school, stating that said child has been in attendance upon said evening school for not less than six hours each week for such number of weeks as will, when taken in connection with the number of weeks such evening school will be in session during the remainder of the current or calendar year, make up a total attendance on the part of said child in said evening school of not less than six hours per week for a period of not less than sixteen weeks, and any person who shall employ any child contrary to the provisions of this section or who shall fail to keep and display certificates as to the attendance of employees in evening schools when such attendance is required by law shall, for each offense, forfeit and pay to the treasurer of the city or village, or to the supervisor of the town in which such child resides, a penalty of fifty dollars, the same, when paid, to be added to the public school moneys of the city, village or district in which such child resides. [As amended by L. 1903, ch. 459, L. 1905, ch. 280, L. 1907, ch. 103, and L. 1907, ch. 585.]

Constitutionality of statutes affirmed in City of New York v. Chelsea Jute Mills, 43 Misc. 266 (March, 1904).

§ 6. Teachers' records of attendance. An accurate record of the attendance of all children between eight and sixteen years of age shall be kept by the teacher of every school, showing each day by the year, month, day of the month and day of the week, such attendance, and the number of hours in each day thereof; and each teacher upon whose instruction any such child shall attend elsewhere than at school, shall keep a like record of such attendance. Such records shall, at all times, be open to the attendance officers or other persons duly authorized by the school authorities of the city or district, who may inspect or copy the same; and every such teacher shall fully answer all inquiries lawfully made by such authorities, inspectors or other persons, and a willful neglect or refusal so to answer any such inquiry shall be a misdemeanor. [As amended by L. 1903, ch. 459.]

§ 7. Attendance officers. — The school authorities of each city, union free school district, or common school district whose limits include in whole or in part an incorporated village, shall appoint and may remove at pleasure one or more attendance officers of such city or district, and shall fix their compensation and may prescribe their duties not inconsistent with this act, and make rules and regulations for the performance thereof; and the superintendent of schools shall supervise the enforcement of this act within such city or school district; and the town board of each town shall appoint, subject to the written approval of the school commissioner of the district, one or more attendance officers, whose jurisdiction shall extend over all school districts in said town, and which are not by this section otherwise provided for, and shall fix their compensation, which shall be a town charge; and such attendance officers, appointed by said board, shall be removable at the pleasure of the school commissioner in whose commissioner's district such town is situated. [As amended by L. 1896, ch. 606, L. 1903, ch. 459, and L. 1905, ch. 280.]

§ 8. Arrest of truants. The attendance officer may arrest without warrant any child between eight and sixteen years of age found from his home, and who then is a truant from instruction upon which he is lawfully required to attend within the city or district of such attendance officer. He shall

forthwith deliver the child so arrested either to the custody of a person in parental relation to the child, or of a teacher from whom such child is then a truant, or, in case of habitual and incorrigible truants, shall bring them before a police magistrate for commitment by him to a truant school as provided for in the next section. The attendance officer shall promptly report such arrest, and the disposition made by him of such child to the school authorities of the said city, village or district where such child is lawfully required to attend upon instruction or to such person as they may direct. A truant officer in the performance of his duties may enter, during business hours any factory, mercantile or other establishment within the city or school district in which he is appointed and shall be entitled to examine employment certificates or registry of children employed therein on demand. Any person interfering with an attendance officer in the lawful discharge of his duties and any person owning or operating a factory, mercantile or other establishment who shall refuse on demand to exhibit to such attendance officer the registry of children employed or the employment certificate of such children shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. [As amended by L. 1896, ch. 606, L. 1903, ch. 459, and L. 1905, ch. 311.]

As to arrest of truants, see also Code of Criminal Procedure, §§ 887-888.

8 9. Truant schools. The school authorities of any city or school district may establish schools, or set apart separate rooms in public school buildings, for children between eight and sixteen years of age, who are habitual truants from instruction upon which they are lawfully required to attend, or who are insubordinate or disorderly during their attendance upon such instruction, or irregular in such attendance. Such school or rooms shall be known as a truant school; but no person convicted of crimes or misdemeanors, other than truancy, shall be committed thereto. Such authorities may provide for the confinement, maintenance and instruction of such children in such schools; and they, or the superintendent of schools in any city or school district, may, after reasonable notice to such child and the persons in parental relation to such child, and an opportunity for them to be heard, and with the consent in writing of the persons in parental relation to such child, order such child to attend such school, or to be confined and maintained therein, under such rules and regulations as such authorities may prescribe, for a period not exceeding two years; but in no case shall a child be so confined after he is sixteen years of age. Such authorities may order such a child to be confined and maintained during such period in any private school, orphans' home or similar institution controlled by persons of the same religious faith as the persons in parental relation to such child, and which is willing and able to receive, confine and maintain such child, upon such terms as to compensation as may be agreed upon between such authorities and such private school, orphans' home or similar institution. If the persons in parental relation to such child shall not consent to either such order, such conduct of the child shall be deemed disorderly conduct, and the child may be proceeded against as a disorderly person, and upon conviction thereof, if the child was lawfully required to attend a public school, the child shall be sentenced to be confined and maintained in such truant school for a period not exceeding two years; or if

such child was lawfully required to attend upon instruction otherwise than at a public school, the child may be sentenced to be confined and maintained for a period not exceeding two years in such private school, orphans' home or other similar institution, if there be one, controlled by persons of the same religious faith as the persons in parental relation to such child, which is willing and able to receive, confine and maintain such child for a reasonable compensation. Such confinement shall be conducted with a view to the improvement and to the restoration, as soon as practicable, of such child to the institution elsewhere, upon which he may be lawfully required to attend. The authorities committing any such child, and in cities and villages the superintendent of schools therein, shall have authority, in their discretion, to parole at any time any truant so committed by them. Every child suspended from attendance upon instruction by the authorities in charge of furnishing such instruction, for more than one week, shall be required to attend such truant school during the period of such suspension. The school authorities of any city or school district, not having a truant school, may contract with any other city or district having a truant school, for the confinement, maintenance and instruction therein of childen whom such school authorities might require to attend a truant school, if there were one in their own city or district. Industrial training shall be furnished in every such truant school. The expense attending the commitment and cost of maintenance of any truant residing in any city, village or district, employing a superintendent of schools shall be a charge against such city, village or district, and in all other cases shall be a county charge. [As amended by L. 1896, ch. 606, L. 1903, ch. 459, and L. 1905, ch. 280.]

The

§ 10. Withholding the state moneys by commissioner of education. commissioner of education may withhold one-half of all public school moneys from any city or district, which, in his judgment, wilfully omits and refuses to enforce the provisions of this act, after due notice, so often and so long as such wilful omission and refusal shall, in his judgment continue. If the provisions of this act are complied with at any time within one year from the date on which said moneys were withheld, the moneys so withheld shall be paid over by said commissioner of education to such district or city, otherwise forfeited to the state. The said commissioner of education is hereby authorized and empowered to employ such assistants as he may deem necessary to properly carry this act into effect. He may remove such assistants from time to time and appoint their successors. He shall fix their salaries and under his direction such assistants shall investigate the extent to which this act is complied with in the cities and school districts of the state, and make such reports, and perform such other duties as the said commissioner shall determine. Such assistants shall be paid, in addition to their salaries, their necessary traveling and other expenses incurred in the discharge of their official duties, to be audited by the commissioner of education. [As amended by L. 1905, ch. 280.]

§ 11. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. § 12. This act shall take effect January first, eighteen hundred and ninetyfive.

§ 13. This chapter shall be known as title sixteen of the "Consolidated School Law."

APPRENTICESHIP.

[Apprenticeship is regulated by Article VII of the Domestic Relations Law (printed below), which is enforced by the Commissioner of Labor (see § 67 of the Labor Law). The Penal Code makes it a crime to take an apprentice without the consent of the parent or guardian (§ 292-b), and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Title IX of Part VI) prescribes the proceedings respecting masters, apprentices and servants.]

CHAPTER 272, LAWS OF 1896, AS AMENDED: THE DOMESTIC RELATIONS LAW, CHAPTER 48 OF THE GENERAL LAWS.

§ 70. Definitions; effect of article. The instrument whereby a minor is bound out to serve as a clerk or servant in any trade, profession or employment, or is apprenticed to learn the art or mystery of any trade or craft, is an indenture. Every indenture made in pursuance of the laws repealed by this chapter shall be valid hereunder, but hereafter a minor shall not be bound out or apprenticed except in pursuance of this article.

§ 71. Contents of * indenture.- Every indenture must contain:

1. The names of the parties;

2. The age of the minor as nearly as can be ascertained, which age on the filing of the indenture shall be taken prima facie to be the true age;

3. A statement of the nature of the service or employment to which the minor is bound or apprenticed;

4. The term of service or apprenticeship, stating the beginning and end thereof;

5. An agreement that the minor will not leave his master or employer during the term for which he is indentured;

6. An agreement that suitable and proper board, lodging and medical attendance for the minor during the continuance of the term shall be provided, either by the master or employer, or by the parent or guardian of the apprentice. [As amended by L. 1899, ch. 448.]

7. A statement of every sum of money paid or agreed to be paid in relation to the service;

8. If such minor is bound as an apprentice to learn the art or mystery of any trade or craft, an agreement on the part of the employer to teach, or cause to be carefully and skillfully taught, to such apprentice, every branch of the business to which such apprentice is indentured, and that at the expiration of such apprenticeship he will give to such apprentice a certificate, in writing, that such apprentice has served at such trade or craft a full term of apprenticeship specified in such indenture;

9. If a minor is indentured by the poor officers of a county, city or town, or by the authorities of an orphan asylum, penal or charitable institution, an agreement that the master or employer will cause such child to be instructed in reading, writing and the general rules or* arithmetic, and that at the expiration of the term of service he will give to such minor a new bible.

Every such indenture shall be filed in the office of the county clerk of the county where the master or employer resides.

§ 72. Indenture by minor; by whom signed.- Any minor may, by the execution of the indenture provided by this article, bind himself or herself:

1. As an apprentice to learn the art or mystery of any trade or craft for a term of not less than three nor more than five years; or

"Consents to" in original.

2. As a servant or clerk in any profession, trade or employment for a term of service not longer than the minority of such minor, unless such indenture be made by a minor coming from a foreign country, for the purpose of paying his passage, when such indenture may be made for a term of one year although such term may extend beyond the time when such person will be of full age. An indenture made in pursuance of this section must be signed,

1. By the minor;

2. By the father of the minor unless he is legally incapable of giving consent or has abandoned his family;

3. By the mother of the minor unless she is legally incapable of giving consent;

4. By the guardian of the person of the minor, if any;

5. If there be neither parents or* guardians of the minor legally capable of giving consent, by the county judge of the county or a justice of the supreme court of the district, in which the minor resides; whose consent shall be necessary to the binding out or apprenticing in pursuance of this section of a minor coming from a foreign country or of the child of an Indian woman, in addition to the other consents herein provided;

6. By the master or employer.

§ 73. Indenture by poor officers; by whom signed. The poor officers of a municipal corporation may, by an execution of the indenture provided by this article bind out or apprentice any minor whose support shall become chargeable to such municipal corporation.

In such case the indenture shall be signed,

1. By the officer or officers binding out or apprenticing the minor;

2. By the master or employer;

3. By the county judge of the county, if the support of such child was chargeable to the county, by two justices of the peace, if chargeable to the town, or by the mayor and aldermen or any two of them, if chargeable to the city.

The poor officers by whom a child is indentured and their successors in office, shall be guardians of every such child and shall inquire into the treatment thereof, and redress any grievance as provided by law.

§ 74. Indenture by a charitable corporation; by whom signed.— Where an orphan asylum or charitable institution is authorized to bind out or apprentice dependent or indigent children committed to its charge, every such child shall, when practicable, be bound out or apprenticed to persons of the same religious faith as the parents of such child, and the indenture shall in such case be signed,

1. In the corporate name of such institution by the officer or officers thereof authorized by the directors to sign the corporate name to such instrument, and shall be sealed with the corporate seal;

2. By the master or employer; and

3. May be signed by the child, if over twelve years of age.

§ 75. Penalty for failure of master or employer to perform provisions of indenture.— If a master or employer to whom a minor has been indentured shall fail, during the term of service, to perform any provision of such indenture, on his part, such minor or any person in his behalf may bring an action

So in original.