Homeschool and Work Permits

Anyone younger than 18 who has not graduated from high school is required by California laws to obtain a work permit upon employment. These laws are very poorly enforced, and your kid may get a job and find that his employer does not ask him to get a work permit. On the other hand, it may be necessary to get one.

If you're part of a public school program, the school or program will provide work permits.

If you're participating in a private ISP, the school or program may have received permission from the public school district in which it operates to issue work permits.

If you've filed an R-4, you can do on your own anything any other school can do—except issue work permits. The California Education Code (Sections 49110 and 49110.1) gives the primary responsibility for the issuance of work permits to the superintendents of public school districts or, in some cases, to county superintendents. When a student in a private school needs a work permit, she must get it from the public school district in which she lives (usually from a work experience coordinator who has been designated by the superintendent) or from her private school if the public school superintendent has authorized the private school to issue work permits. I have a copy of a letter from Jose Millan, Assistant State Labor Commissioner, in which he writes, "The law does not require that the minor be a pupil registered with the local district or even that the minor be living with a parent who is a resident of that district. The minor merely has to be living within the boundaries of any school district (even if only for a vacation), and the superintendent is authorized to issue the required work permit."

If you want to read the law yourself, you can find it at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html. Mark "Education Code," scroll down, and click "Search" without entering any other information. After the entire Code has downloaded, scroll down and click the appropriate section numbers to get Sections 49110 and 49110.1. You can also read the law at a public law library somewhere in your county, probably at the county seat and possibly elsewhere; a librarian at your local public library can tell you where it is.

When you request a work permit from a school district, you'll be expected to provide some basic information about the schooling situation of the person who's applying for the permit. It may be enough to write a note on letterhead paper that reads, "John Doe is a full-time student in good standing at Sunshine High School. He has found a job and needs a work permit. We are requesting that you issue one for him." The work permit may be issued without any problem.

If there is a problem, it may result simply from school officials not knowing the full scope of their responsibility. Show them the excerpt from the letter from Mr. Millan and/or the Education Code sections cited above. If they still balk, contact the Labor Commissioner's office in a major city for a confirmation of what the law says. Locations are listed at http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/DistrictOffices.htm; the San Francisco office is at (415) 703-5300.