Interesting Foster Care Case in Ohio...

Is this case about protecting children from dangerous people, or about protecting the foster care system from scrutiny? I'm asking...

Attorneys argued before the Ohio Supreme Court Tuesday whether the names and addresses of foster care parents should be public record.

John C. Greiner, a Cincinnati lawyer representing the Enquirer, said, “We are not asking for the names of any children.”

Enquirer reporter Gregory Korte made a public records request shortly after the August 2006 death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel, seeking an electronic database of all foster homes in Ohio.

Marcus died after his foster parents left him tied up in a closet while they took a weekend trip to Kentucky. Liz and David Carroll Jr. were later convicted in the boy’s murder.

The Enquirer reported in March that Hamilton County court officials discovered 27 foster parents had arrest records.

Greiner said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services made a policy decision – not legal decision – to withhold foster license records, effectively daring the Enquirer to file a lawsuit.

He said the newspaper never sought the names of foster children, so would not have placed them in danger.

But Assistant Attorney General Henry G. Appel, in defense of the state, said, “This case is about protecting vulnerable children against dangerous people.”

More here.

Foster Kill Foster Child, So Let's Make Foster Parent Information Secret?

Am I missing something here, folks, or did the Ohio legislature just react to the killing of a foster child by making it impossible for us to scrutinize foster parents?

The Ohio House on Wednesday narrowly voted to exempt all personal information of state approved foster parents and prospective foster parents from the state's public records law.

The 52-44 vote to shield the information, including names, came after legislators debated the best way to ensure the safety of foster children and foster parents.

Although the foster parent information is not now exempt from the public records law, the state's policy has been not to release the information. A lawsuit filed over that policy by a newspaper is before the Ohio Supreme Court.

Making the records public would give unhappy birth parents information needed to find the children taken from them, said Rep. Jeff Wagner, R-Sycamore, sponsor of the exemption.

Sometimes birth parents used "violent means" to get their children back, said Wagner, a former foster parent. His proposal would make the information public if foster parents lost their state certification or were convicted or charged with a crime,

The legislation was drafted in response to the 2006 death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel of Middletown, whose foster parents, Liz and David Carroll Jr. of Union Township in Clermont County, were convicted of killing him and are serving life prison sentences. Marcus was left tied up in a closet while the Carrolls spent a weekend in Kentucky.

The legislation - with the amendment - passed 87-9.

More here.