On February 14, 2014 one family's lives changed forever when their child, Piersen Eaker was shaken and severely injured. Since that day, Piersen and his family have gone through many months of grueling procedures, hospital stays, and sleepless nights. Piersen will have to live with Shaken Baby Syndrome for his entire life. This family and the community wish to not only spread awareness of Shaken Baby Syndrome, but to improve to quality of child care across the board. These efforts are to prevent anything comparable to this ever happening to another child again. Listed below are some proposals to begin this change.

1.Camera recording must become a mandatory requirement in all child care areas. This is to improve documentation and observation, to both prevent the occurrence of abuse, and to provide evidence if the need arises to evaluate a questionable situation during care. Often there are no other witnesses around but very young children, who may or may not be capable of reporting any suspicious behaviors.

2. Reduction of the child-to-caregiver ratio to ensure more appropriate, conscientious, and safe care of each child.

3. Randomized monthly drug testing should become a frequent occurrence for any workers involved with the care of children, or maintenance of the buildings.

4. Caregivers should have further in-depth training and recognized certifications regarding basic care, abuse and neglect, and emergency preparedness.

5. Daily documentation of care for each child should be enforced. This should explain any care given throughout the day, any questions or concerns noted through the day, or any behaviors exhibited by the child. Parents should be able to access this information at any time. This manner of documentation can change many things for both families and day cares. This can begin a record showing evidence of abuse, show parents areas that need to be monitored, and possible developmental delays that may have otherwise been overlooked.

6. The minimum liability insurance required for any day care should be raised to an amount that can cover a life-long condition. The minimum liability insurance required currently is very quickly spent in a situation such as Piersen's.

7. The penalty for those found guilty of child abuse must be changed to a harsher consequence. Often, the damage that is done by just a moment of abuse will affect the child and the family for a lifetime. Piersen is only one example of a child with a life-long condition as a result of abuse. While there is no comparable way to amend a situation such as that, the punishment should without a doubt become much more strict for violators of this law.

Piersen and his family are only one example of lives that are affected by child abuse, Shaken Baby Syndrome, or inadequate protection by child care centers. There is no disputing that changes must be made to these conditions. While there can be many things that could change in order to improve the quality of day cares, these changes will begin to drastically improve the current situation. Please consider each request in order to improve the quality of care for children all across the board.