FLSA Compliance 101: How FAQs Can Save Your District from Headaches and Legal Trouble

Stay compliant, avoid overtime missteps, and safeguard your payroll system.

Why FLSA compliance needs an FAQ (and why it’s worth your time).

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) compliance can feel like an intimidating maze of legal jargon, especially for K-12 schools with their unique staff structures — think substitutes, extracurricular roles, and hourly employees. But a well-crafted FAQ is your best defense against confusion and costly mistakes. It’s your district’s cheat sheet for understanding FLSA rules, ensuring everyone — from HR to teachers to coaches and staff with extra duty — knows exactly where they stand when it comes to overtime, classifications, and recordkeeping. For K-12 districts, FLSA isn’t optional; it’s required by federal law. With a clear FAQ in place, your district can avoid legal trouble and stay on the same page, keeping staff paid fairly and your records in check.

How is FLSA unique to K-12?

At first glance, FLSA seems like a set of rules for corporate America, but schools must follow the same basic rules: pay at least minimum wage, offer overtime pay when required, and keep detailed records of employee hours and wages. But in the school setting, things get trickier.

Teachers, substitutes, coaches, aides, and everyone in between all have different roles, pay structures, and classifications. So, making sure you're applying FLSA rules correctly means getting into the specifics of each job type, and that’s where an FAQ comes in handy. Having a clear FAQ helps ensure all employees are properly classified as either exempt or non-exempt and are paid accordingly.

Exempt vs. non-exempt: That is the question.

One of the trickiest parts of FLSA compliance is determining whether an employee is exempt from overtime or not. Employees who are exempt from overtime (meaning they don’t get extra pay for working over 40 hours in a week) must meet three criteria:

1. Salary basis: Employees must be paid a set salary, regardless of how many hours they work.
2. Salary level: Employees must meet a certain threshold — the specific amount is based on the U.S. Dept. of Labor threshold. 
3. Duties test: Job duties must fall into executive, administrative, or professional categories.

For K-12, teachers are typically exempt, but other staff, like coaches or extracurricular workers, may not be. That’s why your FAQ should clearly lay out who is exempt and who is non-exempt based on their specific job duties.

Coaches and extracurricular staff: Are they exempt or not?

Whether coaches and extracurricular staff are exempt from overtime depends on their job duties and compensation. If their primary responsibility is teaching or instructing students, they may qualify for the teacher exemption. It’s all about outlining your three criteria correctly to determine the proper classification.

Your FAQ should offer clear guidance on the duties that qualify someone for exemption and outline how schools can classify staff properly.

Overtime for non-exempt employees: Get it right.

Non-exempt employees (those who don’t meet the FLSA exemption criteria) must be paid time and a half for overtime hours worked over 40 in a week. Seems simple enough, right? But a lot of schools get tripped up on how overtime is approved, tracked, and paid. Without clear policies, employees might end up working overtime without prior approval, which leads to unexpected costs.

Your FAQ should outline precisely how overtime should be handled — whether employees need to get pre-approval for extra hours, how those hours should be tracked, and how to calculate the overtime pay. This helps keep everyone on the same page and prevents surprises when payroll rolls around.

Recordkeeping: Keep things on track.

Under the FLSA, schools are required to keep detailed records of each employee’s hours worked, pay, and overtime (for non-exempt workers). If your district is ever audited or faces a wage and hour complaint, you’ll need to show that you're keeping accurate records of all employees' hours worked and wages paid.

Your FAQ should make it clear what exactly needs to be documented — like total hours worked, wage rates, and overtime — and for how long those records must be kept (at least three years). The more transparent you are with recordkeeping policies, the easier it is to stay out of legal trouble.

Annualized pay for hourly employees: compliance with a twist

If your district distributes an hourly employee’s pay over the course of a year (annualized pay), you need to be especially careful. The FLSA requires that an hourly employee’s pay must meet or exceed minimum wage for all hours worked — and overtime should be calculated based on actual hours worked, not averaged over the year.

For districts offering annualized pay, your FAQ should clarify how this process works and what steps need to be taken to ensure compliance with FLSA requirements for hourly employees.

Ensuring compliance: Here’s your action plan.

So, how do you actually make sure your district stays compliant? 

• Review job classifications regularly: Make sure every employee is classified correctly based on their duties.
• Set clear overtime policies: Require employees to get approval for overtime hours, and track all extra time worked.
• Train your staff: Make sure your HR team, supervisors, and payroll staff understand FLSA rules and how to apply them.
• Keep detailed records: Document everything, from hours worked to deductions, to ensure you're always prepared for an audit.

FLSA compliance: It’s more than just a checkbox — it’s your district’s safety net.

At the end of the day, having an FAQ for FLSA compliance isn’t just about ticking a box. It’s about ensuring your staff are paid fairly, creating a transparent workplace, and keeping your district out of legal hot water. Clear policies don’t just prevent costly mistakes — they build trust, protect your employees, and safeguard your district’s bottom line.

Ready to make real progress in human capital management? Red Rover can help you do just that. From employee absence management to substitute scheduling and time tracking, our solutions empower HR leaders to manage mission-critical, high-volume activities with ease. Plus, our tools are continuously refined to meet your district’s evolving needs — all within a seamless, natively integrated experience. Interested in learning more? Let’s schedule a time to chat!