Keeping Children And Families Safe Act

Background

Keeping Children and Families Safe Act was introduced to secure the rights of children with an aim to abandon child abuse in The US. It offers policy measures that address the problematic areas of child care and abuse. The definition of the policy is comprehensive and covers a broad spectrum of factors that affect the well-being of a child. A definition of safety from the perspective of the family with its range is offered for implementation.

Introduction- Under Pinning Values

Child abuse has taken the central stage of concern in America in the last few decades. Child abuse policy in America possesses notable deficiencies, which have only intensified the issue to a dangerous level. Moreover, the media focuses only on the sensational features of highly visible child abuse cases. However, according to the official reports, 1570 children died from abuse and neglect in the United States in 2011. In the same year, 279,000 child victims of abuse received support from the Children Advocacy Centers around the country. In 2012, this number increased further to 287,000. Nearly five children die every day in the United States due to physical and sexual abuse (National Statistics on Child Abuse, 2012). Rather than accidents, food poisoning, fires or drowning, child abuse causes the death of many children in America. As such, child abuse has extended from a social problem to staggering epidemic proportions.

Child abuse creates significant negative effects on the overall personality development of children. Psychical, sexual, verbal, or psychological abuse affects them in many different ways. Children are the future of the country. Therefore, for the bright and prospective future of the country, it is needed to provide a healthy and protective environment for children by taking steps to end child abuse in America (Bonke, 2005).

Unintended Consequences

The Food and Drug Administration recommend employees with contagious infections to abstain from attending work up to 24 hours after the symptoms subside. More than 50% of stomach flu outbreaks are traceable to an infected employee in the food service industry. Sick missed and mental health days diminish the risk of professional injuries, especially in high-risk trades, such as agriculture, construction, and health care. The cost of hiring a new employee is much higher than the revenue lost because of workers missing the standard allowance of one week annually (Aitchison, 2003). The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees workers within covered organizations to take unpaid leaves for specific medical and family reasons. The law protects the employee’s job, and health insurance continues throughout the leave period. Eligible workers get three months’ leave every 12 months for the birth of a child and allow the parent to take care of the child for adoption to enable the foster parent to care for the child and build the relationship and care for the immediate close relative with a serious medical condition. A 26-week leave is available annually to those with covered military members in their immediate families (O’Sheades, 2013).

Conclusion

Sick, missed, and mental health days are available to an employee either as paid or unpaid leave. Most of the employees, especially those working in the private sector, do not have an allowance to miss work. This leave period is critical to the well-being of the employee because it allows the employee to attend to important issues in his or her life. This increases employee job satisfaction and productivity. The spread of contagious diseases, especially in the work environment is lower when the employees have the allowance for sick days. Sick days also reduce the risk of injury associated with risky careers. Allowing workers to take a few days to recover from illness is important, especially for the people working in the food service business. Those working in the food service industry handle food materials for consumption by a significant number of individuals. Highly contagious diseases, such as stomach flu, are transferable through the handling of food material. The cost of allowing sick leaves for organizations in this sector is much lower than the expense of an outbreak. A possible outbreak influences public image and results in low future sales. The loss of revenue within the location of the food service center is also significant. This is because the people who buy food their missing jobs because of illness.

References

Aitchison, W. (2003). The FMLA: Understanding the Family and Medical Leave Act. Portland, Ore: LRIS Publications.

Bonke, J. (2005). Paid work and unpaid work: Diary information versus questionnaire information. Social Indicators Research, 70(3), 349-368.

Belloc, Hilaire (2010). On. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press,. Print.

Butler, Ian, and Gwenda Roberts (2004). Social Work With Children And Families. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers,. Print.

Cannon, Susan Gelber (2004). Think, Care, Act. Charlotte, N.C.: Information Age Pub., 2011. Print.

Greenfield, P. A. (1991). Managing Employee Rights & Responsibilities. Academy Of Management Review, 16(1), 206-209.

O’Sheades, C. (2013, May 20). Maternity leave for temporary and casual teachers. Education.

Thoburn, June, Ashok Chand, and Joanne Procter (2010). Child Welfare Services For Minority Ethnic Families. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers,. Print.