High School Students Working

After learning that several of my students work until 2am several days a week, I decided to look up the rules concerning student working...

Jobs & Hours Teens Can Work

• If you're 12 or 13, you can not work as a newspaper carrier work during school hours, before 4 a.m. or after 7 p.m. If you're working with your family in a farm or orchard you can only do so outside of school hours and with your parent's permission.
  If you are 14 or 15, you are limited to 3 hours of work during a school day and 18 hours during a school week and are required to take a 30-minute break after working five consecutive hours.
  If you are 16 or 17, you have no restrictions on your work hours.

Read more: Child Labor Laws in Virginia | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_6303476_child-labor-laws-virginia.html#ixzz1KijgNUIy


Granted it's information from eHow, but they have references so it looks legit.  I was wrong that 16-17 year olds are limited to a certain amount of hours.  So in my conversation with them tomorrow, I'm going to inform them that school comes first and they need to be able to get their work done (I'm not assigning anything without a reason) and stay awake in class, even if that means limiting their working hours.  I think the law needs to be changed limiting 16-17 year olds from working past midnight, and limited to 5-6 hours per day if they are full time students.  If they're not in school, they can work as long as they like. These are supposed to be part time jobs, not full time.  Maybe that's just my opinion, but you're not learning anything when you're so tired from working until 2am that you fall asleep in class.