My friend has a probem

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My friend was suspended from school becuase she didn't want to work at this place called Rise. Her Case manger was forcing her to work there and she hated it, and the last time she said she doesn't want to work there they suspended, for a whole month! Really a month. She didn't even do anything. The reason she didn't want to work there was becuase, they only pay, $.25 an hour. One of her checks was $2.00, after working there for two weeks. That is such a rip off! What is she going to do with $2.00? When she told me that she was suspended in a message that she left on the answering I was so angry, that I am glad I didn't take to her face to face. I said, f*****g teachers, After I listed to the message. And my boyfriend was there and he was like, what happened, becuase I NEVER talk like that.

What country is this? America??

Is she a waitress or something? Most waitresses make about 2 dollars to 4 dollars an hour. Still criminal, but 25 cents an hour? Is this Mexico?

No it's in Minnesota. And no shes not a waitresses.

So what kind of school is this? How do they have jurisdiction over who works where?

It's a special ed school for adults 18 to 21. And I have no idea. We tryed finding someone to get her a different case manger but the person we found went with her case manger, and her parents are another story altogether.

I think you need to find out what's really going on.

Example: years ago, my boss was on the board of directors for a place which gave special ed to adults. They are forever trying to teach people skills that can get them a job. They thought up a project - putting filaments in light bulbs. They went further and tried to make the place look like a workplace, and they even created a "payday" where students were paid something very very small - only a token payday, really. But they hoped it would give their people an idea of how the world works. The participants were not actually producing anything that anybody would buy. The project was hoping to teach them over a year.

Except some parents came stomping in with protests about minimum wage. The project got cancelled for lack of funds to pay minimum wage.

So when I see somebody getting paid 25 cents an hour, I'd be inclined to phone that place and ask them. Or email them. Just tell them the truth, you're a friend on-line and you're "wondering" about this 25 cents business.

My 2 cents worth.

Well. . . can you afford two cents, given the wages these days?

Yes, absolutely, inquire into the nature of the program. If it passes legal checks, encourage your friend to insist on full-wage employment with regular accommodation. There is no reason that persons with ASD's can't work a number of jobs, provided the legally provided "reasonable accommodations" are made. It would behoove the caseworker to determine/make arrangements with regular employers, rather than forcing the client into debilitating and economically impractical situations.

That's not what I meant. The people in the program that I knew about would take about a year to learn how to place a filament in a light bulb. These people were not AS, come to think of it. They were terribly slow learners. The "work" they were doing was not productive, except in the hope that someday they might develop some sort of skill at something. And their relatives demanded minimum wage. Which was not appropriate.

You don't tell a professor to pay you wages to learn, do you?

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that it might be good to find out if this is a learning program. If it is, students don't usually get paid, as far as I know.

The teacher say that it is to help you learn, but most of the people at my school that work there hate it. And then there are other people that work there that are way older. Oh and my friend does not know what her disabilly is and her teacher will not give her, her IEP.

My friends says her teachers keeps calling her and buggering her about Rise. She was very angry about it.

sounds like one of those special ed work programs where they try and get you to work for less than minimum wage. they usually target high school kids with an IEP, or high school graduates who had an IEP. Really if you have already graduated ignore anyone trying to get you to join these programs for work training just move on to a community college and take business classes. The main reasons I didn't join mine was because they wanted to stay my high school diploma until i completed their program(a point that turned out to be irrelevant) and the less than minimum wage crap.

We have to go to this school Transition Plus until we are 21, other wise with have to pay to do anymore school. And I think that it is illegal what the teacher is doing.

yeah thats what they called it the one they wanted me to go to was called rainbows.

The only reason me and my friend are going is becuase we were forced to.

is it this?:
http://transplus.mpls.k12.mn.us/

if it is i'll see what I can dig up, because even though I don't know much about US law, I have a hunch that there may be some BS under there somewhere...

in any case it'll be helpful to know what exactly you do at that Rise place and get paid a measly wager for.

minimum wage in Minnesota is $7.25 per hour, however: Small employers, whose annual sales are less than $500,000 and who do not engage in interstate commerce, can pay their employees $5.25 per hour.

i'm currently looking this case, whether there's some dispensation for special ed programs like yours. However, I haven't been able to find much about Rise yet, so bear with me

EDIT:
Try to ask the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry about whether or not your program and workplace have some sort of special dispensation, because I can not find a thing about it. If anyone should know, they should know

No that is in MPLS we don't live in MPLS, we live in Coon Rapids.


It this one.

http://www.anoka.k12.mn.us/education/de ... onid=13683