Open foster parent records
Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services doesn't want you looking too closely at what they're doing.
That's what the agency's refusal to release the roster of people paid by the state to be foster parents amounts to. The Enquirer is suing the department in an effort to force the release of the records.
Barbara Riley, director of ODJFS, has said releasing the records would "endanger children."
Except the Enquirer isn't asking for any information about foster children. We just want to know the names of the adults the state is paying to take care of them. That information should be open so the public can assess whether the state is doing a good job in selecting people to care for dependent and neglected children -- among the state's most vulnerable citizens.
The Enquirer's efforts have been prompted by two recent cases: The death of Marcus Feisel, whose foster parents have been charged with murder; and Jaysen Bell, a foster father from Clermont County facing a variety of charges in connection with the sexual abuse of two foster children in his care.
Most foster parents are probably honest, decent people. But the public is paying them to take care of children and therefore has a right to know who they are.
posted by David Wells at 5:25 PM
6 Comments:
at 8:40 PM, December 12, 2006 
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at 3:10 AM, December 13, 2006 
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at 8:51 AM, December 13, 2006 
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at 9:31 AM, December 13, 2006 
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at 2:38 PM, December 13, 2006 
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at 1:34 AM, December 15, 2006 
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Post a Comment*Are you also going to sue every school district to turn over all the background checks on every teacher? After all, we the taxpayers are footing those bills, too.
And how about all the volunteers and parents that help out at those schools? They also have direct input with the kids.
Metro and school bus drivers?
Rec Center employees?
Gary Burbank has a line he uses "your right to know supercedes your right to exist". It's not so funny anymore.......
Usually, I am with the Enquirer and anyone else fighting for open records - but these records being released would truely endanger the foster parents, the children and invade these kids lives unmercifully.
Often parents of children living in foster care are mentally ill and like any parent who has their children taken away from them, is not thinking clearly. If parents could through a public records request find out where their kids were or what possible homes the kids are in - we would be subjecting the children and foster parents to serious threats of real harm.
Besides, sometimes kids are in foster homes of a relative, and the community having access to this information would invade their privacy.
I do agree there needs to be better oversight and having an unbiased panel taking a look at the records is absolutely necessary - it is pretty common knowledge that the checks and balances in ohio , from program monitors who are "in house" working side by side with the very people they are suppose to be critically reviewing to auditors who know that if they disclose rabid misappropriations or illegal expenditures ( like JFS $200M) that they will not be hired again to do the next audit - or any audit for that matter.
The system is boke - one party rule is the cause and the newest legislation being posed seeks to limit the new administrations' ability to get down to the nitty gritty of how this is being done.
But this time, I think the Enquirer has it wrong - disclosure is too dangerous. There has to be a better way
The State is also "paying people to take care of (their own) children" via ADC, Medicaid, and Unemployment compensation. Do we have a right to know who THEY are?
By automatically making foster parents information public, you then make public that a foster child eventually legally adopted by the same foster parents the knowledge and label of an "adopted child" for all to see.
Is this your intention? Is this your right to force this very private parent-child relationship into the public domain?
You should think through your intentions and their ramifications before you pontificate.
Wouldn't a private oversight committee be a better option?
While I'm usually all about the knowledge...in this case, the Enquirer is wrong. You're punishing a whole group of people for the wrongdoings of a few. You need to be more concerned with making sure that the foster care agencies are doing what they're supposed to do with EVERY possible candidate and following through with their responsibilites. Dropping the ball leads to children falling into the hands of someone with awful intentions.
Stop with the witchhunt Enquirer. You're just looking for your next "big" story. And, making it harder for people who really want to be good foster parents.
I think that the public has a right to know where public dollars are spent. That includes aid to dependent children, section 8 vouchers and welfare benefits.
If you take tax dollars you need to tell the people who are footing your bill.
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