Concerns Expressed By Ohio Parents, Part 2

 These Ohio parents want multiple child services agencies investigated

King, Danae. Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 19, 2026.  

A group of Ohio parents went to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office on the morning of Feb. 18 in hopes of speaking with someone about various concerns they have about children's welfare.

"We are a group of parents who have connected over our shared experience of trying to navigate the child welfare system and the judicial entities involved, like family court," said Khaula Zafar, a mother of three who lives in Grove City.

Zafar and her husband, Faraan Qureshi, have been trying for three years to first find, and then make contact with the brother of their adopted son so the two can have a relationship. But she said they have been thwarted by child protective services at every step along the way.

"We have all experienced significant hardship, but have also encountered what may be criminal violations and indications of public corruption," Zafar said.

With her in the first-floor multipurpose room of the Rhodes Tower, where Yost's office is, were five other parents.

Deqa Haji and her husband, Said Abdullahi, have been trying for four years to get back custody of their son. He is a twin and was harmed during birth by medical professionals performing a C-section, Haji said. They are raising his twin and their two other children, but have not been able to get custody of him back from the foster parents.

"Our children are not case numbers," Haji said. "They deserve dignity, respect and justice. ... What we're seeking is systemic accountability."

Joining the group as well was Tina Savage, of Carlisle, in southwestern Ohio. She has been trying to get back custody of her 2-year-old grandson, whom she said she raised until he was 1-year-old.

Martha Matteson, of Marion, has been trying to gain full custody of her 7-year-old daughter for two years.

Talisha McKenzie, of Dayton, was also present and fought for the custody of her children for nearly two years before successfully getting them back. She came because she knows what happened to her – losing her children and fighting the system to get them back – is happening all the time to other parents, she said.

She believes it's a violation of due process. Federal child safety laws are also being violated, Zafar said.

All the parents have reached out to multiple state agencies for help or to ask who can help. But they each said they were sent to different agencies every time, eventually ending up at the one they started with and getting no help.

"Make it make sense," McKenzie said.

Savage said she's found that there is no accountability for county child protective service agencies – none of the parents have found someone who will hold agencies accountable.

Zafar has spent months trying to get answers and hold agencies accountable, so she gathered other parents she's met in similar situations to go to the Ohio Attorney General's help desk.

Advertised on the office's website is a toll-free number, daily hours and an address for a "help center" on the 14th floor of the Rhodes Tower.

"Why can't I go in?" Zafar asked, after the security desk asked her and the others to wait in the first-floor multipurpose room.

They arrived around 11 a.m. and waited as security guards called upstairs, though the families were continually denied an opportunity to speak to someone and told to wait in the room downstairs.

At one point, McKenzie alone was allowed upstairs to file a report and was told she could only live chat with someone via her phone, that the person there could not help her.

"What is the accessibility of our government that I can't go ask?" Zafar said. "We've all independently tried to report these concerns across many different entities throughout this state – many levels, local to state – and have not had any success gaining any accountability."

Around 3 p.m., someone from Yost's office went down to speak with those assembled, but the office would not offer further comment except to share their constituent services hotline.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General's office said they didn't know the parents were down there until someone else alerted them. As to why the parents were asked to wait on the first floor, the spokesperson referred The Dispatch to lobby security, noting that is not part of their office.

The constituent services representative from the Attorney General's office listened to their stories for nearly two hours, took down their information and shared his, Zafar said. At first, he tried to tell them it wasn't in his office's jurisdiction, but the parents kept persisting, Zafar said.

"It's just a whole mess," Zafar said. "They tried to run us around, but we know the laws."

Concerns Expressed By Ohio Parents, Part 1

Adoptive Ohio family claims agency blocking effort to reunite brothers
Hoffman, Anna. NBC4. Dec. 10, 2025.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A family is claiming discrimination by an Ohio agency after they were denied the opportunity to reunite biological brothers, one of whom is with a different foster family.

The family is Muslim, and they think that may be why they’ve not been able to move forward with the adoption of their adopted son’s biological brother. They say this has been devastating, and everything they are doing now is with the intention of their son knowing his biological family.

“All I can think about are my son’s losses, that’s all I can think about,” Khaula Zafar said.

Zafar and her husband, Faraan Qureshi, are licensed foster parents. They said they have taken in children of all ages and backgrounds.

Zafar and Qureshi’s son is now five years old. He was their foster child, and they adopted him when he was two, around the same time they learned through social media that he may have a biological brother.

“Our journey has very much been about reunification and family preservation,” Zafar said.

Ohio law says, “Agencies and courts need to make reasonable efforts to place siblings together or allow visitation.”

Zafar said that after repeated attempts to contact Franklin County Children’s Services about the brother, they eventually found out the brother was in the system, but with another family.

“We’re like, ‘OK, something happened,’” Zafar said. “Clearly, there were mistakes made.”

She said that at this time last year, FCCS contacted them and said it would be best to keep the siblings together. However, two hours later, she said they walked that back.

“The only reason given to us is that they are not required to keep the siblings together by law and that in their opinion, because our son is adopted, these children are not legally siblings and we are not kinship, and that was the decision the FCCS has stood by and the reasoning that they stood by for months,” Zafar said.

The family said they then tried to set up visits for the siblings. However, they said FCCS gave all power to the foster family rather than facilitating the visits themselves

“It’s our son’s biological brother that he is getting denied any connection with, right? Because we’re not getting any support from the organization,” Qureshi said.

They said there were red flags at the few meet-ups they were allowed to have, such as having counsel there to supervise. The family said they also found social media posts they said were alarming from the child’s foster family.

“The other problem is that these foster parents of this child is with have been very, very vocal about their intention, how they’re motivated by their faith, their Catholicism, their Christianity, their take in children, and to, to guide them, in a sense,” Qureshi said.

Zafar and Qureshi said the foster family became more and more difficult to get a hold of, canceling set-up visit times and, eventually, severing contact with Zafar and Qureshi.

Then, on Nov. 11, they received an email saying they were not chosen as a match for their son’s brother.

“We have a situation where a decision has been made that has clearly not been guided by the best interests of a child, where laws have not been followed in the ways that they should have been, and serious well-being concerns have not been taken into consideration,” Zafar said.

Three weeks later, FCCS sent them an email saying, “This decision was not made lightly,” and went on to list several key factors they based their decision on, which include the child being in the current foster home since birth and the current foster parent expressing interest to adopt.

Zafar and Qureshi believe both their son and his brother have Muslim ties.

“What is evident from something as simple as his name is that he has ties to a cultural community that is predominantly Muslim,” Zafar said. “I cannot say parents follow x-y-z religion, right, but based on what is evident, it is clear he has ties to the Muslim community.”

They said that based on their standing as foster parents and what is said in Ohio law, the only answer they can come up with for why their request was denied is due to discrimination.

“It’s hard to feel otherwise,” Qureshi said. “I don’t see. It’s like she said earlier, it’s either specifically our background or there’s a systemic issue or they’re just targeting anyone that’s not the standard. I don’t know.”

Franklin County Children’s Services said in a statement:

“The adoption team at Franklin County Children Services continues to monitor and review this case, prioritizing the best interests of this young boy and the permanent support, safety, and sense of belonging that can come when a child in the foster care system can be placed with a ‘forever family.’ We always strive to find placement opportunities where children can maintain a safe connection to the culture, background, and extended family. Ultimately, the courts will be asked to make the final determination.”

“It’s been so difficult, like, really, it’s this whole past year has taken a toll on us,” Zafar said.

The family hopes that by speaking out, they will be able to find legal help. They are concerned about a deadline to appeal and running out of time.

Bill proposed by Representatives Williams and Miller

Ohio bill would fill gaps in child abuse reporting systems
Bethea, Jesse. NBC4, Feb. 19, 2026. 

Two state lawmakers are proposing a bill to remedy gaps they see in the statewide system for responding to allegations of child abuse.

Ohio Reps. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania Twp.) and Darnell Brewer (D-Cleveland) plan to introduce what they call Kei’Mani’s Law, named after Kei’Mani Latigue, a 13-year-old girl who was abducted and killed last year in Toledo. 

Following Kei’Mani’s death and the criminal charges filed against the girl’s father, Columbus activist and area commissioner Peaches Calhoun began looking for ways that state and local agencies could better address reports of child abuse and neglect. She found that too often, schools, welfare agencies and law enforcement are not sharing information.

“My thoughts were, what if we connect?” Calhoun said. “If it’s reported at school, the hospital and the police station should know about it, that way everybody is on the same accord, everybody is holding everybody responsible.” 

Calhoun took her thoughts to Williams, who, along with Brewer, developed Kei’Mani’s law, which will expand and strengthen information sharing between schools, child protection services and the courts. It would also require schools to designate a child protection liaison to be responsible for coordinating and managing reports of abuse among their students. 

“Schools are often the first place signs of abuse are noticed,” Brewer said. “This bill creates a clear point of contact, someone accountable for communication, coordination and follow-through.” 

Williams and Brewer said that reports of abuse were properly investigated leading up to Kei’Mani’s abduction and death, but it’s the system itself that needs to change. 

“Those professionals operated within the frameworks of the current law of the state of Ohio,” Williams said. “But as legislators, when a tragedy reveals gaps in communication or accountability, it is our responsibility to respond.”

The bill also permits child protective services to share information with criminal courts, something that Capital University Law Professor Jennifer Goldson said could raise due process concerns. According to Goldson, the idea that courts would be made aware every time an abuse, neglect, or dependency investigation is opened calls into question the rights of the person under investigation. 

“I don’t think a court should be getting involved in a children’s services investigation until a case is opened,” Goldson said. “Which doesn’t happen until children’s services investigates, finds substantiation of the claims and ultimately files a complaint.” 

Kei’Mani’s Law would require prompt entering of information into the Uniform Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) and would expand access to SACWIS to child protection liaisons, courts and law enforcement, but would also require the security of that information. 

“While knowledge sharing is a critical aspect of this legislation, it is also important that those trusted with this information are trained and held to the highest standard,” Brewer said

Deeply grateful for the Junior League of Columbus and their advocacy and support