits are based on recommendations from the advisory council, subject to approval by the General Assembly. An agreement on how to fix the problem continues to be elusive.

"Had we started charging more and limiting benefits a year ago, the hole wouldn't be quite as deep," Doehrel said. "Now, the changes that will be needed will be more severe on both sides of the equation."

Governor Strickland's Executive Orders to cut state adoption assistance program

Executive Orders Implement Cuts in Adoption Assistance, Child Care
Hannah News

Gov. Ted Strickland this week issued two Executive Orders (EOs) implementing cuts to the state's adoption assistance programs and child care program that were included in HB1, the FY10-11 budget. The first, EO 2009-15S, which was effective Monday, Aug. 10, addresses reductions in certain adoption expenses while EO 2009-16S, which was effective Wednesday, Aug. 12, deals with the publicly funded child care program. Both put into immediate effect revised rules reducing expenditures in these areas for 90 days. This gives the Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) time to pursue revised rules through the normal rule-making process. Both executive orders are posted on www.hannah.com

The adoption changes center on ODJFS appropriation line item 600-528 Adoption Services which, according to Crystal Ward Allen, executive director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio (PCSAO), covers expenditures in four major areas:

- The Post Adoption Special Services Subsidy (PASSS). Funding and eligibility criteria for this program, which offers eligible families up to $10,000 a year to help pay for the treatment of a physical, developmental, mental or emotional conditions, has been kept the same as in FY09 by ODJFS.

- The State Adoption Maintenance Subsidy (SAMS) program. This is a state program for adoptive children who are not eligible for the federal Title IV-E program but who have special needs. This covers approximately 7 to 8 percent of the special needs adoptions - children who by 2018, Allen explained, will be covered under the federal program.

- State match for the federal Title IV -E. Title IV-E program covers 92 to 93 percent of the special needs adoptive children; it is a federal, state and locally funded program. The feds share in the cost at the same rate as the state's Medicaid reimbursement which is currently at an uncharacteristically high 68.34 percent due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Normally, according to Allen, the federal reimbursement is between 60 and 62 percent.

- Non-Recurring Adoption Expenses. This state/federal program provides a one-time payment for non-ongoing expenses. The cap on this payment had been $2,000; it now goes to $1,000. The federal government covers 50 percent of the amount.

According to the emergency rules, the state's portion for both SAMS and Title IV-E drops from $300/month to $240/month per child beginning with the September payment. This presents a problem for the counties, Allen said, explaining that the average subsidy amount is approximately $550/month. In addition, federal requirements, backed by a couple of court decisions, preclude reducing the IV-E subsidy based on lack of state funds. Allen estimated counties face an $8 million funding gap, which she said they are in the process of "trying to determine how to manage ....

"Some counties have resources and can increase their local share." Others may have to renegotiate the subsidy amount with each of the affected families or adjust other programs. The following summarizes the funding for this line item:

Adoption Services FY09 FY10 FY11
State $43.7 million $22.8 million $24.1 million
Federal 42.8 million 49.3 million 46.3 million
TOTAL $86.5 million $72.2 million $70.4 million

Allen said her association is supporting SB155, sponsored by Sens. John Carey (R-Wellston) and Dale Miller (D-Cleveland), which "makes a slight change to Ohio's tax code" and designates the resulting funds for adoptions and Disability Medical Assistance. She expressed the hope that the bill will be incorporated into the budget correction bill which may done as early as the end of September.

Reflections on Strickland's last minute cuts

Ohio finally has budget, but no plan
Dayton Daily News, Sunday, July 19, 2009

After the prolonged dust-up about Ohio's budget, the dust hasn't settled. This is very much an ongoing story.

In some ways, the dust should not be allowed to settle. Take the spending cuts that were made. Rather than just make them and move on, Gov. Ted Strickland should put somebody in charge of measuring their impact, precisely quantifying what's being lost.

Will the actual harm be as intense as spokespeople for safety-net programs predict? Or worse? Will people go hungry, lives be lost, families be devastated?

The cuts were as last-minute as the ridiculous gambling proposal that was enacted. The cuts reflected last-minute revenue projections. Neither legislators nor journalists nor anybody else had time to get an authoritative feel for their impact.

State government makes decisions that affect people in direct, dramatic ways. Often the politicians talk about the potential indirect, subtle impacts of their policies, as in stimulating economic development. They can overstate their influence.

But their impact is clear in determining whether mental health care is available, whether seniors can avoid nursing homes, and whether people who lose their jobs can turn to food banks for sustenance and public libraries for a way back to a job.

Things might get worse from here. Many people believe the Strickland administration and lawmakers are wildly optimistic about future revenue; they worry there will have to be more cuts before the next budget is written in two years.

The projected money from the slot machines that the new budget authorizes at racetracks, for example, might not materialize. The gambling might not even start very soon.

The economy might still worsen. And the next budget won't have this year's $5 billion in federal stimulus funds to fall back on.

One estimate is that the next shortfall will be $8 billion. (The current two-year spending plan is $50.5 billion.)

True, the recent news out of Columbus could be worse. The overwhelmingly Republican Senate did give the Democratic governor enough votes (just barely) to get something enacted. As a party, the Republicans took the opportunity to pin all the bad news on the Democrats, but only to the degree that was consistent with getting the deed done.

Gov. Strickland lost substantial public standing during the ugly fight. But he does get to run for re-election as the governor who resisted a tax increase even when many in his party thought a tax increase — or a delay in planned tax cuts — was necessary. That seemed to be what he wanted.

And the spending cuts could have been worse, if the governor had gotten his original way. The final version of the budget cuts libraries by less than half as much as the governor proposed (but still by an awful lot). Food banks, mental health service and child care were also cut less.

The burden was spread a little to higher education (which also gets to raise tuition, as a tradeoff), hospitals, nursing homes and non-public schools. On balance, that was the right direction.

But to take much comfort in the good news would be to miss the big picture and what's likely yet to come.

Now is NOT the time to cut Ohio funding for child protection

3 adults accused of letting rats bite baby girl, chew off her toes at messy Ohio mobile home
Star Tribune, July 21, 2009.

WAVERLY, Ohio - Three people have been accused of letting rats bite a 6-week-old girl and chew off her toes at their cluttered Ohio mobile home.

Pike County prosecutor Rob Junk says the baby's toes on one foot were gone when sheriff's deputies went to the home Sunday after receiving an anonymous tip.

The baby is in fair condition at a Columbus hospital.

A married couple and the 18-year-old boyfriend of the baby's mother are charged with felony child endangering. They were in court for an initial hearing Tuesday. They're jailed pending a plea hearing in two weeks.

The prosecutor says they all lived in the mobile home west of Piketon, a village noted for its old uranium enrichment plant.

He says the baby's mother is a juvenile. He won't identify her or say if she'll be charged.

Joe Blundo's take on Ohio's woes

SO TO SPEAK: Compared with peers, Ohio is looking good
Blundo, Joe. Columbus Dispatch.

The state of California has been reduced to issuing IOUs. The governor of Alaska is quitting her job in a few days for reasons she can’t coherently express. South Carolina continues to be led by a man who walked off the job for five days to consort with his “soul mate” in Argentina.

Ohio really picked a great time to pass a budget based on imaginary slot-machine revenue.

Amid the antics in other states, few people might even notice that we’ve decided to finance our vital services by inviting residents to try lining up three cherries.

Thank goodness for the lunacy in other state capitols. It makes ours seem almost rational.

For a while there, New York couldn’t agree on which party was in charge of its Senate. Illinois will spend years living down the Rod Blagojevich farce. If Texas were to secede from the Union (its governor raised the possibility, remember?), I wouldn’t be surprised.

Ohio? We’re technically solvent, between scandals and showing no intent to declare independence from the United States. In this era, that makes us a model of sober-minded governance.

We didn’t even make the top 10 when ABC News ranked the most broke states in the Union. Given that the Ohio rainy-day fund had 89 cents in it at the time, that’s either a testimony to the shoddy work of ABC News or a measure of just how bad the economies are in the states that made the cut. Let’s go with the latter.

Now we see the wisdom of our stubborn resistance to slot machines all these years. New Jersey (one of the top 10) already had them and therefore couldn’t pretend that their introduction would solve the state’s budget woes. But Ohio could paper over its money shortages with slot-machine magic because we have never had slots and so are free to make up numbers as necessary.

This should serve us well for weeks, if not longer.

By the time our gambling delusions crumble into disappointment, as all gambling delusions do, I’m confident that some other state will have gone off the deep end in far more spectacular ways.

The conditions are ripe. In most states, the only thing that goes up faster than the demand for services is the resistance to tax increases. Combine that with the hubris and deviousness of politicians, and we’re all but assured of wacky happenings throughout the nation.

Florida, hobbled by foreclosures and reliably batty, could descend into irrationality at any time. Arizona, where the budget crisis got so bad that the Republican governor sued the Republican-controlled Legislature, could explode in more silliness. New Jersey is always capable of acting like New Jersey.

And don’t forget California.

Because of its dysfunctional constitution, that state is often said to be ungovernable. But that implies that some states are governable — a proposition that I’m beginning to question. Perhaps we just have degrees of ungovernability.

In that case, the best we can say for Ohio might be that it’s on the lower end of the scale. But I’d say the trend is definitely upward.

Ohio's bleak budget

What it means to you
$50.5 billion plan packed with changes that will help or hurt virtually all of us
Rowland, Darrel, Mark Niquette, Catherine Candisky and Alan Johnson, Columbus Dispatch, July 19, 2009.

The $50.5 billion, two-year state budget passed last week by the legislature and signed Friday by Gov. Ted Strickland represents a drop of nearly $2 billion from the previous budget. The spending plan through June 2011 contains no tax increases but raises fees by an amount the governor's office has not yet determined.

The measure has a little something, good or bad, for almost every Ohioan.

IF YOU DON'T HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE
Your parents can pay to keep you on their policy up to age 28. And new caps on how much insurance companies can charge individuals with chronic conditions such as diabetes and cancer will lower premiums for private coverage.

IF YOU NEED HELP FROM A FOOD BANK
You'd better get there early. While state aid went up, it doesn't come close to meeting the additional demand caused by Ohio's reeling economy.

IF YOUR CHILD IS GOING TO BE IN KINDERGARTEN
He or she will be able to attend all day free in the 2010-11 school year, unless your school district gets a waiver from the Department of Education because it doesn't have space or faces another hardship.

IF YOU OWN A GUN
The initial fee for a concealed-carry permit will increase from $55 to $67, but the renewal fee will drop from $55 to $50.

IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A MOVIE IN OHIO
Get your Hollywood stars and your production crew ready, because we have new state tax credits for you.

IF YOU USE PUBLIC LIBRARIES
You could see some programs discontinued, hours reduced or branches closed because of a 30 percent cut in funding.

IF YOU HAVE A CHILD ATTENDING AN OHIO PUBLIC COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY
Brace for a tuition increase, although probably not until 2010 at most institutions. The budget whacks higher education by $170 million and replaces a tuition freeze with a 3.5 percent cap.

IF YOU'RE INTO GAMBLING
Map your route to the nearest horse track, because -- barring successful lawsuits -- thousands of electronic slot machines are headed there by early next year. The premise is that the extra money will improve both the facilities and the quality of the races.

IF YOU OR A FAMILY MEMBER NEEDS MENTAL-HEALTH SERVICES
Expect dramatically reduced treatment options, because county mental-health agencies, especially those without their own tax levies, must slash services to people who don't qualify for Medicaid.

IF YOU GO TO COURT
You'll pay higher court costs, including a $10 additional fee for a traffic offense that is neither a moving violation nor a parking violation.

IF YOU NEED HELP FIGHTING A DRUG OR ALCOHOL PROBLEM
There will be waiting lists of up to two months for most new service requests because of reduced funding. Some emergency hot lines will be shut down.

IF YOU WANT TO GO GREEN
You can finance solar-energy panels through your property taxes if you live in a participating municipality (such as Athens), which means you won't have to fork over the costs upfront.

IF YOU OR A FAMILY MEMBER IS DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED
There might be a chance to get a waiver and move from a state development center to a community program. About one in seven residents of the centers will voluntarily be granted waivers, with the goal of reducing the population by 200, to 1,200.

IF YOUR KIDS GO TO A PRIVATE SCHOOL
Don't be surprised by a tuition increase, because the state whacked $59 million in aid for administrative costs, textbooks and instructional materials.

IF YOU ARE A STATE WORKER
You might want to watch the want ads. An estimated 3,000 new jobs cuts are likely, on top of 10 unpaid "cost-savings days" and pay freezes workers must take under new state-negotiated labor contracts.

IF YOU NEED A FLU SHOT
Don't wait. The state will purchase only 45,000 flu vaccines this year for high-risk Ohioans without insurance or the ability to pay. That's down from 190,000 last year.

IF YOU NEED STATE-SUBSIDIZED CHILD CARE
You will need to be worse off financially. Eligibility in Ohio's subsidized child-care program is reduced to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, about $27,465 a year for a family of three. The cap used to be 200 percent. Since the limit applies only to new applicants, the 98,000 children currently enrolled won't be kicked out.

IF YOU WANT TO BE SURE YOUR CHILD IS READY FOR SCHOOL
You might consider home-schooling. The budget abolishes Ohio's Early Learning Initiative now serving about 13,000 low-income children. State officials hope an anticipated expansion of federally funded Head Start will offset much of the loss.

IF YOU ARE AN INMATE IN A STATE PRISON
You'll be eating brunch and dinner on Saturdays and Sundays. The same amount of food will be served as has been in three meals, but the state will save on staff time and preparation costs.

IF YOU GO TO A STATE PARK
You won't see any oil rigs because a proposal to allow drilling was removed, but some campgrounds might be closed and nature areas and preserves might be a little more natural because they lost all general-revenue funding.

IF YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT BURNS THROUGH ITS SNOW DAYS
The kids will have to make up more in the 2010-11 school year, because the state is allowing only three calamity days instead of five while a panel decides whether to add 20 days to the school year.

IF YOU NEED HELP FROM A COUNTY JOB AND FAMILY SERVICES AGENCY
Be prepared for longer waits and fewer services and people to help you. Cuts in state aid are forcing many local welfare offices to lay off caseworkers, reduce hours and eliminate job training and other assistance programs.

IF YOU ARE IN NEED OF LONG-TERM CARE
Your options are likely to decrease. Nursing homes say they must reduce beds because of funding cuts; money also has been chopped for home- and community-based care.

IF YOU WANT YOUR STATE TO PROMOTE TRAVEL AND TOURISM
Move to Michigan, because Ohio's two-year allocation was slashed from more than $7 million to $400,000 -- in contrast to an increase to $30 million in the state up north.

IF YOU THOUGHT THIS BUDGET PROCESS WASN'T PAINFUL ENOUGH
Just wait another two years when Ohio won't have an estimated $7 billion in federal stimulus or other one-time money to help balance the budget.

Massive cuts to human services at a time when people need help more than ever

'Kinship care' programs in jeopardy
Johnston, John. Cincinnati Enquirer, July 5, 2009.

For Debbie Teague, the decision to take in her grandson and nephew was easy.

Grandson Jeremy, who is 3, "is my blood. And my (18-year-old) nephew, Joey, he's my blood, too," the 57-year-old St. Bernard resident, said. "I'm not going to let my (relatives) be put in foster care if I have the room for these kids."

When the boys' parents couldn't adequately care for them, Teague stepped in and joined the ranks of kinship care providers - those grandparents and other relatives who offer a safe home for children.

While her decision to take the children was easy, the day-to-day challenges have been difficult. So for the past year and a half, Teague has relied heavily on free services available through the kinship care program of the Children's Home of Cincinnati. It's the only such program in Hamilton County, and is funded by the county's Department of Job and Family Services.

She and other kinship care families learned about a month ago that because of budget constraints JFS will terminate the program, which costs $150,000 a year, Sept. 30.

For Teague, it's a crushing blow. "If I need help, where am I going to turn?" she said.

It's a question many more families might soon be asking as the recession forces Ohio lawmakers to consider massive budget cuts to human services at a time when people need those services more than ever. Millions of dollars could be slashed from programs that directly affect children, including kinship care.

"Any communities that have good support programs for kinship care are at risk right now," said Crystal Ward Allen, executive director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, a private, non-profit association of county child welfare agencies.

Another hit ahead?
The Kinship Permanency Incentive Program, which began in 2006, supports more than 6,000 Ohio children and helps divert them from foster care by providing kinship caregivers up to $3,500 over three years as an incentive to make a legal commitment to a child.

In prior years, the $10 million program was funded with federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money. This year, Gov. Ted Strickland's initial budget zeroed out the program; lawmakers restored money in their budget proposals, but it's unclear if money will be available.

Cutting kinship programs is "a huge shame, because the number of grandparents and other relatives caring for extended families' children is growing," Allen said.

Nationally, the percentage of children under age 18 living in households headed by a grandparent is about 6 percent, double what it was 40 years ago, Census figures show. In Ohio, 86,000 grandparents are responsible for grandchildren living with them. In Kentucky, the number is 36,000.

Grandparents and other relatives often step in to raise children when parents struggle with issues that include substance abuse, mental illness, divorce, domestic violence, incarceration and economic hardship, the Children's Home says.

Its kinship care program has served 616 families the past four years, said Mike Robinson, manager of specialized treatment services. Most of those families are headed by grandparents, although some children are being raised by great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-aunts, great-uncles or even older siblings. Most of the families are at or below poverty level.

Social workers assess families' needs, link them to community services, and meet with them regularly. Monthly workshops for caregivers cover topics such as advocating for children in school and handling finances. A monthly support group, which includes transportation, child care and a meal, puts caregivers in touch with others in similar situations.

Program a boost to some
It's a huge boost "just to talk to somebody who's going through what I'm going through. You need somebody," said Diana Hill, 53, of Northside.

She is raising her 3-year-old great-niece, Tulip, and a 13-year-old grandson, Troysean. Another grandson, who is 17, lived with her for 16 years but recently moved back with his mother. Hill says all were in difficult home situations and would have ended up in the foster care system if she had not stepped up.

"It wasn't easy at all. I needed some help. I needed some doors opened for me," she said.

David Lenning, a licensed social worker and one of two kinship care coordinators at the Children's Home, attended school meetings with her, helped her get clothes and diapers, and assisted her in getting legal custody of Tulip.

For Teague, who can't read or write, navigating through red tape is even more difficult. Her problems were compounded last year when she got sick with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had to quit her job as a seamstress.

Licensed social worker Jenny Carman, the Children's Home's other kinship care coordinator, works with her.

"If it wasn't for Jenny going with me to the food stamp office, going with me to get medical cards, helping me get my grandson into day care, I couldn't have done it," Teague said. "She went everywhere with me to fill out papers."

Teague worries what will become of her family once the kinship care program ends. The divorced woman also cares for Joseph, 17, a non-relative whom she adopted last year after several years as his foster mother.

Brian Gregg, spokesman for Hamilton County Job and Family Services, said: "In these economic times, as our budget is cut and we are forced to prioritize, we have to make tough decisions that result in good programs being lost."

Robinson, of the Children's home, said the kinship care program has kept "literally hundreds of kids out of state custody."

But Gregg said his agency doesn't expect to see more children going into foster care once the program ends.

Kinship caregivers can still receive Ohio Works First cash assistance and Medicaid, regardless of income, he said. Food stamps and child care might also be available, depending on income. And if Children's Services has placed a child into a kinship situation, the caregivers can become licensed foster parents or adoptive parents and receive financial assistance, he said.

One thing everyone agrees on: Children who are cared for by relatives generally fare better than those in foster care.

"When kids go into foster care they lose everything - their family, their siblings, their clothes, their pets, their neighborhood, their school. That's much less likely to happen when they go into relative care," Robinson said.

For Hill and Teague, who have sacrificed in order to care for family members in their homes, there are no regrets, even as new challenges await.

"It's heartbreaking," Teague said of the impending loss of the kinship care program. "I don't know where I'm going to go now, or how I'm going to do it."

Foster care: 'Aging out' crisis

An estimated 24,000 children per year "age out," that is, turn 18 and are released from the child welfare system in the United States. These former foster children face long odds of leading productive lives.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Within two years of being "emancipated" from the system, one in four former foster children will be in jail. If 48,000 former foster children are within two years of leaving foster care, 12,000 of them will be in or will have spent time in prison.

EDUCATION
Of those 24,000 cut loose of government care, 70 percent -- or 16,800 -- will have finished high school. Only 13 percent of former foster children attend college, or 2,184. Of those entering college, only 3 percent will graduate, or an even smaller raw number of 66. (Another study shows that 37 percent of former foster children attend some college, but those numbers include people who have grown into middle-age.)

HOMELESSNESS
One in five of former foster children will be homeless sometime after age 18. Within the first year, that means the number is 4,800 of 24,000. Females are more likely to move in and out of friends' homes, going from couch to couch.

Sources: The Pew Charitable Trusts' "Time for Reform: Aging Our and On Their Own." Casey Family Programs, Orphan Foundation of America, National Foster Care Coalition.

For foster care youth pursuing college, support systems are vital

A triumph of foster care:
Susan Zaghlool beat long odds in emerging from the system
Curnutte, Mark. Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 2009.

At a time college graduates face one of the worst job markets in decades, Susan Zaghlool has options.

She's weighing six-figure offers from a number of companies. She's looking at signing bonuses backed up by many zeroes.

Part of what makes her a success story is the fact social workers plucked Zaghlool from an abusive home in 1994 at age 12.

She then lived in a tough Over-the-Rhine group home before striking out on her own as a high school senior.

Zaghlool earned her doctorate in pharmacy in May, a lofty achievement for a foster child who was part of a group where just barely 70 percent finish high school and only 13 percent attend college.

Petite and dark with a head full of curly black hair, Zaghlool cracks a high-wattage smile when she talks about where she's come from and where she's going.

Her past is seasoned with adults who had faith in her - social workers, teachers and employers.

And a mentor who still reaches out to help all these years later.

A decade after they met, Zaghlool still can count on John Kasak, a retired General Electric engineer, when times get rough. "My father," she called him.

"Where would I be without the people who helped me?" she said.

Kasak and other adults formed a support system for her, something that more policymakers here and nationally would like to provide for other foster children.

Legislation is pending in Congress - the Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009 - to pay for programs and forgive $20,000 in federal student loans for college graduates who mentor foster children.

Hamilton County in May started the Higher Education Mentoring Initiative for foster children. The program seeks to reduce crime and prepare foster children for college. The University of Cincinnati, a partner with Hamilton County, plans to offer financial aid to former foster children enrolled there.

Long walk begins
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Zaghlool came to the United States as a preschooler when her father, an engineering professor, took a job at the University of California. He moved his family to Ohio a year later to start a computer business.

When his only daughter turned 12, he wanted her at home to cook, clean and care for the family's four sons. He hit her and pulled her from beneath her bed by the hair, according to Butler County Children Services records.

"Seven of us lived in a two-bedroom trailer," Zaghlool said.

Wearing blue jeans, Zaghlool recently sat on a swing in a park she played in as a child. She came back recently for the first time since she was taken from her family.

"Everybody heard my mom screaming at us in Arabic," she said. "She threw plates at me. I was the bad child."

Zaghlool tried to be what she called "normal," but her garage-sale clothing and dark skin made her and her brothers stand out in affluent Lakota schools. She tried smoking marijuana to ease her teen angst.

"I was hopeless at that age," Zaghlool said. "I had the worst family. I didn't think I could ever move up."

Lakota officials filed a report with Butler County Children Services because of her truancy. She was taken from the home briefly.

Zaghlool's father promised officials he'd home-school his daughter. She returned to the trailer. He didn't teach her, but she wanted to learn.

One day, she criticized him in a grocery store. He hit her, records show. She hit back and ran away.

He called the police. She filed a police report.

An investigation revealed the family was in the United States illegally. Her mother and two brothers were sent back to Egypt in 1997. Her father escaped to Canada.

Zaghlool was not deported because she was in temporary custody as a state foster child.

The irony of her childhood is not lost on her. The fact she was abused kept her here.

"I am truly blessed," said Zaghlool, who became a U.S. citizen last year.

Support system
Zaghlool patched together her own support system through a combination of good fortune and relentless hard work.

With no foster care available in Butler County, she ended up in Hearne House, a group home on Elm Street near Cincinnati's Music Hall.

"She believed in education and doing her homework; she read books," home director James Smith said.

Every morning, Zaghlool left before 6:30, walked through Washington Park, east on 13th Street, north on Vine Street and past Kroger. She caught the No. 46 bus to Aiken High School.

At ages 15 and 16, she worked at the Vine Street Kroger as a bagger and cashier. Adrian Oliver then managed the store. "It was a rough place," he said. "She was smart, confident and outgoing. She was not afraid to say hello. She was positive and upbeat."

Zaghlool heard about an opening in the pharmacy at the Hyde Park Kroger. She asked Oliver to help. He recommended her. That taste of the pharmacy mapped out her career. She wanted to work in a medical field.

Zaghlool also impressed her Aiken teachers.

During her freshman year, consumer sciences teacher Marty Kamrani discovered that beneath Zaghlool's sad shell was a smart girl. "She eventually took everything people offered her and moved forward," the teacher said.

As a student, she was matched with Kasak through GE's partner-in-education program.

"She worked the hardest," Kasak said. "She was focused."

Sticking with her
More important than what Kasak did for her while at Aiken, he stayed with her after she turned 18.

"One of the hardest things (about being a foster child) is when you turn 18 the people who loved you just disappear," she said. "It's like they were paid to love you. As a foster child, you want to be loved ... Once you're out of the system, goodbye, like you never existed. A lot of kids lose hope."

Kasak, now 78, stuck with Zaghlool. He and his wife, Audrey, invited her to their house for dinner and played board games. "We kind of adopted her," he said.

Kasak taught her how to budget her money. He helped her write her resume and prepare college and scholarship applications. She earned the Darwin T. Turner minority scholarship at UC, which gave her a full ride to the school. He also helped her with the citizenship application.

Keeping busy
She majored in chemistry and earned a 3.3 grade point average. She lived in a dorm during the summers after her freshman and sophomore years. She worked as a resident assistant and got involved in student government.

Summers were difficult. "It was so lonely, so I took classes the second year to make it feel more normal," she said.

Earlier in life, Zaghlool experienced enough loneliness to cope with college. She stayed busy. She had lived by herself in an independent living program as an Aiken senior.

Laura Bennett, now a Butler County Children Services night supervisor, started the program and worked with Zaghlool.

"Susan will always give credit to people who helped her, but people were drawn to her," Bennett said. "She didn't have the attitude that `the world owes me.' She went for what she wanted. She didn't get angry about her family situation, and she hardly ever said anything about her dad."

As the stakes grew higher, Zaghlool limited e-mail and phone contact with her family. She had nothing to do with her father, although she visited her mother and other family members in Egypt in 2000.

"They didn't understand what I was trying to do," Zaghlool said of the demands of Lake Erie College's pharmacy school, in Erie, Pa. "They stressed me out, made me feel anxious. You can't afford one bad day or to be distracted."

Still, her life as a former foster child is never far behind her. She said she is stalked by a man who lived with her at the Over-the-Rhine group home.

More angels have appeared.

Through the Orphan Foundation of America, based in Washington, Zaghlool won a $20,000 scholarship provided by Barbara and Marshall Grimes, a childless couple from Vienna, Va. That money helped pay for pharmacy school.

"We wanted to help a child who didn't have a family," Barbara Grimes said. "Marshall's dad was a pharmacist."

She called Zaghlool to ask about her studies. They traded e-mails and photos.

Barbara Grimes sent homemade cookies throughout the year and a Christmas care package.

No sense of entitlement
"She was always very grateful. She never had the attitude that she was entitled to anything," Barbara Grimes said.

The couple finally met her May 31 in Erie at graduation.

They weren't the only ones there for the former foster kid from Cincinnati's tough inner city.

John and Audrey Kasak were there, too, like they've been many times in the past. When Zaghlool crashed her car last winter, Kasak told her not to worry and co-signed a car loan for her.

She wants to work in Greater Cincinnati. She is $150,000 in debt from her student loans for pharmacy school, but as soon as she gets stable financially, she wants to donate money to Hearne House.

That she was a foster child is never far from her mind.

Even at this positive crossroads in her life, Zaghlool said, John and Audrey Kasak are what every orphan needs - someone to be there like a family would.

John Kasak shrugged as if to deflect her gratitude.

"As long as someone is eager and wants to do something, why not help them?" he asked.

Governor's proposed budget cuts directly impact Ohio's most vulnerable citizens

Ohio Human Service Providers Speak Out Against Budget Cuts
McKee, Tom. WCPO-TV 9, July 2, 2009.

Human services providers in Southwestern Ohio went on the offensive Thursday, urging state leaders not to cut their funding any further.

The plea came as Ohio Governor Ted Strickland told reporters in Columbus that he has to trim another $2.4 billion in spending to balance the budget.

"My budget framework calls for resizing state government in line with the shrinking economy," the Governor said. "We’re doing that while minimizing the impact of our most vulnerable citizens – especially our children, the elderly and the disabled.”

Moira Weir, director of Hamilton County Job & Family Services, took issue with that statement. So did Job & Family Services directors in Butler and Clermont counties.

"For us, locally, I would say I disagree," Weir said. "We are mandated to do food stamps, child support, children’s services and adult protective services, but we can’t staff ourselves currently to meet the demands that are there.”

Her budget has been cut by $30 million in the past two years – and a similar cut is anticipated in 2010 and 2011. More than 350 employees have been laid off.

Yet, the demand for services continues to increase. For example, the agency served more than 55,000 people in June.

Long lines are the rule, rather than the exception at the downtown office on East Central Parkway, and it’s taking longer to get benefits to clients.

"We typically, prior to this, were able to process an application in 10 days," Weir said. "It’s taking us up to 30 days now to process an application and people need their services right away."

At Lighthouse Youth Services in Walnut Hills, president Bob Mecum watched the Governor online and worried what future cuts would mean for his agency.

"I can tell you that core services at Lighthouse are at imminent risk," Mecum said.

Lighthouse gets $8.6 million a year in state funding right now for residential treatment of abused children, keeping boys and girls out of the juvenile court system, plus assisting young people as they “age out” of welfare and foster care.

Much of that is through service contracts with Hamilton County’s JFS.

Right now, that funding is intact. But, Mecum says there hasn’t been an increase in four years, so he’s leery of the future and who might be impacted.

"Children and families with mental illness, senior citizens, day care centers, abused and neglected children – young people coming into juvenile courts," he said.

Mecum added that as services are reduced, taxpayers would pay an even higher price down the road as children can’t complete school or they get involved in juvenile delinquency.

Balancing Ohio's budget on the backs of children

Time for straight talk on the state budget
Honeck, Jon. Akron Beacon Journal, July 02, 2009.

COLUMBUS - Ohio legislators are faced with one of the most difficult state budget problems in memory. State revenues are falling but the need for government services grows as more Ohioans lose their jobs and have trouble meeting basic needs. The recession is partly to blame for the revenue shortfall, but so is the legacy of previous decisions to make deep cuts in state taxes regardless of the need for public services.

State leaders have dealt with previous recessions by cutting spending first, and when the cuts reached the bone — as the old saying goes — finding ways to raise revenue. Each of the past five governors faced this dilemma and, in the end, agreed to some kind of tax increase when the cuts simply could not continue. The process has always been messy and contentious, and full of the political posturing one would expect.

While the current controversy over slot machines has grabbed the headlines, the real story for House Bill 1, the state budget bill for the next two years, is that the governor and legislative leaders are using massive cuts and short-term budget gimmicks to address the vast majority of the revenue shortfall. This approach is not a solution. It leaves Ohioans with the worst of both worlds: Government shirks its responsibilities but postpones hard choices for another year or two.

In the worst recession in a generation, the state will cut support for low-income disabled adults, protective services for the elderly and children, drug and alcohol treatment, mental health services, child care for low-income workers, and need-based financial aid for college students. These cuts will be magnified by the loss of federal matching grants in certain areas, such as the school lunch program, in a series of penny-wise and pound-foolish moves.

With all of the state's cash reserves used to make ends meet this year, state accountants are using every trick in the book to get through the next budget. The administration plans to delay payments to health-care providers and state universities, eliminate health-care coverage for retired public employees and push debt service into future budgets at the cost of higher payments down the road. None of this chicanery solves the real long-term issue: Ohio will be faced with another huge budget gap when federal stimulus aid expires in 2011.

Instead of passing seven-day continuation budgets, it's time for state leaders to admit that they cannot leave revenue policy on auto-pilot while we fly through a storm. Legislation passed in 2005 cut the personal income tax for five straight years and eliminated the state corporate income tax on non-financial businesses. This tax overhaul is costing the state treasury well over $2 billion each year in badly needed revenue.

Even in better times, the new tax on business gross receipts barely brought in enough money to reimburse schools and local governments for the phase-out of a local tax on business machinery and inventory. Now that it is faltering, the state's general fund will have to take resources away from other programs to help make up the difference.

Discussions about taxes create hand-wringing about where Ohio's tax levels stand in relation to those of other states. The reality is, we're about average. The national association of state tax administrators, using U.S. Census Bureau data, calculated that Ohio's state-only tax collections ranked 38th among states on a per-person basis, and 35th as a percentage of personal income. When local revenues are included, Ohio's level of state and local tax collection moved to 18th as a percentage of personal income, and 24th on a per-person basis.

The most obvious option is to start plugging tax loopholes. Thus far, legislators have not closed a single loophole in the budget bill but instead have added new ones, like the proposed tax credit for movie productions. Closing loopholes will bring howls of protest from special interests, but in this environment strong leadership is essential.

Given the size of the budget hole, some of the cuts to the state income tax and to business taxes should be reversed. The new business gross receipts tax should be set at a level that reimburses local governments for lost property tax revenue and still makes a significant contribution to the state's general fund. Likewise, restoring original income tax rates on the wealthiest families makes sense in this environment.

It's time for a balanced approach to Ohio's budget problem. It should not be solved through cuts for services to children, the elderly, disabled individuals and the unemployed, but through shared sacrifice.

-- Jon Honeck is a fellow in public policy at the Center for Community Solutions.

Gov. Strickland, why so many cuts to Human Services in a time of recession?

State budget: Governor suggests $2 billion in cuts
Targets would include Medicaid, Passport
Candisky, Catherine and Jim Siegel. Columbus Dispatch, 2009.

Gov. Ted Strickland has floated roughly $2 billion in cuts to help close a $3.2 billion shortfall in the two-year state budget, a plan that would slash health care and other safety-net services for Ohio's poor, The Dispatch has learned.

The administration reportedly gave details of the plan over the weekend to Democratic leaders in the Ohio House. Majority Republicans in the Senate say they have not been briefed on the cost-savings ideas.

Sources say the areas where Strickland has suggested cutting include: dental, vision and other Medicaid services for low-income adults; the Passport program that enables the elderly to receive care at their home instead of in a nursing home; and services to protect children and adults from abuse.

The administration also proposed eliminating preschool for low-income children, a planned expansion of tax-funded health coverage to uninsured children, and planned increases in payments to nursing homes caring for disabled.

Cuts in state aid to Ohio colleges and universities are back on the table, education advocates say, and flat-funding for the next two years may be the best that primary and secondary schools can hope for.

Administration officials refused to discuss details.

"No decisions have been made," said Amanda Wurst, spokeswoman for Strickland. "The governor does not intend to have those discussions or provide information outside of budget deliberations."

The administration also isn't talking about results of its order for state agencies to prepare plans identifying cuts of up to 30 percent of their spending for 2010-11. The proposals were completed last week, but agencies refused to provide them under orders from the governor's office.

Wurst refused a Dispatch public records request yesterday to make the agency plans public.

Strickland and legislative leaders in both parties insist that they will not raise taxes. Asked yesterday whether the budget can be balanced without a tax increase or expanded gambling, Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, said, "Yes. In my opinion, we have to."

But some rank-and-file Democrats and Republicans have expressed strong support for expanded gambling, such as slot machines at Ohio's racetracks or perhaps in bars and restaurants.

And some are not taking such a hard-line opposition to new taxes.

"We have to stop pretending that we aren't going to raise taxes, because we're going to have to raise taxes," said Rep. Robert F. Hagan, D-Youngstown.

"We're going to have to stop some of the give-backs that the (Gov. Bob) Taft administration gave and rescue some of these agencies that need help. You can't get there by just cutting."

Rep. Dan Stewart, D-Columbus, also says lawmakers should look at part of the 21 percent state income tax cut that has been phased in since Republicans approved it in 2005. People don't even realize they got a tax cut, he said, because most of it went to wealthy Ohioans.

"I'm just not sure why we went along with implementing the rest of that tax cut, which is a significant chunk of change," he said. "I think we've got to find some additional revenues."

The governor, House and Senate have until the end of the month to agree on a new two-year state budget. Hundreds of differences in versions approved by the two chambers must be resolved.

Meshing versions passed by each became significantly more difficult last week when the administration released new projections showing a $3.2 billion shortfall in anticipated revenue for the upcoming biennium.

Hopes & Dreams Advocacy Strategy

DREAMS of Foster Care Youth and Alumni:

I am reaching… “To be the best mother that I can be, while pursuing my college degree.”

But I might need a hand to get me started! Independent Living funds helped Vanessa Jackson learn how to cook and budget.

***

I am reaching… “Toward serving my country in the military, while continuing to pursue my college degree.”

But I might need a hand to get me started! Independent Living funds helped Lamar Hammons find a mentor through the College Bound Mentoring Program.

***

I am reaching… “Toward safeguarding the lives and homes of others by working for Jefferson Township’s Fire Department.”

But I might need a hand to get me started! Independent Living funds provided emergency housing for Tim Hill when he first exited foster care.

***

I am reaching… “Toward finding a job after graduating from Wright State University
with a Bachelors in Criminal Justice and a minor in Political Science.”

But I might need a hand to get me started! Independent Living funds equipped Sarah Callihan with life skills that helped her transition into college life easily.

***

I am reaching… “Forward to my junior year at Miami University, where I’m pursuing a double major in Psychology and Sociology with double minors in Black World Studies and Political Science.”

But I might need a hand to get me started! Independent Living funds helped Kierra Williams get involved with a youth advisory board, and find out that she has leadership abilities.

***

HOPES of Ohio Foster Care Alumni on behalf of their younger brothers and sisters:

Hoping you, like me, invest in their future: As a former foster child, Denee Foster knows the importance of Independent Living preparation.

Not a handout, but a hand-up… Denee volunteers her time at Children’s Hospital and
teaches life skills to foster care youth at Village Network.

***

Hoping you, like me, invest in their future: As a former foster child, Grace Hilliard has testified several times about the importance of the Independent Living Allocation.

Not a handout, but a hand-up… Grace graduated in May from CCAD with a BA in Fine Arts, and is entering graduate school at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

***

Hoping you, like me, invest in their future: As a former foster child, Adrian McLemore has testified several times about the importance of the Independent Living Allocation.

Not a handout, but a hand-up… Adrian was recently named FosterClub’s Outstanding Young Leader of the Year. He is actively involved in Student Government at Wright State University – and he aspires to be President someday.

***

Hoping you, like me, invest in their future: Lisa Dickson is a 30-something former foster child. She founded the Ohio chapter of Foster Alumni of America three years ago.

Not a handout, but a hand-up… Lisa has Masters degree in Library Science, and has used her skills in research to craft workshops for national conferences and to assist the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program.

***

Hoping you, like me, invest in their future: Ralph Wills spoke before an audience of 100+ higher education officials and 100+ social workers during the 2009 Ohio Reach event.

Not a handout, but a hand-up… Ralph recently graduated from Muskingum College and
found employment through Maxim Healthcare Services.

Hannah Report: Special Budget Edition

Vol. 128 – Special Budget Issue Saturday, May 30, 2009
Public Crowds Senate Chambers for Mixed Budget Testimony

The room was crowded Saturday for a public testimony session in the Senate Finance and Financial Institutions Committee, with several dozen witnesses prepared to either praise changes made Friday to HB1 (Sykes), or to urge the chamber to restore funding to a cut program.

Acknowledging the long day ahead of them, Chairman John Carey (R-Wellston) said that he was invoking his powers as a committee chairman and allowing audience members to bring in water and coffee despite warnings against it outside the hearing room.

Independent Living Initiative
The first group of witnesses testified in support of restoring full funding for the Independent Living Initiative through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

They were Lisa Dickson, founder and communications chair of the Foster Care Alumni of America Ohio chapter; Doris Edelman, legislative liaison for the Ohio Independent Living Association; and Alexander McFarland, president of the Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio Youth Advisory Board.

All three advocated restoring the funding to $2.5 million in each of FY10-11.

Dickson, a former foster child and youth advocate, said the program had lost its funding but that the Senate had restored $1.5 million of support. She said Ohio is the only state making cuts to such a program, which she said offers training and life services to prepare foster care children to face the world alone.

She said foster children are not a line item and rely on the state to act as a parent. Without proper intervention, Dickson said, those children are at higher risk for poverty, unemployment and incarceration. "Ohio taxpayers will pay for their needs one way or another," she said.

McFarland shared his experience as a child who spent five years in foster care. "Without these services, I would not have been the person that I am today."

Sen. Dale Miller (D-Cleveland) asked more about the funding mechanism. He was told it had been previously funded using TANF money but now is a line item in the children and family services portion of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services' (ODJFS) budget.

****************************************************

*Two misquotes:

- Lisa Dickson didn't say that Ohio was the "only state making cuts to such a program." She spoke about the Fostering Connections Act, and how these cuts come at a time when the needs of transitioning foster youth are being recognized on a national level...

- Nor was Independent Living "previously funded using TANF money but now is a line item in the children and family services portion of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services' (ODJFS) budget"

It was and still is an earmark of the TANF budget. Both Lisa and Doris mentioned in their testimonies that Independent Living funding in Ohio should not be an earmark, and that young people transitioning out of foster care each year should not have to fight to maintain the only state source of funding allocated to prepare them for adulthood.

Higher Education Mentoring Initiative for Foster Care Youth (HEMI)

Every year, between 120 and 150 young people "age out" of Hamilton County's foster care system. Approximately half finish high school. Last year only three of those young people went on pursue higher education.I

n response to these unacceptable outcomes, Greg Vehr, Vice President for Governmental Relations at the University of Cincinnati, Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann and Lawrence Johnson, Dean of the UC Colllege of Education, have formed the Higher Education Mentoring Initiative (HEMI).

The goal of this initiative is to match young people emancipating from foster care in Hamilton County with educational opportunities at UC, Cincinnati State and Great Oaks vocational school.

For example, UC wants to match interested students with mentors who are already enrolled in the College of Education, and to house them in its Generation I dorm complex, in order to facilitate a home environment and peer support structure for students.

Source: Wells, David. Foster children turn 18, then turned aside. Cincinnati Enquirer, May 22, 2009.