Foster children need all the protection authorities can provide them, considering the serious problems that have come to light in Ohio in recent months.

Now, as Hamilton County foster agency officials have learned, it’s not enough to only conduct initial background checks on foster parents. These days, ongoing checks are necessary, and if parents refuse to consent to the checks, the children should be removed from the home.

The Hamilton County agency, which includes Cincinnati, has come under scrutiny because it didn’t know about six of 27 arrests uncovered in background checks. The reason for the failure: the agency only looked for convictions, not arrests. The six cases did not result in convictions. Hamilton County court officials discovered the arrests as they were setting up a system to provide immediate notification when arrests do occur.