Evening star., 1921-06-29
LAX SCHOOL RULES
IN DISTRICT SHOWN

! Declaring that the present compul-
| sorry education law for the District or
| Columbia is dead letter., Senator
Capper of Kansas has submitted a re-
port on his compulsory education Dill
| from the District committee explain
| ing the" need Of the prompt enact
ment of this legislation.
1 "A recent investigation into the
school situation in the District said
! Senator Capper. disclosed the rather
| startling information that SO FAR as
the standards o, e4.cation. school at
| tendance, etc, are concerned. the Ma
tional Capital compared unfavorably
| with most of the states of the Union.
| This was especially true with respect
to the matter of compulsory educa-
ton.
! Statistics of States.
I A survey of educational laws affect
| ing child labor. made by the chill
! dren's bureau of the Department Of
Labor, showed that compulsory edu-
! cation is now required in every state
in the Union. In five states attendance
| is required until eighteen years of
age. in two of these, in certain dis
trlctS only; in three until seventeen,
and in thirty-two. until sixteen. One
| state requires attendance until fif
| teen; six others, and the District of
| Columbia. fourteen, and one state re-
quires attendance until the age of
twelve years, but applies to illiterates
'His oo IL !" III ne seen tndl tntTt mas
been much laxity in the District SO
far as school attendance is concern
| ed The compulsory education law
passed fifteen years ago is almost a
dead letter.
| 1T was to correct this situation and
improve the standards of the schools
OF the District that this bill was pre-
| Sented. In this connection attention
is invited briefly to desirable changes
which the proposed law makes in the
existing school statutes.
| Under the present law compulsory
school attendance applies only to chill
dren from eight to fourteen years of
age. This bill makes attendance COM
pulSory from seven to sixteen years, ex-
cept that a child of fourteen years or
, over who has completed grade may OBJ
tain work permit to be actually. legally
and regularly employed. If child be-
tween fourteen and sixteen years of age
| is not actually. legally and regularly en-
ployed he must attend school,
May Roam Streets.
No amount of education is specified
under the present law. ANY child
may leave school at fourteen years Of
age. no matter how little schooling
he has received. Such child is not
even required to be at work. but may
leave school to roam the streets This
bill provides that child fourteen
years old must have completed grade
CA64l VI Itildlu IN .ScnOOl until his
sixteenth birthday. The bill also es-
tabiishes an educational standard Of
an elementary school education for
most pupils.
No record of attendance of pupils
is required by law in the District at
TINS time. though the rules OF the
BOARD OF education require the keep
ing OF attendance records. The pro-
posed law requires an accurate daily
record OF attendance of teachers in
public. private and parochial schools,
and of every private teacher
No report of absent pupils is now
required of public school teachers or
OF private or parochial schools or Of
private teachers. 4 child may be alb
sc mt three out Of four days and sue
cessful evade the present law. This
bill requires every principal or head
teacher to report promptly to attend
ance department the names and ad-
dresses Of absentees. And the alb
sentee pupil is reported after two
days sessions of absence or four half
day sessions of absence in any month
No school census is now taken in
the District. Hence no record exists
showing the children of school age
who reside in the District and who
are required by law to attend school
Washington is the only large city in
the United States where this condi-
tion exists.
A census of all children between
three and eighteen years Of age is
required by this bill Eighteen years
is fixed as the upper limit of emu
meration because it is the approx
innate age Of completing high school
knowledge OF children in the District
three, four. five and six years of age
will make possible suitable prepara-
ton for receiving them into school.
This census record will make it pos
sible to enforce the school-attendance
law.
1t is felt that there is no more inn
portant feature Of this proposed law
than that which has to do with the
question of child labor. The child
labor Office now functions directly
under the superintendent OF schools
Inspectors under the child-labor law
are assigned from the police depart
ment It is proposed to consolidate
the child-Iabor office with the new de-
partment OF school attendance and