State urges more information,
foster-parent training
DAN SEWELL
Associated Press CINCINNATI
November 27, 2006
More thorough investigation and
better communication among agencies could have prevented the
placement of a 3-year-old developmentally disabled boy with the
foster parents accused of killing him, according to a state report
released Monday.
"The death of any child is tragic;
to die under circumstances alleged in this case is only more so,"
according to the report by the Ohio Department of Job and Family
Services. "This case beckons reform of Ohio's system to better serve
all foster children."
Liz and David Carroll Jr. are
accused of leaving Marcus Fiesel alone in a closet for two days,
wrapped in a blanket and packing tape. Authorities say the boy was
dead when they returned to their home in Clermont County from a
family reunion in Kentucky.
The couple reported the boy missing
Aug. 15, triggering a massive search for the child who supposedly
had wandered off in a public park. The Carrolls were arrested Aug.
28 and have pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
The report, which says the Carrolls
were unqualified to care for the boy, details problems in handling
his case and the private agency that recommended the Carrolls. It
also makes a broad range of recommendations that include increased
training and widened background checks for foster parents.
"We cannot create a fail-safe
system, but I believe we can create a better system," said Barbara
Riley, director of the state department.
State lawmakers have said the
report will help in developing reform legislation.
About 10,000 children are in foster
care in Ohio. Richard Wexler, executive director of the
Virginia-based National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said
authorities should do more to keep children with their birth
parents.
"They want to add more
requirements, when they're not following the existing requirements,"
Wexler said. "All this tinkering is sound and fury that ignores the
elephant in the room."
The Carrolls were certified to be
foster parents through Lifeway for Youth, a private agency that
handles placements for a number of counties. Lifeway officials have
said the Carrolls misled them about their backgrounds.
The state report alleges more than
a dozen failures by the agency, saying the home study and follow-up
visits were inadequate, that the agency didn't check references on
the Carrolls and that the agency overbilled the state for training
reimbursements.
The state department is reviewing
Lifeway for Youth operations across the state to decide whether to
re-certify the agency, and also will scrutinize the agency's billing
claims, the report states.
A message seeking comment was left
Monday for Michael Berner, executive director of the Sharonville,
Ohio-based agency, which has been certified in Ohio since 1994.
The report recommends increased
training of foster parent applicants and those who assess them,
thorough background checks that would include credit and residence
histories, drug testing of applicants, data-sharing among agencies,
courts and law enforcement, and increased state staffing for
foster-care oversight.
The report found that Butler County
Children Services complied with state requirements in its handling
of the boy, removed from his birth mother in Middletown in April.
The county has appointed an independent task force to probe the
agency.
The state report says Clermont
County Children's Services didn't make sure Liz Carroll had
completed training in the time required and didn't check all her
references. Tim McCartney, director of the county's department of
Job and Family Services, said Monday that additional references were
checked when two original references couldn't be reached.
McCartney said Clermont County took
action in September that include checking a court information system
for any offenses involving foster-home adults and doubling the
number of annual home inspections from two to four, three of them
unannounced.
Authorities have said the Carrolls
had had financial problems and also failed to report a domestic
violence charge in June against David Carroll that was dropped later
but could have led to more investigation of the family.
ON THE NET
Fiesel Case Review:
http://jfs.ohio.gov/ocf/Fiesel_review_report_20061127
.pdf
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