<p>Here’s another rant…</p>
<p>My daughter has secured two short term jobs through the local Girl Scout council pending all the completed paperwork, etc. In Georgia, one must obtain a work permit…so far so good. D inputs info. into computer, send it to employer. Employer inputs their portion, sends it back to D. She then needs to take it to the local school board for them to certify it. That’s where I come in. I gather her passport, birth certificate, social security card and take the information to the local school board. </p>
<p>Because she is not present and “standing before them”, the school board representative will not certify the thing. Arggghhhh!!! …Even though I am the adult and ultimately responsible for her, even though I have all her id, etc. Their suggestion was to fly her home to do it. Yes, well flying her home will likely cost more than she’d make at the job. I should have just taken her friend along with me and pretended it was my daughter and they’d probably never have known the difference. But I certainly don’t want to break any laws to get this taken care of. </p>
<p>So I’ve called the GA Dept. of Labor and they are checking with their legal dept. to see if something like Skype would count as “standing before them”. And then I’ll be calling the State Superintendent’s office to discuss creating a provision in their policy for cases such as ours. What a PITA. You’d think they’d have SOME provision for kids who are out of state. It seems like a notarized statement along with id would suffice. For goodness sake, I could do it for my husband with a POA, you’d think that I could do it for my daughter for whom I’m already legally responsible. </p>
<p>And no, they won’t take anything from her BS because it’s not in GA. She’s probably going to have to wait until she comes home for the summer to obtain the permits. Hopefully her employer will be willing to work with her on the time frame. </p>
<p>End of rant. Anyone else run into similar issues? Or is this just GA?</p>
<p>Yes,</p>
<p>My daughter is from the midwest but was living with my parents for the summer (different state). She got a job but had to get a signature from the local school board. We sent medical documentation which the school board rejected because it didn’t have a seal and claimed it could have been forged. We sent her passport which matched her driver’s license info and they still weren’t satisfied (she was there in person with the documents). Then we had “our” local school board send paperwork, the doctor faxed new paperwork that was stamped and signed. It took three weeks and was the most aggravating thing we’d gone through because, once done, the summer was halfway over. I can’t imagine what we would have done if she had not already moved there. Cheap airfare I guess.</p>
<p>Blame the Department of Homeland Security for the increased paperwork. The school district did.</p>
<p>I, on the other hand, do a lot of school visits because of my profession. Now, because of new immigration laws, I have to certify that I am not an undocumented worker, nor do I employ them AND I have to certify that I participate in E-verify even though I’m a sole proprietor. According to the school district - it’s part of a state law and if “contractors” don’t comply they can’t be allowed to work with the schools.</p>
<p>So it’s more than just Georgia. You are lucky you are finding all this out now - because it’s not well advertised to the public and it’s made it pretty darn hard to jump through hoops even if you’re a US citizen.</p>
<p>Yes, we had the same problem here in New England (daughter had a job one state over). She ended up having to come home on a school night, (we are within driving distance), get up at 6:00, go over to local high school, get buzzed in by the security guards, have the paperwork filled out by the bored secretary who got most of it wrong anyway, then drive a couple of hours back to boarding school. I never thought of using a friend as a stand in- that’s kind of brilliant.</p>
<p>OK, let me see if I understand here. Your local school board has to approve her work permit even though she is not a student in here charge. Does this apply to kids who go to a catholic school too - do they have to go before the local school board?</p>
<p>To me this does not make sense. </p>
<p>In my state, to get a driver license you have to have a signed statement from the principal of your school (on school letterhead) stating that you are a student in good standing (no licenses for drop outs) and a copy of your report card. I believe the work permit is handled simililarly, although I don’t have personal experience dealing with this. </p>
<p>You might want to check with your state labor department, but you may be barking up the wrong tree. Since the local school board has no business in your daughter’s education, I don’t see why it can be certifying her academic standing for a work permit. You should be able to get her certification (of academic standing) through your daughter’s boarding school.</p>
<p>Goaliedad- in our case, getting a work permit had nothing to do with academic standing. The local high school (in the state where the job was) had to issue the work permits for all of the kids working in that town, no matter what state they were from, or what school they went to. You should have seen how they spelled “Choate” LOL.</p>
<p>That’s correct. And no it doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.</p>
<p>So what exactly then is the purpose of the local (to the applicant) school board or school issuing work permits if academic standing isn’t even a criteria? <scratching my=“” head=“”></scratching></p>
<p>You could be working 2 counties over where they wouldn’t know the local principal’s signature from John Hancock’s.</p>
<p>I always thought a work permit (and driver license) were state issued documents (i.e. issued by a ‘state’ agency). <scratching head=“” some=“” more=“”></scratching></p>
<p>Honestly, I haven’t a clue. 'Just hoops to jump through, in our case. I will ask that question to the DOL manager when she calls back. Once something becomes law, it seems to be set in stone even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It sounds like she’s there to make sure the procedure runs so as to follow the child labor laws. The DOL manager said something about the laws being for the protection of the child with regard to age, hours worked, etc. An out-of-state entity doesn’t abide by the same state laws so legally they cannot attest to anything as it wouldn’t be legally binding. At least that’s what I got from her explanation of why d’s out-of-state boarding school couldn’t do it. And she didn’t seem to have a strong grasp on the rationale behind some of the particulars.</p>
<p>ETA-The work permit certification is done by the State Superintendent (Board of Ed.) or his/her designee, so I expect that if a private school in GA is somehow approved by the State Superintendent then they could become a certifying entity. I don’t know if private schools do that or if they just send their kids to the public school board for certification.</p>
<p>I think someone in the DOL is blowing smoke. </p>
<p>If you as a parent are responsible (by state law) for certifying that you are providing an education for your child, you either can show your local (or parochial) school records, the home-schooling certification your state issues you, or a document from an accredited school in any state (or foreign country for that matter). As long as that state or country that is accrediting the school is recognized by your state, they cannot say that the educational documents are not legally binding.</p>
<p>Now if the situation is that the school board actually issues work permits (seems backwards as I mentioned earlier), I can see why the state is under no requirement to certify any institution outside of its borders to issue it’s own certificates.</p>
<p>I understand the bit about “protecting the child”, but that is supposed to be from the unscrupulous employers, not their parents and the child’s school. <scratching head=“”></scratching></p>
<p>This is what we’re dealing with:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dol.state.ga.us/pdf/forms/dol4111.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dol.state.ga.us/pdf/forms/dol4111.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.dol.state.ga.us/pdf/forms/dol4113.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dol.state.ga.us/pdf/forms/dol4113.pdf</a> (Minor Instructions)
<a href=“http://www.dol.state.ga.us/pdf/forms/dol4114.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dol.state.ga.us/pdf/forms/dol4114.pdf</a> (Employer Instructions)
<a href=“http://www.dol.state.ga.us/pdf/forms/dol4115.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dol.state.ga.us/pdf/forms/dol4115.pdf</a> (Issuing Officer Instructions)</p>
<p>The authorized issuing officer is either the Superintendent of Schools or his/her designee or the Principal Administrative Officer of a licensed private school or his/her designee.</p>
<p>I don’t really know why the DOE is the certifying entity in GA, rather than the DOL. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but then again we have representatives here that think Guam will tip over. ;)</p>
<p>Yep, goaliedad,</p>
<p>Welcome to the new post 9/11 world. Some of the rules make NO SENSE and you don’t know they exist until you’re stuck in the middle of it - and out of town without the paddle. My dd moved halfway across the country and had to be certified by the school district in that town - even though they never met her. She was at a parochial school at the time so we had her “real” school and the local public school certify her and were told NO, it had to be the school district in the state and municipality where she was going to be living/working. I think I paid more in Fedex charges and notary fees than she made that summer. And luckily we drove her and her car there so she’d have it for the summer.</p>
<p>The good news is all of that stuff stops once they become a legal adult (18 I think). But she was 17 so we had to put up with the inane system. Luckily her employer was very patient.</p>
<p>I looked at the GA process and I agree that it is worth of a rant.</p>
<p>There are all kind of agencies that could take care of the function that the Board of Ed does. DMV comes to mind here. The fact that the permit is a plain piece of paper (no mention of a security paper involved) would make it an easy document to forge. Furthermore, any minor with a birth certificate in hand can get one. Nobody has to certify that the person presenting the certificate is in fact the person on the certificate. It would seem that a minor wouldn’t have to get parental permission to get a work permit. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if there is any protection of anyone except the bureaucrats involved employment IMHO.</p>
<p>Hopefully the state of GA doesn’t consider this document as a piece of identification.</p>
<p>Ugh!</p>
<p>It’s not just the state of Georgia. I wonder if the work permit rules vary that much by state? I was also surprised that a public school in another state that has no knowledge of my child was in charge of administering work permits.</p>
<p>Agreed - it appears to be every state not just Georgia. If the person asking for employment is under 17, the law specifies that the school district has to sign off on the paperwork - even if the child isn’t a regular resident of that state.</p>
<p>It’s pretty sad example of our government at work.</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t have a problem with a school authorizing a work permit (or a driver license for that matter). A child should not be working if his/her grades are suffering and the only institution that knows whether that is the case is the child’s school (whether or not it is in the state in question). </p>
<p>Work permits should be automatic - register and download the form. Signed by the parent, child, and school representative (notarized for all signatures) to certify that the parent agrees that the child is allowed to work, the child is not educationally deprived by working and the child accepts responsibility to keep the academic standing. It should be processed verified every term - a matching signature from both parent and school should be adequate as the original has the signatures to match. Copies of all forms filed with state. If the state doesn’t recognize the signature (boarding school) a quick call can verify.</p>
<p>Employer(s) should be required to keep a copy on file and report weekly hours each term to ensure compliance with limits. If a child works too many hours at one employer, they should be fined. If a child works too many hours at multiple employers, their permit should be revoked for a term.</p>
<p>Not to difficult to administer. No need to meet with the board of education.</p>
<p>Goaliedad.</p>
<p>it is very clear that you cant work for a governmental agency, you make way too much sense.</p>
<p>My d wont make 15 until the end of summer…so I guess I dont have to worry about this for another 2 years—its crazy.</p>
<p>An update: After going up 3 levels at the GA DOL, the person I spoke with is actually consulting with their legal department to see what might be done. She called to let me know that they were still working on it, so I do have a little bit of hope that they may come up with something. They’re looking into whether an out-of-state school could become an issuing agent. I’m hoping they also consider allowing a proxy (i.e. the minor’s parent/guardian) to complete the process. To me, that seems easier. We shall see. If we make any progress, I’ll let you know.</p>