USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Norwood > Norwood annual report 1895-1899 > Part 44
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SECTION 6. Every city of fifty thousand or more inhabitants shall maintain annually an evening high school, in which shall be taught such subjects as the school committee thereof deem expedient, whenever fifty or more residents fourteen years of age or over who are competent in the opinion of the school committee to pursue high school studies shall peti- tion in writing for an evening high school, and certify that they desire to attend such school. The committee shall determine the number of weeks in cach year and the hours of the evening during which such schools shall be kept.
SECTION 7. Every child shall have the right to attend the public schools in the town or city in which his parent or guardian has a legal residence, or in which the child himself actually resides, subject to such reasonable regulations as to the numbers and qualifications of pupils to be admitted to the respective schools, and as to other school matters, as the school committee shall from time to time prescribe. No child shall be excluded from a public school of any town or city on account of race, color or religion.
SECTION S. When a child for the sole purpose of attending school there resides in a town or city other than that of the legal residence of his parent or guardian, the parent or guardian of such child shall be liable to pay said town or city for the tuition of such child while attending school in said town or city a sum equal to the average expense of such school per pupil during the year next preceding, for a period equal to the time during which the child so attends, unless the town or city where the parent or guardian resides is required by section three of this act to pay for said tuition. For the tuition in the public schools in any town or city of any child between the ages of five and fifteen years who shall be placed elsewhere than in his own home by the state board of lunacy and charity, or by the trustees of the Lyman and industrial schools, or kept under the control of either of said boards in said town or city, the Commonwealth shall pay to said town or city, and for such tuition of any such child so placed by the trustecs for children of the city of Boston, or 60 kept under the control of said trustees, the city of Boston from its appro- priation for school purposes shall pay to said town or city the sum of fifty cents for each week of five.days, or major part thereof, of attendance of every such child in the public schools. For the transportation to and from a public school of any child whose tuition is payable by the Com- monwealth or by the city of Boston under the provisions of this section the Commonwealth or the city of Boston, as the case may be, shall pay to the town or city furnishing such transportation, for each week of five days or major part thereof, a sum equal to the average amount per child paid by said town or city per week for the transportation of children to
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and from school over the route by which such child is conveyed. Settle- ments of the accounts of the several towns and cities with the Common- wealth and with the city of Boston under this act shall be made annually on the first day of April, and the amounts found due shall be paid within three months thereafter. The money received by said towns and cities under the provisions of this section shall be applied to the support of schools. For the tuition in the public schools in any town of less than ten thousand inhabitants of any child between the ages of five and fifteen years not theretofore resident in such town, who is an inmate of an insti- tution containing more than six inmates, said town may recover from said institution the extra school expense incurred, as may be determined jointly by the school committee of said town and the trustees or managers of said institution, or, in case of disagreement between said school com- mittee and said trustees or managers, as may be decreed by the probate court: provided, that no demand shall be made upon said trustees or managers without a special vote of the town instructing the school com- mittee to that effect.
SECTION 9. The parent, guardian or custodian of any child who is refused admission to or excluded from the public schools shall on applica- tion therefor be furnished by the school committee with a statement in writing of the grounds and reasons for the exclusion; and after a state- ment has been so furnished a child thus refused admission to or excluded from said schools may, by his guardian or next friend, bring an action of tort and recover damages for any unlawful exclusiou, against said town or city, and may by interrogatories filed in the case examine any member of the school committee or any other officer of the defendant town or city, as if he were a party to the suit.
SECTION 10. Any child, with the consent first obtained of the school committee of the town or city in which such child resides, may attend, at the expense of said town or city, the public schools of another town or city, upon such terms as may be satisfactory to the school committees of the towns or cities in interest.
SECTION 11. No child who has not been duly vaccinated shall be admitted to a public school except upon presentation of a certicate signed by a regular practising physician that such child is an unfit subject for vaccination. No child who is a member of a household in which a person is sick with smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet fever or measles, or of a household exposed to contagion from a household as aforesaid, shall attend any public school during such sickness or until the teacher of the school has been furnished with a certificate from the board of health of the town or city, or from the attending physician of such sick person, stating in a case of smallpox, diphtheria or scarlet fever, that a period of at least two weeks, and in a case of measles a period of at least three days, has elapsed since the recovery, removal or death of such per-
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son, and that danger of the conveying of such disease by such child has passed.
SECTION 12. Every child between seven and fourteen years of age shall attend some public day school in the town or city in which he resides during the entire time the public day schools are in session, sub- ject to such exceptions as to children, places of attendance and schools as are provided for in sections three, seven, ten and eleven of this act: provided, that the superintendent of schools or, where there is no super- intendent of schools, the school committee, or teachers acting under authority of said superintendent of schools or school committee, may excuse cases of necessary absence; and provided, further, that the at- tendance of a child upon a public day school shall not be required if sueh child has attended for a like period of time a private day school approved by the school committee of such town or city in accordance with section two of chapter four hundred and ninety-eight of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-four, or if such child has been other- wise instructed for a like period of time in the branches of learning re- quired by law to be taught in the public schools, or has already acquired the branches of learning required by law to be taught in the public schools, or if his physical or mental condition is such as to render such attendance inexpedient or impracticable. Every person having under his control a child as described in this section shall eause such child to attend school as required by this section.
SECTION 13. The state board of education shall prescribe the form of census required by section sixteen of this act, of registers to be kept in the public schools, and of returns to be made by school committees; shall annually on or before the third Wednesday in January lay before the legislature a report containing a printed abstract of said returns and a detailed report of the doings of the board, with such observations upon the condition and efficiency of the system of popular education and such suggestions in regard to the most practicable means of improving and extending it, as the board may see fit to make.
SECTION 14. The secretary of the state board of education shall send forms for the census, the school registers for public schools, forms for the returns to be made by school committees, the annual report of the board, and his own annual report, as soon as may be after they are ready for distribution, to the secretary of the school committee of each town and city, and it shall be the duty of such secretary on receipt there- of to deliver the same to the several persons charged with the duties in connection therewith, and to send to the secretary of the state board of education a list of the private schools in the town or city, together with the names of the principals of such schools.
SECTION 15. The secretary of every sehool committee who fails to receive, on or before the fifth day of April, blank forms of inquiry for
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school returns shall forthwith notify the secretary of the state board of education thereof, who shall thereupon transmit such forms to the secre- tary aforesaid.
SECTION 16. The school committees of all towns and cities shall annually ascertain and record the names, ages and such other infor- mation as may be designated by the state board of education, of all per- sons between five and fifteen years of age, and of all minors over fourteen years of age who cannot read at sight and write legibly simple sentences in the English language, residing in their respective towns and cities on the first day of September, and such record shall be completed on or before the first day of October. The first census under the provisions of this section shall be taken in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-nine. Whoever has under his control a minor over five years of age and with- holds information in his possession sought by a school committee or its. agents relating to the items required to be ascertained by this section, or falsifies in regard to the same, shall forfeit and pay a fine of not more. than fifty dollars.
SECTION 17. The chairman and the secretary of each school committee shall annually on or before the last day of April transmit to the secre- tary of the state board of education a certificate filled out, signed and sworn to by them as follows :- We, the chairman and the secretary of the school committee of hereby certify that on the first day of
next preceding the date of this certificate, there were residing in said town (or city) the number of persons between the ages
of five and fifteen years, and the number of persons between the ages of seven and fourteen years.
We further certify that said town (or city) raised the sum of dollars for the support of the public schools for the preceding year, in- cluding only the wages and board of teachers, the transportation of children, fuel for said schools, and the care of fires and schoolrooms; and maintained during said year each of the schools required to be kept by section one of the act relative to school attendance and truancy for a period of not less than thirty-two weeks; and we further certify that said town (or city) maintained during said year school required by section two of said act, for a period of months and days.
Chairman, Sceretary,
of the school committee.
On this day of personally appeared the chairman and the secretary (above-named) of the school committee of , and made oath that the above certificate by them subscribed is true. Before me,
Justice of the Peace ..
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SECTION 18. School committees shall canse the school registers to be faithfully kept in all the public schools of their respective towns and cities, and shall annually, on or before the last day of April, make re- turns on the aforesaid forms of inquiry to the secretary of the state board of education: and school committees of towns shall specify in said returns the purposes to which the money received by their respective towns from the income of the school fund has been appropriated; in such returns twenty days or forty half days of actual session shall be counted as one month.
SECTION 19. The several school teachers shall faithfully keep the registers of attendance daily, and make due return thereof to the school committee or to such person as such committee may designate. No teacher of a public school shall receive payment for services for the two weeks preceding the close of any single term until the register, properly filled up and completed, is so returned. All registers shall be kept at the schools, and at all times during the school hours shall be open to the inspection of the school committee, the superintendent of sehools, the truant officers, and the secretary and agents of the state board of educa- tion. In reckoning the average membership and the percentage of at- tendance in the sehools no pupil's name shall be omitted in counting the number of persons belonging to the school and the number of absences of such persons, until it is known that such pupil has withdrawn from the school without intention of returning, or, in the absence of such knowledge, until ten consecutive days of absence have been recorded; but nothing in this provision for computing the average membership and the percentage of attendance shall be construed to invalidate procedure against habitual truants, absentces or school offenders, or other persons, as provided in sections twenty-four to twenty-six inclusive and section thirty-one of this act. A pupil who is not present during at least half of a session shall be marked and counted as absent for that session.
SECTION 20. If a return is found to be irregular or incorrect the secretary of the state board of education shall forthwith return the same with a statement of all deficiencies therein to the sehool committee for correction, and said committee shall promptly correct and return the same.
SECTION 21. A town the report or returns of which do not reach the office of the secretary of the state board of education on or before the ffifteenth day of May shall forfeit ten per cent of the income of the school fund to which such town would otherwise have been entitled; if such report or returns fail to reach said office before the first day of June then the town's share of said income shall be retained by the treasurer of the Commonwealth; and any amount so retained shall be added to the principal of the school fund. Any town not entitled to a portion of the school fund, and any city, the report or returns of which
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fail to reach said office on or before the first day of June, shall forfeit to the school fund two hundred dollars.
SECTION 22. The county commissioners of each county, the counties of Barnstable, Berkshire, Dukes County and Nantucket excepted, shall establish and maintain either separately or conjointly with the com- missioners of other counties as hereinafter provided, in a suitable place, not at or near a penal institution, a truant school for the instruction and training of persons committed thereto as habitual truants, absentees or school offenders. The county commissioners of two or more counties may at the expense of said counties establish and maintain a union tru- ant school, to be organized and controlled by the chairmen of the county commissioners of said counties. The county commissioners of each of the counties excepted as aforesaid shall assign a truant school established by law as the place for the instruction and training of persons com- mitted within their respective counties as habitual truants, absentees or school offenders, and shall pay for their support in said school such reasonable sum as the county commissioners having control of said school may determine. For the purposes of this act the parental school of the city of Boston, established under chapter two hundred and eighty-two of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six and acts in amend- ment thereof and in addition thercto, shall be deemed the county truant school of the county of Suffolk, and the towns of Revere and Winthrop and the city of Chelsca shall for this purpose be considered as located within the county of Middlesex. When an habitual truant, absentee or school offender is committed under this act to a county truant school the town or city from which such child is committed shall pay to the county within which such town or city is located one dollar a week towards his support in said school: provided, that the towns of Revere and Winthrop and the city of Chelsea shall pay to the county of Middle- sex for the support of each child committed to the truant school of said county two dollars and fifty cents per week, and such additional sums for each child as shall cover the actual cost of maintenance.
SECTION 23. County truant schools shall be subject to visitation by the state board of education and by the state board of lunacy and charity : and said boards shall report thereon annually to the legislature.
SECTION 24. Every habitual truant, that is, every child between seven and fourteen years of age who wilfully and habitually absents himself from school contrary to the provisions of section twelve of this act, upon complaint by a truant officer, and conviction thereof, may be committed, if a boy, to a county truant school for a period not exceed- ing two years, and if a girl, to the state industrial school for girls, unless such child is placed on probation as provided in section twenty-eight of this act.
SECTION 25. Every habitual absentee, that is, every child between
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seven and sixteen years of age who may be found wandering about in the streets or public places of any town or city of the Commonwealth, having no lawful occupation, habitually not attending sehool, and grow- ing up in idleness and ignorance, upon complaint by a truant officer or any other person, and conviction thereof, may be committed, if a boy, at the discretion of the court, to a county truant school for a period not exceeding two years, or to the Lyman school for boys, and, if a girl, to the state industrial school for girls, unless such child is placed on proba- tion as provided in section twenty-eight of this act.
SECTION 26. Every habitual school offender, that is, every child under fourteen years of age who persistently violates the reasonable regulations of the school which he attends, or otherwise persistently misbehaves therein, so as to render himself a fit subject for exclusion therefrom, upon complaint by a truant officer, and conviction thereof, may be com- mitted, if a boy, at the discretion of the court, to a county truant school for a period not exceeding two years, or to the Lyman school for boys, and, if a girl, to the state industrial school for girls, unless such child is placed on probation as provided in section twenty-cight of this act.
SECTION 27. Any court or magistrate by whom a child is committed to a county truant school may make such order as said court or mag- istrate deeins expedient concerning the payment by the parents of such ehild to the county, of the cost of the support of any such child while in said school, and may from time to time revise and alter such order, or make a new order, as the circumstances of the parents may justify.
SECTION 28. Any court or magistrate by whom a child has been con- victed of an offence under this act may in his discretion place such child on probation under the oversight of a truant officer of the town or city in which the child resides, or of a probation officer of said court, for such period and upon such conditions as said court or magistrate may deem best; and within such period, if the child violates the conditions of his probation, such truant officer or probation officer may without war- rant or other process take the child before the court, and the court may thereupon proceed to sentence or may make any other lawful disposition of the case.
SECTION 29. County commissioners, whenever they think it will be for the best interest of any child committed to a county truant school under their control, and after duc notice and an opportunity to be heard have been given to the superintendent of schools, or, where there is no superintendent, to the school committee of the town or city from which such child was committed to said school, may permit such child to be at liberty, upon such conditions as said commissioners may deem best; or, with the approval of a justice of the conrt which imposed the sentence, they may discharge such child from said school; and in case of such parole or discharge the trustees shall make an entry upon their
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records of the name of such child. the date of such parole or discharge, and the reason therefor, and a copy of such records shall be transmitted to the court or. magistrate by whom such child was committed, and to the school committee of the town or city from which such child was com- mitted. If any child who is permitted to be at liberty, as provided by this section, violates, in the opinion of said commissioners, the conditions of his parole at any time previous to the expiration of the term for which such child was committed to said school, they may revoke such parole. Upon evidence from a superintendent of schools or a school committee, satisfactory to said commissioners, of the violation by a child of the conditions of his parole, it shall be the duty of said commissioners to revoke such parole. Said commissioners may issue an order directed to the truant or police officers of any town or city to arrest such child wherever found and return him to said school; and any such officer hold- ing such order shall arrest such child and return him to said school, which may thereupon hold him, subject to the provisions of this aet, for the unexpired portion of the term of the original sentence. Said commissioners shall meet the expense attending such arrest and return, so far as approved by them, at the cost of the county or counties main- taining said school. But releases from the parental school of the city of Boston shall be governed by the provisions of chapter five hundred and fourteen of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-six.
SECTION 30. Any inmate of a county truant school who persistently violates the reasonable regulations of said school, or is guilty of indecent or immoral conduct, or otherwise grossly misbehaves, so as to render himself an unfit subject for retention therein, upon complaint by the county commissioners in control of said school, and conviction thereof, may be committed by the court, if a boy under fifteen years of age, to the Lyman school for boys; if a boy over fifteen years of age, to the Massachusetts reformatory at Concord. The period of commitment to said institutions shall be determined by the laws and regulations govern- ing commitments thereto.
SECTION 31. Any person having under his control a child between seven and fourteen years of age who fails for five day sessions or ten half day sessions within any period of six months while under such control, to cause such child to attend school as required by seetion twelve of this act, the physical or mental condition of such child not being such as to render his attendanee at school harmful or impracticable, upon com- plaint by a truant officer, and conviction thereof, shall forfeit and pay a fine of not more than twenty dollars. Any person who induces or attempts to induce any child to absent himself unlawfully from school, or employs or harbors while school is in session any child absent unlaw- fully from school, shall forfeit and pay a fine of not more than fifty dollars.
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SECTION 32. Police, municipal and district courts, trial justices, and judges of probate courts, shall have jurisdiction of all cases arising under this act relating to persons residing in their respective jurisdictions. Upon a complaint for an offence under this act a summons shall issue instead of a warrant for arrest, unless in the judgment of the court or magistrate receiving the complaint there is reason to believe that the accused will not appear upon a summons. A warrant may issue at any time after the issue of such summons, if occasion arises, whether or not the summons has been served. Such summons or warrant may be served, at the discretion of the court or magistrate, by a truant officer or by any officer empowered to serve criminal process. Upon complaint against a child under this aet the parents, guardian or custodian of the child shall be notified as is required by law in the case of a juvenile offender. No child under seventeen years of age shall be committed under this act, except to a county truant school, and no child against whom complaint as an habitual absentee is brought under section twenty-five of this act by any other person than a truant officer shall be committed under this act unless due notice and an opportunity to be heard have been given to the state board of lunacy and charity.
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