FOREWORD

THE SCHOOL CENSUS, compulsory education, and childlabor regulations are subject to State control. Each State of the Union has enacted legislation concerning them. These many regulations and practices relating to child welfare services vary significantly among the States. Because of this fact no detailed composite picture can be presented for the United States as a whole. To obtain an account of the various practices existing in any one of these services requires a State-by-State study. This is too large a task for most individuals who need the information to undertake.

In recognition of this fact the U. S. Office of Education, in keeping with its legal authorization to collect and diffuse information to promote the cause of education throughout the country, has prepared this handbook setting forth practices followed in each State relative to the school census, compulsory school attendance, and child labor, and furnishing some illustrative examples of them. This handbook will be a convenient source of information for persons concerned with the improvement of practices, the enactment of new legislation, and the administration of laws in these phases of education and the protection of youth from exploitation in employment.

BESS GOODY KOONTZ,

Assistant U. S. Commissioner of Education.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION FOR CHILDREN

PUBLIC OPINION in the early decades of the last century brought about the establishment of free public schools. The idea that education was to be made compulsory came later. Public authorities had difficulty at first in taking care of those who wanted to go to school, without concerning themselves about those who did not want to go. For example, instead of taking a census of children of school age as a basis for determining needed school facilities, Louisiana in 1823 enacted a law requiring parents and guardians "to make known" to the commissioners of their respective townships "the number of pupils which such parents or guardians respectively wish to enter in school." However, the feeling grew that in a democracy all the citizenry should be educated in order to participate intelligently in the affairs of government. One evidence of this was the origin in many States of a State fund to be distributed to schools for aiding them in providing adequate educational opportunities for the purpose. In some States this fund was originally created to aid local schools in making provisions for those children who would not otherwise have any opportunity for education. With the growth of the State's interest in education to the point that it invested moneyby action of the legislature to support the efforts of local schools there arose the questions as to how such funds were to be distributed and how the State might realize its aim for an educated citizenry by bringing all children into school. The latter question was later treated as a double one by (a) enacting laws to compel children of certain ages to attend school and (b) placing legal prohibitions upon the employment of children of specified ages.

Early State regulations pertaining to these questions are partially, at least, indicated by the following statutory enactments: Georgia in 1823 passed an act appropriating $20,000 out of the poor school fund among the different counties "in proportion to the number of free white population in each county... for the purpose of educating such children who are destitute of the means of education." Delaware in 1829 enacted a law, with supplementary legislation of 1833, providing that the "fund for establishing schools in the State of Delaware... shall be apportioned

among the several counties according to their population, respectively." North Carolina by an act of the general assembly establishing and regulating common schools, passed in 1853, provided "That the net annual income of the Literary Fund (exclusive of monies from the sale of Swamp Lands) shall annually be distributed among the several counties, in the ratio of their Federal population, to be ascertained by the census next preceding such distribution." New Jersey in 1846 by an act of its legislature provided for a State appropriation of $30,000 for the support of public schools, the apportionment to be made to the counties "in the ratio of the last taxes paid for the support of the government of this State by the said counties, respectively." Maryland by a law passed in 1826 apportioned school funds "according to the ratio of white population, as ascertained by the last preceding census of the United States." Connecticut had in force in 1834 a law that required the distribution of "The interest of the monies arising from the fund [State] . . . according to the number of persons in such society [a school society operating local school], between the ages of 4 and 16 years, to be enumerated and ascertained in the following manner: The committee of each school shall, in the month of August annually enumerate all persons residing and belonging within such district, on the first day of said month, between the ages aforesaid, and make returns thereof, together with the names of each person, to the committee of the school society, within said month, certified in writing, under the hand of said committee, and sworn before a magistrate." Kentucky by an "Act to establish a system of common schools in the State," approved in 1838, provided that moneys appropriated to the use of the common schools should be apportioned "according to the number of children between the ages of seven and seventeen years." Indiana by appropriate legislation had provided by 1844 that "The interest arising out of the surplus revenue fund loaned in each county shall, by the county auditor, on the first Monday of March and September annually, be divided among the different townships within such county, in proportion to the children within such townships between the ages of 5 and 21 years."... The township trustee shall see that a list of the children within 5 and 21 years of age resident within their townships, is filed with the county auditor." Massachusetts in 1842 enacted a maximum 10-hour day for children under 12 years of age employed in factories. Connecticut in 1842 enacted a maximum 10-hour day for children under 14 years of age employed in factories. Pennsylvania in 1842 by legislative action raised the minimum age from 12 to 13 for children employed in textile factories. Massachusetts enacted a law in 1852 which prescribed that "Every person who shall have any child under his control between the ages of eight and fourteen years shall send such child to some public school within the town or

city in which he resides, during at least twelve weeks if the public schools within such town or city shall be so long kept."

Legal provisions for establishing adequate machinery for the enforcement of school attendance were frequently lacking in the early compulsory education laws. For example, the appointment of attendance officers was frequently permissive; provisions governing exemptions under the laws were commonly general, rather than specific, permitting the exercise of an unduly large amount of discretionary power on the part of local officials; legal penalties for violations, together with prescribed machinery for imposing them, were often inadequate. Moreover, there was, in many communities, a lack of supporting public opinion to make the early laws fully effective. As a consequence, the effectiveness of a statutory provision for compulsory school attendance varied considerably among the different enforcement units of a State.1 Gradually, however, legal provisions became more specific and mandatory with the growth of public opinion in the belief that education is an essential not only as a protective device for a democratic form of government, but also as a means for enabling the individual to enjoy the fruits of democracy in a way that he otherwise could not.

The school census grew out of the need for some basis upon which to plan school facilities. As long as the school district was so small that the number of children to be educated was readily known to the local authorities, and so long as schools were locally supported, there was no need for a formal counting and recording of children. But when more and more State money became available for distribution and when the population increased until it was not possible to know from incidental ways the number of children for whom school facilities should be provided, the school census came into being. The census at first was a simple instrument, created by law, merely requiring local authorities to list the children of the district of the specified legal ages. As time went on, however, and more detailed and accurate information was needed for distributing State funds and planning school facilities, the items in which data were to be recorded were expanded and the procedures for collecting them were refined and made more specific.

However, certain problems were encountered in obtaining. adequate and accurate census reports. Among these were the temptation to have the census lists as large as possible in order to obtain the maximum amount of State funds and, therefore, the possibility of enumerators listing as many names as possible, as they were frequently paid a certain number of cents for each name; the lack of adequate instructions as to procedures in making enumerations; and the consequent inaccuracies of the enumerators in performing their duties. As a result, census 1 See Development of Compulsory School Attendance. U. S. Office of Education Bulletin 1940, No. 6, Monograph No. 5.

reports from various districts sometimes included duplications and the total State figure was oversize. To remedy this situation, census laws either became more specific and explicit relative to the exactness of the data to be collected and the procedures to be followed in making the enumeration or authorized State educational officers to make such arrangements as would insure an "accurate" census. Laws also frequently imposed penalties upon enumerators and upon local authorities responsible for the enumeration for failures to make accurate reports, and gave the State superintendent authority to require any or all of the census in any district to be retaken.

In the meantime, an additional need for the school census was coming into existence due to the enactment of compulsory education laws in various States. An accurate and complete census was necessary for the enforcement of such laws, as it constituted the official record against which to check school enrollments to discover children legally required to be in school, but whose parents had not entered them. The need for census data for this purpose required that information be recorded to show what children were of compulsory school age, the names of parents or guardians made responsible by law for the school attendance of children, their home address, and other items that would assist in the determination of violations and in the enforcement of the law.

In many States, too, the school census has been expanded for special purposes, for example, to include a report on all physically handicapped persons under a specified age, which would have value for enrolling such persons in special educational institutions provided by the State, and to discover and to provide necessary educational facilities for illiterates.

Altogether the school census in many States is the most important instrument for determining: (1) The total population for whom educational opportunities are to be provided, taking into consideration not only the present but the future; (2) provisions for educational facilities in accordance with population and shifts in population; (3) failures of individuals to comply with requirements relative to education; (4) individuals whose handicaps make them subject to special provisions; and (5) the apportionment of certain State funds among the schools of the State.

Legal provisions governing child labor had their beginnings in limiting the number of hours per day children of specified ages could work in certain occupations, especially in factories. Very early the needs for such legal provisions were recognized as related to educational needs, and the statutory measures came into existence which included prescriptions that not only restricted the employment of children but also required that children should have achieved a specified eduational status before they could be employed. As was the case with compulsory edu