of this chapter and he shall be authorized to expend not to exceed five hundred dollars out of the appropriation for the superintendence of towns comprising school unions to assist in defraying the mileage expenses of those superintendents who live remote from the place of such conference, but no superintendent shall be entitled to any part of such expenses unless he shall regularly attend all of its sessions. tions of intendents. $ 5. $ 3. SEC. 44. Persons employed to serve as superintendents of Qualificaschools under section forty-one and section forty-two shall superhold state certificates of superintendence grade which shall be 1897, c. 296, issued upon such examination as may be prescribed by the 1909, c. 120, state superintendent of public schools and they shall devote 1909, c. 122, their entire time to superintendence, in the towns comprising the union, provided, however, that they may, without violation of the provisions of this section, perform such educational service outside of the towns of their unions as may be performed with the approval of the state superintendent of schools and with the consent of the committees employing them. The powers and duties of said superintendents shall be the same as those prescribed for town superintendents in this chapter. may be 1897, c. 296, 1905, c. 48, 1909, c. 122, SEC. 45. No town shall receive state aid under section forty- State aid two unless its appropriation and expenditure for superintend- withheld. ence have been exclusive of the amount required by law for $7. common school purposes. If any part of the money raised by $8 the town or union of towns, or paid to them by the state for § 4. superintendence, is expended for any other purposes than those provided for in said section, then each person so misappropriating said money shall forfeit double the sum so misapplied, to be recovered in an action of debt, in the name and to the use of the town, by any inhabitant thereof; and no town or union of towns shall receive further aid under said section until the amount so misapplied has been raised and expended for superintendence by such town or union of towns. COMPULSORY EDUCATION. Towns may make by cerning SEC. 46. Towns may make such by-laws, not repugnant to laws conlaw, concerning habitual truants, and children between six and truants. seventeen years of age not attending school, without any regular § 21. R. S., c. 11, and lawful occupation, and growing up in ignorance, as are most conducive to their welfare and the good order of society; and may annex a suitable penalty, not exceeding twenty dollars, for any breach thereof; but such by-laws must be first approved by a judge of the supreme judicial court. SEC. 47. Truant officers elected as provided in section fiftyone shall alone make complaints for violations of said by-laws, and shall execute the judgments of the magistrate. SEC. 48. Said magistrate, in place of fine, may order children proved to be growing up in truancy, and without the benefit of the education provided for them by law, to be placed for such periods as he thinks expedient, in the institution of instruction, house of reformation, or other suitable situation provided for the purpose under section forty-six. SEC. 49. Every child between the seventh and fifteenth anversaries of his birth and every child between the fifteenth and seventeenth anniversaries who cannot read at sight and write legible simple sentences in the English language shall attend some public day school during the time such school is in session, and an absence therefrom of one-half day or more shall be deemed a violation of this requirement; provided that necessary absence may be excused by the superintending school committee or superintendent of schools or teachers acting by direction of either; provided also, that such attendance shall not be required if the child obtained equivalent instruction, for a like period of time, in an approved private school or in any other manner approved by the superintending school committee; provided, further, that children shall not be credited with attendance at a private school until a certificate showing their names, residence and attendance at such school signed by the person or persons having such school in charge, shall be filed with the school officials of the town in which said children reside; and provided, further, that the superintending school committee may exclude from the public schools any child whose physical or mental condition makes it inexpedient for him to attend. All persons having children under their control shall cause them to attend school as provided in this section, and for every neglect of such duty shall be punished by a fine not exceeding twenty-five dollars or shall be imprisoned not exceeding thirty days. allowed to may be attend school in adjoining town, on terins agreed 1899, c. 80, SEC. 50. Children living remote from any public school in Children the town in which they reside may be allowed to attend the public schools, other than a high school approved as provided in section sixty-three, in an adjoining town, under such regulations upon. and on such terms as the school committees of said towns agree $2. upon and prescribe, and the school committee of the town in which such children reside shall pay the sum agreed upon, out of the appropriations of money raised in said town for school purposes. Except as above provided, a child attending a public school, other than a high school approved as provided in section ―tuition. sixty-three, in a town in which his parent or legal guardian does not reside, after having obtained the consent of the school committee of such town, shall pay, as tuition, a sum equal to the average expense of each scholar in such school. Superintend committees truant officers. § 3. 1911, c. 113. SEC. 51. The superintending school committee of every ing school city and town shall annually elect one or more persons, to be shall elect designated truant officers, who shall inquire into all cases of 1899, c. 80, neglect of the duties prescribed in section forty-nine and ascer-1905, c. 48, tain the reasons therefor and shall promptly report the same to 1909, c. 238. said superintending school committee, and such truant officers 1913, c. 79. or any of them shall, when so directed by the school committee or superintendent in writing, prosecute in the name of the state any person neglecting to perform the duties prescribed in said —duties. section, by promptly entering a complaint before a magistrate; and said officer shall, when notified by any teacher that any pupil is irregular in attendance, arrest and take such pupil to school when found truant; and further such officers shall enforce the provisions of sections one hundred eighteen to one hundred twenty, inclusive, of this chapter. Truant officers, truant officers may when so directed in writing by the superintendent of schools or ness estabthe superintending school committee of their respective towns may visit the manufacturing, mechanical, mercantile and other business establishments in their several cities and towns during the hours in which the public schools of such city or town are in session, and ascertain whether any minors under the age of fifteen years are employed therein, and shall report in writing any cases of such employment to the superintendent of schools or the superintending school committee of their city or town and if employed therein contrary to the provisions of chapter visit busi lishments. forty, shall also report in writing such illegal employment to the commissioner of labor. The owner, superintendent, overseer or agent of all manufacturing, mechanical, mercantile or other business establishments, upon request shall produce for the inspection of such truant officers all certified copies of records of birth and baptism, passports and age and schooling certificates required to be kept on file in such establishments under chapter forty of the revised statutes. Superintending school committees shall elect truant officers at their first meeting after the annual meeting of the town; they shall fill any vacancies occurring during the year and they shall have authority to fix the compensation of said officers and said compensation shall be paid from the appropriation made for the salaries of municipal officers. Any truant officer neglecting any duty required of him under the provisions of this chapter shall be liable to a fine of not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars and any town failing through its superintending school committee to meet said provisions shall be liable to the provisions of section sixteen of this chapter. SEC. 52. If a child without sufficient excuse, shall be habitually and wilfully absent from school or shall fail without such excuse to attend school for five day sessions or for ten half-day sessions within any period of six months, he shall be deemed an habitual truant, and the superintending school committee shall notify him and any person under whose control he may be that unless he conforms to section forty-nine, the provisions of the two following sections will be enforced against them; and if thereafter such child continues irregular in attendance, the truant officers or any of them shall, when so directed by the school committee or superintendent in writing, enforce said provisions by complaint. SEC. 53. Any person having control of a child, who is an habitual truant, as defined in the foregoing section, and being in any way responsible for such truancy, and any person who induces a child to absent himself from school, or harbors or conceals such child when he is absent, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding twenty dollars or shall be imprisoned not exceeding thirty days. Habitual may § § 6, 7. § 12. officers may warrants. SEC. 54. On complaint of the truant officer an habitual truant, if a boy, may be committed to the State School for Boys, a he or if a girl, to the State Industrial School for Girls, or to any suitable truant school that may hereafter be established. Police or 1899, c. 80, municipal courts and trial justices shall have jurisdiction of such 1905, c. 48, complaint and of the offenses described in sections forty-nine, fifty-one and fifty-three. All warrants issued by said courts or Truant trial justices upon such complaint, or for an offense committed execute under said sections and all legal processes issued by said courts or trial justices for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this section and of said sections numbered forty-nine, fifty-one and fifty-three, may be directed to and executed by the truant officer, or either of the truant officers, of the town where the offense is committed. All fines, collected under said two last named sections, shall be paid to the treasurer of the city or town in which the offense is committed, for the support of the public schools therein. *INSTRUCTION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. State aid to schools. SEC. 55. No town shall receive state aid for the maintenance free high of a free high school unless its appropriation and expenditure R. S., c. 11, for such school has been exclusive of the amounts required by 1901, c. 197, law for common school purposes. § 28. $ 1. 1911, c. 109. Free high town may R. S., c. 11, -adjoining maintain SEC. 56. Any town may establish and maintain not exceeding two free high schools; and in such case shall receive the schools, same state aid as if the expenditures of both schols had been establish two. made for one. Two or more adjoining towns may unite in 2 establishing and maintaining a free high school, and both shall towns may receive the same state aid as if such school had been maintained by one town. Any town may, in addition to the sums raised for of pupils attending secondthe support of high and common schools, raise and appropriate a ary schools. sum for the payment of conveyance of pupils attending secondary schools, said sum to be expended under the direction of the superintending school committee. Towns shall receive in trust and faithfully expend gifts and bequests made to aid in the *See also An Act for the improvement of Free High Schools, Chapter 71, P. L., 1909, and An Act additional to Chapter 71, P. L., 1909, Chapter 196, P. L., 1909. -conveyance 1909, c. 148. |