Darrell and Patty Holtz are worried about their 16-year-old daughter, Meagan.

“We love her dearly,” said Darrell Holtz, a Hallmark retiree.

But the Holtzes – he is 57, she is 56 – can’t handle Meagan, who is autistic, obsessive-compulsive and prone to violent outbursts.

“It got to be impossible,” said Holtz, who lives in Overland Park. “She’s 30 pounds heavier and 5 inches taller than my wife – and my wife was being treated for cancer. We never knew when she was going to become violent. It was unpredictable.”

Since August 2004, Meagan has been at Lakemary Center in Paola, a treatment and residential program for children with multiple mental disabilities.

Because Meagan’s disabilities are severe, Medicaid pays for her stay at Lakemary Center.

Earlier this year, the Holtzes were told Meagan would have to move to a foster home because Medicaid would only pay for a 140-day stay at Lakemary Center.

“This is very disconcerting for us,” Holtz said. “We’ve had three psychologists tell us she belongs at Lakemary, and Lakemary has been wonderful for her. She likes it there.”

Two years ago, social workers looked for a foster home for Meagan.

“One lady came and saw how violent Meagan can be; she said she had other kids – fragile kids – in her home and she couldn’t put them at risk,” Holtz said.

“Another lady came – she had just built a new duplex so that she could take in foster kids,” he said. “But when she found out that Meagan had kicked a hole in the wall, she said ‘I don’t want my place torn up.’

“Every foster parent who’s met Meagan has refused to take her.”

Holtz said he fears that Meagan will be moved to a foster home that won’t be able to handle her.

“We’re very frightened,” he said. “We don’t want to see our daughter treated like a sack of produce.”