http://www.regulations.gov/#%21documentDetail;D=WHD-2011-0001-0001
Hard to shake the feeling that this is motivated by anti state’s rights agenda.
Excerpt:
Under the exemption, the application of the child labor provisions to agricultural employment varied greatly from state to state depending upon the particular school attendance requirements of each state law. Some states actually amended their school attendance requirements to accommodate the staffing needs of agricultural employers. Other state statutes declared employment in agriculture, in and of itself, a valid excuse for nonattendance of school. In those states, the child labor provisions of the FLSA gave no protection whatsoever to children engaged in such work. In other states, school officials had such wide discretionary powers to excuse children from school that these officials, in practice, determined the extent of the application and effectiveness of the Federal child labor provisions. Other state school-attendance laws were applied only to the children of parents who were legal residents of the state. In those states, there was no minimum age for the employment of children of migrant workers in agriculture.
Emphasis added by me, but there’s a whole lot of “how dare the states do that” behind this paragraph.
