APPENDIX

MASSACHUSETTS LAWS REQUIRING EVENING SCHOOLS AND COMFULSORY ATTENDANCE FOR MINORS ILLITERATE IN ENGLISH

Revised Laws, Chapter 42, Section 11, amended by Acts of 1914, Chapter 590

PUBLIC EVENING SCHOOLS.-Any town may, and every city or town in which there are issued during the year from September 1st to August 31st certificates authorizing the employment of twenty or more persons [sixteen to twenty-one years of age] who do not possess the educational qualifications enumerated in section one of chapter forty-four of the Revised Laws, as amended, shall maintain during the following school year an evening school or schools for the instruction of persons over fourteen years of age in orthography, reading, writing, the English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic, industrial drawing, both free hand and mechanical, the history of the United States, physiology and hygiene, and good behavior. Such other subjects may be taught in such schools as the school committee considers expedient.

Acts of 1913, Chapter 467, amended by General Acts of 1916, Chapter 82

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND EMPLOYMENT OF ILLITERATE MINORS

Section 1.-Every illiterate minor between sixteen and twenty-one years of age except married women

shall attend some public evening school in the city or town in which he resides for the whole time during which the public evening schools are in session: provided, that such city or town maintains a public evening school. Attendance at a public day school, or at a private school approved for the purpose by the school committee, shall exempt such minor from attending a public evening school. This act shall not affect any existing laws regarding the compulsory school attendance of illiterate minors or their employment, but shall be in addition to such laws.

Section 2.-An illiterate minor who willfully violates any provision of this act shall be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars.

Section 3.-Every person having under his control an illiterate minor between sixteen and twenty-one years of age shall cause him to attend a public evening school as hereby required; and if such person fails for six sessions within a period of one month to cause the minor so to attend school, unless the minor's physical or mental condition is such as to render his attendance at school harmful or impracticable, such person shall, upon complaint by a truant officer, and conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not more than twenty dollars.

Section 4.-Whoever induces or attempts to induce such minor to absent himself unlawfully from school, or employs such a minor except as is provided by law, or harbors such a minor who, while school is in session, is absent unlawfully therefrom, shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars.

Acts of 1909, Chapter 514, Section 66, amended by Acts of 1913, Chapter 779, Section 23, and by General Acts of 1916, Chapter 95, Section 3

EDUCATIONAL CERTIFICATES.-No child who is over sixteen and under twenty-one years of age shall be employed in a factory, workshop, manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment, except as provided for pupils in co-operative courses, approved as such by the board of education, and conducted in public schools, unless his employer procures and keeps on file an educational certificate showing the age of the child and his ability or inability to read and write as hereinafter provided. Such certificates shall be issued by the person authorized by this act to issue employment certificates.

The person authorized to issue such educational certificates shall, so far as is practicable, require the proof of age stated in section fifty-eight.1 He shall examine the child and certify whether or not he possesses the educational qualifications [2] enumerated in section one of chapter forty-four of the Revised Laws, as anended. Every such certificate shall be signed in the presence of the person issuing the same by the child in whose name it is issued.

Every employer of such children shall keep their educational certificates accessible to any officer authorized to enforce the provisions of this act and shall return said certificates to the office from which they were issued within two days after the date of the termination of the employment of said children. If the educational certificate of any child who is over sixteen and under twenty-one years of age fails to show

1 Acts of 1909, chapter 514, section 58.

2 Ability to read, write, and spell in the English language, as is required for the completion of the sixth grade.

that said child possesses the educational qualifications enumerated in section one of chapter forty-four of the Revised Laws, as amended, then no person shall employ such child while a public evening school is maintained in the city or town in which the child resides, unless such child is a regular attendant at such evening school or at a day school, and presents to his employer each week a school record of such attendance. When such record shows unexcused absences, such attendance shall be deemed to be irregular and insufficient. The person authorized to issue educational certificates, or teachers acting under his authority, may, however, excuse justifiable absence. Whoever employs a child in violation of the provisions of this section shall forfeit not more than one hundred dollars for each offense, to the use of the evening schools of such city or town. A parent, guardian or custodian who permits a child to be employed in violation of the provisions of this section shall forfeit not more than twenty dollars, to the use of the evening schools of such city or town.