Trumbull County graduates are publicly recognized

Foster home grads honored
Yorich, Tim. Youngstown Vindicator, June 18, 2008.

Three graduates from foster homes already know what they plan for their lives.

WARREN — Three young people who had a difficult start in life were honorees at a high school graduation celebration Tuesday.

Edward Eason and Nicole Koniowsky, both 18, and Kelly Coles, 19, are foster children and were honored by Trumbull County Children Services during a luncheon at the Mocha House restaurant.

Eason, of Girard, had some problems with anger. His mother couldn’t afford to take care of him, his father was addicted to alcohol and drugs and his grandmother couldn’t care for him.

Children services found Roseann Frye, who has four adopted children, to care for and guide him.

Eason graduated this year from Girard High School and Trumbull Career and Technical Center where he studied electrical technology for two years. He will be attending Triangle Tech school in Pittsburgh with an eye on becoming a commercial electrician.

“I like school. That’s my favorite thing to do,” Eason said, noting he will be keeping in touch with his old friends and is certain he will make new ones.

Koniowsky has been fostered by Amy Senne in Bristol since March. Before then, she lived for 41‚Ñ2 years with a foster family in Kinsman.

Her mother, she says, is on drugs and she never knew her father.

“He’s been in and out of jail all my life so I really don’t know where he is,” Koniowsky said.

She says being in foster care is like being on a “roller coaster” ride. “You never know what’s going to happen the next day. It’s confusing.”

Despite the uphill battle, Koniowsky graduated from Joseph Badger High School and will begin studying to become an accountant.

Coles, of Hubbard, graduated this year from both TCTC and Hubbard High School. She is looking for a job in dog grooming.

She has been in foster care for 18 or 19 years with Linda and Kenneth Barrett.

“They’re wonderful,” she said of her foster parents.

Cole said she never knew her biological parents or anything about them, nor does she have any inclination to find them.

“I’m content where I am,” she commented.

Judge Cynthia W. Rice of the 11th District Court of Appeals told the graduates that there are a number of routes to take in life.

“The right one is the one that is right for you,” Judge Rice said as she commended them for having an idea of what they want to do in life.

“We should stop and think about what makes us happy,” the judge told them. “Life should be fun,” she added.

Judge Rice told them they may change their destination during life. “Don’t just drive around aimlessly. You have so much to learn,” she said.

Link to learn more about SB 163

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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