Saturday, February 18, 2012
SEE ALSO: State JFS findings on Trumbull Children Services
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, in a 31-page report, asked the Trumbull County Children Services agency to do a better job in a variety of areas, such as documenting the agency’s work.
The report was released this week and written after state officials spent 12 days at the agency in December and January. It was a follow-up to a review JFS conducted in the fall.
The earlier review, which focused on Children Services’ visitation policy, came after a Warren couple was accused of raping their 9-month-old biological daughter during a visit with her at the agency’s offices on Reeves Road.
The child has been in CSB custody since just after her birth, having been taken from the parents because they were deemed unfit to care for her.
The parents, Cody Beemer, 22, and Felicia Beemer, 20, are in the Trumbull County jail, charged with raping the girl and other crimes.
Ohio JFS first raised the documentation issue — which resulted in a two-week suspension of a Children Services supervisor — in the first Ohio JFS review.
The newest report was based on a review of 21 randomly drawn agency case records from Sept. 1, 2010, to Aug. 31, 2011.
Nick Kerosky, Children Services director, characterized the report’s findings as “typical” of the every-four-year evaluation the agency receives and typical of the review other county children services agencies receive.
Benjamin Johnson, spokesman for Ohio JFS, said the report doesn’t attempt to compare Trumbull Children Services with similar agencies in Ohio. Johnson said he would not compare how serious the most recent findings are to other counties.
It’s “no surprise” that the review turned up areas that Trumbull Children Services needs to address, but that “doesn’t mean it’s not concerning, and it doesn’t mean that we don’t take it seriously,” Johnson said.
Children Services is being asked to respond with a corrective action plan for the most recent findings within 30 days.
Kerosky said there is a federal review process that compares Trumbull Children Services with agencies in other counties, and Trumbull County compares well. “A very basic analysis of this report” shows that, on average, Ohio’s 88 public child-welfare agencies are only getting the highest rating in five of the report’s nine categories, while Trumbull gets the highest rating in seven, Kerosky said.
Mahoning County has the highest rating in four of the categories, and Portage County has the highest rating in eight of them.
With regard to the complaint in the new report that Trumbull Children Services doesn’t ensure that the input of fathers is adequately addressed at Trumbull Children Services, Kerosky said that is “an ongoing issue all across the state” and one that few agencies have solved.