Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-11-26
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
LAW ENFORCED
One Year Of ofCompulsory Attendance
in Maryland Counties
REPORT ON ITS SUCCESS
Keen Demand For Child Labor School
Attendance is a Business
Proposition.


Every child is entitled to a common
school education
1t is unfair to tax a man to educate
his neighbor's child and then permit
the neighbor to keep that child out of
school
The Attendance Law held in school
all last year $500 children who, but
for the law, would have been absent.
Our schools cost annually $50 per
child in attendance.
And these $500 children got $685.
900 worth of schooling.
1t cost only $4,000 to hold them in
school.
Was this good business for the
State?
1t was. 1t paid 500 per cent.
The State Board of Education has
just issued very interesting bulle-
tin, "One Year of Compulsory School
Attendance in the Counties of Mary
land" reporting the experiences of
several counties last year in enforc-
ing the attendance law and showing
increases in attendance by counties.
The increase in the average daily at
tendance in the public schools of the
counties for last year was S,240, while
the increase the year before when at
tendance was not compulsory was only
905 Although many more pupils were
brought into school through the
operation of the law, there was an
Of lie
each day throughout the year than
during the preceding year. Since the
term for colored schools was length
ened in most counties, and since the
demands for child labor were more
acute, owing to industrial conditions
produced by the war, an increase of
S,240 in average attendance is an ex-
cellent showing.
State Superintendent of Schools, NJ.
Bates Stephens, estimates that at
least $500 of the children were held
in school by the work of the school
attendance officers.
Outside of Allegany, Baltimore and
Carroll Counties, few arrests were
made. These three counties made
total of 216 arrests, and all other
counties made a total of only 81 No
arrests were made in Anne Arundel,
Calvert, Caroline, Cecil, st. Mary's,
Prince Georges, and Queen Anne's
Counties In many cases the offender
complied with the law by sending the
child to school as soon as arrested
and the prosecution was dropped. OF
the 160 cases brought to trial, las
we're convicted. First offenders were
usually paroled, with the fines and
costs suspended, pending the return
of the children to school and their
regular attendance.
In most counties local organizations
supplied the needs of the few families
who could not send their children to
school regularly without some form of
relief. The methods employed to edu-
cate parents to the needs of regular
attendance included the distribution
of printed notices, the use of local
newspapers, discussions in school inn
provement associations, and personal
visits to the homes of absent children.
A novel experiment is reported from
Baltimore County, where the parents
of children continually absent with
out lawful excuse were called to meet
ings in the larger schools to discuss
the provisions of the law and the
value of regular school attendance.
Such meetings were held in six of the
larger schools. For each meeting no.
tices were sent to about thirty-five
parents giving them their choice of
either attending the meeting or ap-
pearing at later date before mag
istrate. About 95 per cent Of the
parents notified attended the meetings,
and the results are reported as quite
satisfactory.
The chief difficulty encountered in
most counties was general apathy on
the part of parents of absent children,
and lack of the proper appreciation
by such parents of the benefits of
school training The keen demand
for child labor brought about by the
industrial conditions produced by the
war was also felt in all counties.
1t would seem that the variation in
| the distribution of the attendance Off
| GERS time between Office and field
work is hardly justi6able. In some
counties the attendance officer should
have spent more days in the field and
visited more homes of absent children
The attendance officers who got into
more homes and studied more cases
at first hand developed more school
sentiment and usually secured better
results in enforcing the law. 1t is
| probable that inadequate means oi
travel, and in some counties poor
roads. tended to limit the amount OF
travelling.
During 1856. the year before the
attendance law went into effect, the
total expenses for all public school
purposes in the counties were sS,209,-
1O1.56 The average daily attendance
for the same year was 106,062; thus
the cost of public education was $50
per child in average attendance. Al
this rate, which is less than many
States spend, the education given the
extra 5,504 pupils held in attendance
throughout the year by the attendance
oficsrs was worth $16s,12o. o.