August 9, 2016
Fair Labor Standards Act Impacts on Cooperative Extension - Week 2
Today my goal is to encourage you to review the position description for an Extension agent. I will provide some thoughts and guidance on the question, “are Extension agents instructors/educators/teachers?”
As was shown last week in my message, the Kansas Extension Law is very specific with respect to the responsibilities of an extension council or extension district. From K.S.A. 2-608: “If a county extension council has been organized as specified in K.S.A. 2‑611 and amendments thereto or an extension district has been established under K.S.A. 2‑623 and amendments thereto, for the purpose of giving instruction in agriculture, marketing, home economics, 4‑H club and youth work, community and resource development, and economic development initiatives to the people of the county or extension district, as the case may be, through practical demonstrations, meetings, publications, and otherwise, and the employment of an extension agent or agents to prosecute such instructions, the Kansas State University of Agriculture and Applied Science shall contribute from federal and state funds granted for cooperative extension work an amount of not less than $l,500, as far as such funds are available, towards the salary of each extension agent employed.”
While some of the language is out of date within that statute, the message is very clear with the intent of employing an extension agent or agents to provide instruction, in essence to be an educator. The FLSA is clear, however, to require review of the position description and the actual work of the professionals in determining exemption status.
In our review, we reorganized the information within the position description for extension agents to bring together all job responsibilities as an educator. You can find that reorganized position description on the Employment/Employee Relations website, and you can download it directly by clicking this link.
When reorganized, all points made under number 1 of the job responsibilities would constitute the role as an educator. Cooperative Extension Services throughout the U.S. have largely embraced the primary duty of Extension agents/educators to be that of a teacher, based upon the position descriptions and the common work of Extension agents/educators in carrying out their responsibilities. As employees within the land-grant University system, that determination falls under the higher education “bona fide teacher” exemption.