Report Urges Federal Limit on Hours Students Can Work

By Mary Ann Zehr

Washington

Congress should give the Department of Labor the authority to limit the number of hours children under 18 can work during the school year, a committee of child-labor experts recommended in a report released last week.

Young people who work long hours during the school year are more likely to let their grades slide and get involved in alcohol and drug abuse, according to the report Protecting Youth at Work: Health, Safety, and Development of Working Children and Adolescents in the United States .

The 318-page report was a joint effort of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, two nonprofit groups under congressional charter to study science,...