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NEW JERSEY.

The original law of 1875 was susperseded in 1885 by one of which the following is an abstract:

Every parent or other person having charge of any child between seven and twelve years of age must send it to a public day school for twenty weeks each year, eight of which must be consecutive, unless such child has been excused by the school board on account of its bodily or mental condition or has been instructed elsewhere. Every parent or other person having charge of any child between twelve and sixteen years of age who has been discharged from employment in order that it might receive instruction at school must send it to school for the period for which it was discharged. Any person not complying with these requirements becomes liable to a fine of not less than ten dollars for the first offense, nor more than twenty-five dollars for each subsequent offense, or to imprisonment from one to three months. No child under fifteen may be employed by any person or company unless it has attended school for twelve weeks during the preceding twelve months, nor unless such child or the person having charge of it has complied with the act limiting the hours of labor of children. All children between the ages of seven and fifteen who habitually wander about the streets, having no lawful occupation, or who are incorrigible while attending school, are to be deemed juvenile disorderly persons. One or more members of the police force in cities, and in other places constables, are appointed truant officers to enforce this act. Any child that can not be made to attend school by its parent or the person having charge of it may be sent to a juvenile reformatory, unless said child is under nine years of age. Two weeks' attendance at an evening school is to be regarded as equivalent to one week's attendance at a day school.

It does not appear that this law has ever been enforced. In the cities it is practically a dead letter, and must continue to be so until the cities build schoolhouses to accommodate their increasing populations.1

City Superintendent Wm. Barringer, of Newark, says2 (1889) of the compulsory school law: "We are now enforcing this law with excellent success. A complete set of books and blanks have been prepared for use by superintendent, principals, and truant officers. A large number of cases of truancy and street vagrancy have been dealt with. Most of them are now in regular attendance at school. A number of them were sent to the city home at Verona. The law has also been enforced in the evening schools with gratitying results. I am satisfied that two or three years' persistent effort will practically remove truancy and vagrancy from our city. The employment of children under age in our factories and shops is also receiving careful attention."

WYOMING,

Compulsory education was nominally provided for in Wyoming as early as 1876, when the attendance of all children between the ages of seven and twenty years was made obligatory for at least three months of each year. Any parent, etc., having children in charge between the ages of seven and sixteen years not complying with this obligation was liable to a fine of twenty-five dollars for each offense. In the revision of 1887 the law provides in brief as follows:

It is made the duty of all parents and other persons having children under their control between the ages of six and twenty-one to send them to school three months each year, unless excused by the district board for special reasons. Any parent or other person having control of any child between seven and sixteen years of age who shall fail to comply with this requirement may be punished by a fine not exceeding twenty-five dollars for each offense, and it is ma le the duty of sheriff's and constables to report the names of all children found loitering about the streets and thoroughfares, and complaint shall be made against them by the county superintendent of schools before some justice of the peace.

"When this law was first passed," writes Territorial Superintendent John Slaughter (January 30, 1890), “a strong effort was made in Cheyenne and in some other towns to enforce it. At present it seems to be almost (if not quite) a dead letter.

"The law does not seem to be applicable to the rural districts, mainly on account of their large size, many of them being from ten to fifty miles long, and nearly as wide. No general effort was ever made in the country to enforce the law.

"I am uncompromisingly in favor of compulsory education.”

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A compulsory education law was enacted in Ohio in 1877. The original bill "to secure to children the benefits of an elementary education" was so amended during its passage through the legislature "as to render the act virtually inoperative." A portion was stricken out, so as to leave no provision for the prosecution of any offense. The clerk of any board of education was supposed to enforce the law, but he could do nothing except when a written notice was served by some member of the board or some person who felt aggrieved, "and then he may do all he can, which is simply nothing."

IN. J. Sch. Rep.. 1887, p. 35.
2 Ibid., 1889, p. 109.

Rep. Com. Ed., 1877, p. 296.

4Ohio Sch. Rep., 1877, p. 104.

This law remained on the statute book until 1889, when a more complete law was passed, which, as amended in 1890, is in substance as follows:

Every parent or other person having control of any child between eight and fourteen years of age must send it to school for twenty weeks each year in city districts, and for sixteen weeks in special, village, and township districts, unless excused on account of the physical or mental condition of such child or because it has been instructed at home. All parents or other persons having control of children between eight and sixteen years of age not engaged in any regular employment are required to send them to school during the full term it is continued. Any parent or other person failing to comply with these requirements is liable to be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than twenty dollars. But if the parent or other person is unable to cause the child or children to attend school, they may be sent to the juvenile reformatory. No person or company is to employ any child under fourteen who has not attended school as required, or has not completed the usual primary and grammar grades; a fine of fifty dollars is imposed for any violation of this provision. All children over fourteen and under sixteen who can not read and write must attend school one-half of each day, or an evening school, or be instructed privately until he or she shall be able to read and write; any person or company employing such a child, who is not receiving the instruction required, is made liable to a fine of fifty dollars, unless provi sion has been made for its instruction. Every parent or other person having control of any child under sixteen who has been discharged from business in order to receive instruction must send such child to school until it becomes able to read and write, or be liable to fine or imprisonment. Truant officers are required to be appointed to enforce the above provisions.

Comments on the law.-Referring to this law, Hon. John Hancock, State school commissioner, writes (January 30, 1890): “It has gone into operation so recently that I am unable to speak with definiteness as to results. I can say, however, that we have favorable reports of its workings from all parts of the State. Of course the greatest benefits to be derived from the execution of the law will be in the cities and towns, especially those largely engaged in manufacturing. But I see no reason why the law should not work equally well in the country districts. We deem the enactment of the law a great step in educational progress in our State." An inquiry as to resuls and defects.-The following circular to school superintendents of cities and towns of Ohio was sent out by the State school commissioner May 29, 1890:

GENTLEMEN: As you are fully aware, the compulsory-education law is one of the highest moment to our people. I am therefore anxious to learn with some definiteness how it is working in the different sections of the State. I shall be greatly obliged to you, then, if you will give me information on the following points:

1. What have been the results of the enforcement of the law in your own field of labor?

2. What is the feeling of the community towards the law?

3. If any opposition has manifested itself against the law, what is the source of that opposition?

4. In the execution of the law, what weaknesses, if any, have been developed?

5. What remedies for these weaknesses can you suggest?

Any information or suggestions not called for by the above questions will be thankfully received. Very respectfully, yours,

JOHN HANCOCK,
Commissioner.

The answers to this inquiry are thus summed up by Mr. Hancock:1 "To this circular answers were returned from ninety-four superintendents, one clerk of a board of education, and one truant officer. In thirteen of the ninety-six localities represented, it was reported that no action to carry out the law had been taken by their respective boards of education.

1. Of the eighty-three localities distributed throughout the State wherein the boards of education have taken action by the appointment of a truant oflicer, it was reported from fifty-seven that the enforcement of the law was satisfactory-in most the statement was made in very strong terms; from six that the results were but partially satisfactory; from seven that they were so happily situated as not to requir the intervention of a compulsory law, as all youth of the proper age were already in school; from two that the results were unsatisfactory; and by the remainder no auswer was given to this question. In the two districts reporting unsatisfactory results, the fault was not attributed to the law itself, but to the way in which it was attempted to be enforced. Of the localities reporting satisfactory results, it is stated that there has been a considerable increase in the school attendance-in some, that everybody due at school had been brought in; that the attendance had been more regular; aud in many places that the law had caused the establishment of night schools, an important addition to the educational facilities afforded by a town.

"2. Of the answers made to the second question, seventy-five report their communities favorable to the law, one unfavorable, and seven as not having formed any opinion. Such a unanimity in favor of a law touching so many persons in its provisions is exceedingly rare. It indicates on the part of the people a deep-seated determination that hereafter no child in Ohio shall grow up without receiving a fair common-school education. "3. In answer to the third question, thirty-two localities report that there was no

'Ohio Sch. Rep., 1889-90, pp. 8-13.

opposition to the law from any quarter. What opposition there was in other places is variously stated as coming from the lawless and criminal classes; from the idle and shiftless; from those who take no interest in the education of their children, or care nothing for them but to get work out of them; and, of course, from those who have felt the penalties of the law. Besides these, there have been complaints from a few localities that the enforcement of the law costs too much, and particularly that the trouble and expense sending a boy to the reformatory are too great. Again, it is asserted that some opposition to the law has been aroused by the lack of wisdom shown by some of the truant officers in enforcing the law, though, as a rule, these officers have shown themselves intelligent, prudent, and faithful in the discharge of their delicate and difficult duties. In one or two instances objection to the law has come from the authorities of parochial schools, though in most cases, so far as my knowledge extends, these authorities have yielded assent to the law, and have availed themselves of its provisions to gather in from the street the truants belonging to their schools. That the law is liberal towards this class of schools can not be successfully denied. It makes no attempt to force any man's conscience. If the child is only in school, whether it be in a public, a parochial, or a private school, the law is satisfied. It declares no preference between classes of schools. It says the child must be educated; where it shall be educated is left to the free election of the parent.

"Some manufacturers have opposed the law because to be compelled to substitute the labor of adults or of older youth for that of children under fourteen enhances the cost of their wares, and thus, as they put it, takes money out of their pockets by bringing them in direct competition with goods produced in States that have no such restrictive law. But it must be said that such objectors among the employers of youth are few, and that the great body of them acknowledge the wisdom of the law and cheerfully comply with its requirements.

"4. When the answers to this question were written, it is evident that most of the superintendents had not had an opportunity of seeing the amendments made to the law last winter. Among the weaknesses of the law named by a large number of the writers, are (1) that the age of fourteen is too low a limit for school attendance; and (2) that children of the ages named in the law should be compelled to go to school the whole time the schools are in session instead of a part of it, particularly where they are not engaged in some regular employment. These two weaknesses, however, have been removed substantially by amendments. That amendment which enforces attendance for the whole time the schools are in session, upon all youth between ages of eight and sixteen years not engaged in some regular employment, is a noble measure, scarcely less beneficent than the original law itself.

"Other weaknesses noted in the reports are: (1) The general objection that the law in many points is too indefinite in its terms, in consequence leaving school authorities in doubt as to their duties; and, more specifically, (2) that truancy is not defined with adequate distinctness; (3) that it is not made sufficiently certain whose duty it is to provide decent clothing for the children whose parents are unable to do so; (4) uncertainty as to who is to pay costs of suit; (5) a like uncertainty as to whose duty it is to bring suit to recover the fines imposed for neglect of duty under section 13 of the act; (6) no compulsory law for feeble-minded children; (7) the act seems to conflict with the law for suspension and expulsion of pupils from school; (8) that in village districts the truant officer is required to report to the clerk of the board of education instead of to the superintendent of schools.

"5. In answer to the fifth question the following suggestions have been offered: (1) That the duties of prosecuting attorneys in connection with the law shall be more clearly defined; (2) that as the parents prosecuted under the law are generally persons from whom a fine can not be collected, process against habitual truants should in all cases be against the child and not the parents [probably this is the intent of the law as it now stards]; (3) the law should provide for a fund for the relief of indigent children; (4) the relief of this class of children should be imposed on boards of education instead of on township trustees; (6) truant officers should be empowered to arrest on sight truants loitering about the streets during school hours.

"The information presented above comes from cities, towns, and villages. In the township districts the execution of the law has been far from universal. The boards of education from a large portion of these districts have been slow to act, though a severe penalty is imposed for a failure to do so. While it is true that the cities and towns will, from the nature of things, derive the greatest benefit from the law, still in almost every subdistrict will be found parents greatly indifferent to the education of their children, and who will need the coercion of the law to bring them to a realizing sense of their duty. I would therefore recommend that the duty of bringing action to recover the fines imposed under section 13 of the law be especially placed upon the prosecuting attorney of the county. This would compel all parties to whom the law assigns duties

to be performed to act, and the enforcement of the law would soon become universal. The execution of the act in the large cities has been impaired to a considerable extent by the fact that in none of them has more than one truant officer been appointed. However, as the beneficial effects of the law shall more and more reveal themselves, we may expect boards to adopt a more and more liberal policy on this point.

Knowing that Cleveland has maintained for some years separate schools for special classes of pupils, I addressed a letter of inquiry to Hon. L. W. Day, superintendent of the schools of that city, as to the workings of these separate schools. I here insert his answer, believing it may prove suggestive to boards of education in other cities in connection with the compulsory law. He says:

For a number of years we have maintained three separate schools-requiring the services of five teachers-known as "ungraded schools," or "boys' schools," as they are now officially termed, To these schools we have assigned pupils whose presence in the regular schoolroom proved unnecessarily disorganizing, or who on account of truancy, offensive personal habits, persistent defiance of authority, etc., require an undue amount of attention. These schools are taught by gentlemen who are supposed to be strong disciplinarians, as well as excellent teachers. The course of study is the same as that pursued in the regular schools, and the general rules and regulations of the schools apply to their management. Corporal punishment is allowed in these schools, but not elsewhere.

The enforcement of the compulsory law brings in many neglected children-waifs without friends or homes, or belonging to homes that are worse than none. For such pupils-pupils who need to go through a sort of cleansing and toning process-these schools are just the thing. Boys familiar with the street and its ways feel better in a school for boys than they would in a school composed of both sexes; at least it is better that many of these should be thus assigned.

We are making a vigorous push in the enforcement of the law, but with only one truant officer many cases slip through our fingers.

We have but little trouble in enforcing the law so far as the pupils of the public schools are concerned, but there are many who enter no school whom we find it difficult to reach. We are endeavoring to arrange matters so that we shall have the coöperation and active aid of the police of the city. With this help we shall soon make it unsafe for pupils in the street during school hours. We have established no special schools in consequence of the compulsory law, but as occasion requires we make excellent use of the schools referred to above.

"In my visits to institutes, to county teachers' associations, and to other educational meetings, I have taken occasion to call attention to the importance of this law, and to explain its provisions and the proper methods of procedure under it to the best of my ability. All the information as to public feeling I could gather at these meetings, as well as by conversation with prominent citizens in the various callings of life, has been in entire harmony with the written statements of the superintendents of schools in reply to the questions propounded in my circular.

"Considering, then, that the law was new to all to whom its enforcement was committed, and that some of its provisions were not altogether plain, as well as the further facts that the law was to go into effect in the middle of the school year (which proved a great embarrassment in its execution), and that the schools had been working under it but half a year, the favorable results obtained are full of encouragement for the future, when the principle of enforced attendance will be applied under the law greatly strengthened and improved in other respects than those already named, and by officers of larger experience. If public sentiment shall in the future stand as firmly for the law as it now does, we have a right to expect that in the course of two or three years nearly all the friction now incident to its enforcement will have disappeared, and that we shall gather the full fruits of its wise provisions."

DAKOTA.

The Dakota law, first enacted in 1883 and amended in 1887, contains the following provisions:1

Every parent or other person having control of any child between the ages of ten and fourteen years is required to send such child to a public school twelve weeks in each year, six of which shall be consecutive, unless such child be excused on account of bodily or mental infirmity, or has been instructed elsewhere, or has already completed the public-school branches. The director of the subdistrict is instructed to ascertain if there are any children not attending school as required; and, if so, he must direct that they be sent to school. If such children are not then sent to school he is to make complaint before some justice of the peace, and the parent or person having them in charge is liable to a fine of not less than ten dollars nor more than twenty-five dollars. If the director fall to make such complaint, he becomes liable to the same penalty as that provided for the parent or person having the child in charge.

The Territorial board, in their report for 1888, called attention to the fact that the proportion of school children enrolled had fallen off during the year from 83 to 81 per cent.; and they go on to state: "This means that a smaller per cent. of the children of the Territory are enrolled in the public schools, and, taken in connection with the fact that we

This law will probably be revised in the new school laws of the States of North and South Da⚫ kota.

have a compulsory clause in our school law, it is all the more remarkable. The conclusion is not, however, that the compulsory law is entirely a dead letter. We know of some cases it has reached quite effectively; but, as a rule, the compulsory clause is not enforced. But the above statements show that, while a smaller proportion of the children attend our schools, those who are enrolled attend more regularly, there having been a gain of 1 per cent. in this regard over 1887. It does seem that more than 81 per cent. of the children of the school age ought to be brought into the schools. The compulsory education clause has certainly not accomplished all that its supporters expected of it. If the State must support schools, it certainly has the right to compel attendance. It is a very common error among the people that schools are supported for the benefit of individuals, and that an education is of advantage to the child or parent only, and that it is no business of the State if the child, or his parents for him, decline to accept the school advantages offered. This is not only absurd, but wrong. The whole idea of the public school is compulsory. A system that would simply permit the establishment and maintenance of a school would be no system at all. The State has the right to compel the support of schools, and the further right to compel attendance. * *

"We would respectfully advise that our compulsory clause be not only retained but be made more effective. In its present shape it is too cumbersome, and burdened with too many qualifications, and is too difficult of application. We are convinced that the compulsory age should be extended from ten to fourteen years-to seven to fifteen years, and the term of attendance extended from twelve to sixteen weeks per year. The only excuse for nonattendance should be bodily or mental infirmity, attendance at some private school for the same length of time, or too great a distance from the nearest schoolhouse. Local school officers who receive no compensation should not be charged with the execution of the law. Such a provision, if enforced, would be a most fertile source of neighborhood quarrels, of which the number is large enough. This regulation is a police regulation, and there should be some officers in each county required to execute the law. If the compulsory law were properly amended, there are many indications that it could be used to bring many of the delinquent children into the schools."

MONTANA.

The Montana law, enacted in 1833, is virtually identical with the Kansas law of 1874, already given on page 503. The only change calling for notice is the introduction in the second section of the alternative penalty of thirty days' imprisonment in the county jail for the second and each subsequent offense on the part of parents, etc.

With reference to this law State Superintendent John Gannon writes (February 1, 1890): "It stands to-day a deal letter upon the statute book. There has not been a single conviction under it to my knowledge; and as to its efficiency in rural districts, as compared with cities, would state that it has never been enforced in either."

MINNESOTA.

Minnesota a lopted compulsory education in 1985. A law was enacted that year which also is a literal transcript of the present Kansas law (of 1374), given on page 503, except that the compulsory age is made eight to sixteen instead of eight to fourteen, and the penalties imposed on parents and guardians for noncompliance are ten to twenty-five dollars for the first offense, and twenty-five to fifty dollars for each subsequent offense, instead of as in the Kansas la w.

The following statement made in 1986 by State Superintendent Kiehle regarding the enforcement of this law he says is practically true to-day (10):

"I am not able to report any substantial aid gained from the law on compulsory education. Several superintendents h we undertaken to enforce it, but the results have not been permanent. The reasons of failure have been:

"1. Defects in the law. It very properly allows children to be educated in other than the public schools, yet leaves the con lítions so indefinite that there is not the least guaranty that the children are receiving the equivalent of a common school education. Whatever else is required, every school which is to be recognized by the law should certify that it is conducted in the English language, and that instruction is given in the branches of a common school education, viz: reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and the geography and history of the United States.

2. The difficulty inherent in this method of improving the people. The more children there are in any given district who do not attend school, the more probable it is that no one in the district will take the trouble, or endure the odium necessary to the enforcement of the law. There should be a truant officer in the city, and a constable in the country, whose duty it would be to attend to the enforcement of the law."

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