Tag: Accommodations

Required By Law

A woman writes –

I keep thinking things can’t get worse and trying to be strong but right now I feel hopeless and it seems impossible. I was working for the school system but they wouldn’t make accommodations for me (example: needing bathroom breaks or a lunch break to eat, etc) and my contract will not be renewed for the upcoming school year because I fought them on not allowing me a pumping accommodation (although required by law) in the future. I’m applying and interviewing but so far everyone only seems to focus on me being pregnant and maternity leave and turning me down. I’m finding this disheartening because I’m being responsible and being proactive yet that doesn’t seem to matter or be helpful. Really having doubts today about my future or my son’s future. I’m trying to imagine that once he is here, everything will be different but I can’t today.

I remember being “let go” from Sears Roebuck & Co back in 1973 when I worked in the Infants department. I was pregnant and there were no “protections” for such a state of being back then. What a difference the passage of time makes.

A LINK>Freeman Mathis & Gary blog at the law firm’s website notes – Two new federal laws aimed at increasing protections for pregnant and breastfeeding employees will go into effect in 2023: the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”) and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP For Nursing Mothers Act”). Employers should familiarize themselves with the new employee protections and employer obligations under both laws.

While the law should help the woman I quoted, I also know that in the “real” world that is NOT always enough. The PWFA appears to substantially increase protections for employees and job applicants with known limitations relating to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. It applies to employers with 15 or more employees. It is NOT in effect yet but kicks in on June 27, 2023. 

The PWFA entitles covered employees to a reasonable accommodation unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operations of the employer. As with other disabled employees, the employer must engage in the interactive process with the employee in order to discuss and determine the reasonable accommodation. The obligation to engage in the interactive process is triggered when the employer becomes aware of an employee’s “known limitation” arising out of a pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition.

Already in effect as of December 29 2022, the PUMP For Nursing Mothers Act amended the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) to entitle all employees (not just non-exempt employees) to unpaid reasonable break time to express breast milk up to one year after the employee’s child’s birth.  The Act requires that breaks be provided “each time such employee has need to express the milk.”

The Act also requires employers to provide a private location to express milk that is not a bathroom. Employers should be aware that an employee must be compensated for pumping breaks if such a break must be paid according to other federal, state or local laws; the employee is not completely relieved of duties during the entirety of the break; or if they express breast milk during an otherwise paid break period. The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act contains a small employer exception for employers with fewer than 50 employees where compliance would cause an undue hardship.

Evolving Approaches

Why are so many foster parents uneducated about trauma ? It’s 2021.

Yes, training is lacking but it’s frustrating to keep seeing things like the comment below from a foster parent. If I have a biological child with special needs, we change to accommodate her. We change for biological kids. Why not do the same for a foster child ?

The question above was raised by one foster parent, after reading this comment below in quotes from another foster parent.

“I don’t know. This is sad because the foster family shouldn’t have to change everything for a child. It’s give and take. Obviously the child should feel accepted, but that’s also a choice on their part. Half this stuff (sleep in the bed, no TV after bedtime, eat what we’re eating, bond with us, doing chores) is not unreasonable.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t bend rules for the ‘undamaged’ kids in my home, not everything changes for the new arrivals. Foster kids need to understand the world doesn’t evolve around them. In the real world people don’t care if you’re in foster care. They don’t care if you have trauma. You do what your boss tells you to do. They don’t make accommodations for you.”

“We need to stop making excuses for foster children and stop letting others feel sorry for them. Being in foster care shouldn’t be used as an excuse. Everyone is treated the same in the real world. So why should we bend the rules to foster kids? A foster child shouldn’t force you to change your household or your rules. You’re the boss of your own home.”

“They should follow the rules and the values that the family that decided to open up their home to them has in place. We can’t keep allowing foster kids to take and we always give. It’s unfair. It doesn’t teach them anything about giving back or teach them anything about following the rules in life”.

So why wouldn’t foster parents want to provide specialized care when traumatized kids need this so critically ? Why do they choose to be foster caregivers ? Oh right, it is the money, the stipends foster families are paid to take in stranger’s children.

There could also be another aspect. Some foster parents are there for the glory and accolades from other people. This person’s perspective is simply justification for a rigid response. In reality, what should motivate anyone to be a foster caregiver, would be to help the child heal from whatever trauma has put them into the system to begin with. Just removing the child from their parents and home and being put into foster care IS trauma to begin with.

Think about it – if the injuries were visible and the child was then refused help to heal because of BS excuses like, the “real-world” is unsympathetic to your pain and suffering, many people would judge such a foster caregiver (like the one quoted above) as some unfeeling monster who neglects the children in their care. There should be zero tolerance for an attitude like this.

Truth is, parenting should be individualized to the unique person each child is. As parents, we should give more to children who need more. Parenting is not about one’s self or selfishness. A parents job shouldn’t be to make the kid’s lives crappy, even if we ourselves feel we have it crappy.

Finally, this foster parent writes as though fostering wasn’t a choice they made freely. A child who is unwillingly placed in your home doesn’t owe you gratitude or deference. And “everyone is treated the same in the real world”….what a sad excuse for having closed off your heart. One gets the sense that this foster parent has come from a middle to upper class white family and has not experienced a whole lot of the “real” life they speak so freely of upholding.