The state’s child-welfare directors want Ohio lawmakers to automatically make it possible for foster parents who kill a child in their care to be sentenced to death.

Although Franklin County Children Services has never had such a case go to court, Director John Saros is among those leading the charge based on the recent death of a 3-year-old developmentally disabled boy in Clermont County.

"There is nothing more egregious than for a person who has come forward saying, ‘You can trust me,’ to turn around and kill a defenseless child who has been removed from their home because of abuse, neglect or another troubling circumstance," Saros said. "I view it as an aggravating circumstance that shouldn’t be treated any differently than someone who murders a police officer or firefighter."

That and other proposals for reform will be delivered to the legislature soon, officials said.

Saros said Children Services also will be checking up on the 1,570 foster children it has in private care after a state report blasted Lifeway for Youth, the New Carlisle group charged to care for Marcus Fiesel.

In its report, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services faulted Lifeway, which has 523 foster homes in Ohio and operates in six states, for not watching carefully over the Middletown boy. died in August after being left alone in a closet for two days, wrapped in a blanket and packing tape, while his foster parents went to a family reunion in Kentucky.

Liz and David Carroll Jr. have been charged with murder, kidnapping, felonious assault and child endangering.

The state report cites Lifeway for 15 violations, including failing to conduct a complete home study, not visiting the home frequently enough, allowing a relative to serve as a reference, lying about the amount of training the couple received and overbilling the state for training.

Lifeway Executive Director Michael Berner did not return phone calls yesterday.

Children Services stopped sending youths to Lifeway’s Cincinnati office after Marcus’ death and sent caseworkers to visit the more 200 children who the Franklin County agency had in Lifeway homes at the time. The agency has sent 372 children to Lifeway so far this year; 198 remain in the group’s care, Saros said.

Instead of limiting its scrutiny to Lifeway, Children Services will examine all of its 42 private foster-care companies as a precaution.

Children Services will ask the private groups in a few weeks for electronic copies of criminal checks, details of parents’ backgrounds, home studies, licenses, references and other materials for all the foster parents caring for Franklin County children. Private agencies place 81 percent of the agency’s foster children.

Although the effort will stretch Children Services’ capabilities and funding, it is necessary, Saros said.

"Ninety-nine of our foster parents are wonderful, caring people worthy of our trust," he said. "But then you have the people who are duplicitous and are willing to lie and misrepresent themselves who will always be difficult to catch."

Several providers yesterday said they understand the need for additional inspection.

"When something as incredibly terrible as this happens and you’re in the people’s business, you do everything possible to prevent further deaths," said Nicholas Rees, Buckeye Ranch’s vice president of development.

Others said they hoped the increased scrutiny will be shortterm.

"I really understand Children Services’ need for this," said Robert J. Marx, executive director of the Rosemont Center. "But I really worry that if you ask for every home study, training record and piece of paper in a foster parent’s file, no one will have time to do anything else."

Sometimes, he said, "bad people will do bad things," no matter the safeguards.

State officials said they applaud efforts by individual child-welfare agencies to protect the children in their care.

But the state is focused on getting the 54 recommendations in its report adopted, said Dennis Evans, spokesman for the Department of Job and Family Services. The reforms include toughening foster-care licensing and screening standards.

The agency also is reviewing Lifeway’s operation to decide whether to recertify the group when its license expires Jan. 18. The Public Children Services Association of Ohio, which represents the state’s childwelfare agencies, is drafting the death-penalty proposal and three other foster-care measures directors say are needed:

• Matching children who have severe emotional, mental and physical disabilities with people trained to care for their needs.

• Creating a new category of foster-care providers to make it easier for people who want to help a particular child or siblings.

• Changing how funding works so that agencies also would be paid for helping families keep their children, instead of simply providing funding for foster care.

The association’s executive director, Crystal Ward Allen, supports the state proposals but said she worries they could have a chilling effect.

"Becoming a foster parent is already a daunting process, and we’re about to make it even more daunting," she said.

"We need to better support foster parents, not overload them."

epyle@dispatch.com