The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-02
Child Welfare Department Report Urges Cooperation;
 PitiabLe Cases Are Cited

in conduct and scholarship. In Annis- ton 5f per cent contributed to the family
 income. ie per cent wasted their earn irgs, and less than 50 per cent were pro- noted at the end of the scl,)l year.
 c eater interest is now bens mani
 tested by school superintendents and others given specific duties by the laws, out Mrs. Bush said the lack of interest on the part of some co-workers given responsibilities by law without ex- tra compensation had been somewhat discouraging. Good support has come from those cities where school attend ance officers have been made the OIL cers for the issuance of certificates en- titling children to work. The attendance officers often have found no economic reason for children to quit school anu
 have spoken to parents with the result 1 that the children were not perHhlteeu ;" give up their school work,
 TABULATED RESULT
 1 The result is shown by the decrease ! in employment certificates in Birming- | ham Mobile and Montgomery, as follows:
 Birmingham: 1918, S30; 1919, 319; 1920 2SS.
 Mobile: 191s 1es; 19i9,' 135; 1920, IF, 4 l Montgomery: 1918. 274; 1919, 231; 1920 2li. | Summarizing the work of the child labor division. the report said: 'The l years work in this division has been | fraught with discouragenent, but we l have the consciousness that q founda- tion has been laid upon which Will be | built in the future a substantial struc- ] ture for the protection of children, How ever if we really mean to take our chil- ] dren out of factories and shops and off 1 the streets, we must, of necessity, place them in school-schools of the sort which | will meet their work instincts and their play instncts-and further, the state and the communities must see the necessity of providing our children with whole some environments when out ot school. Attention also was called to the fact saat Alabama standards do not approach the standards adopted by the child welfare
 conference at Washington last year.
 WELFARE AGENCIES
 i Much attention of the department dur ing the last four months of the year II was given to the perfection of the or
 ranization for the supervision of insti- ltutions and agencies caring for children. Tn this work the department noted that
 t had been met with varying degrees of | success, cooperation being gladly given 1 oy the officials of some institutions
 while others indicated an opinion that The state should exercise no supervision | over their institutions.
 1 Permits are issued by the department for all institutions coming under this law and the child welfare commission
 this week adopted rules and regulations which establish minimum requirements , for them Any institution which scanno or will not meet the minimum require : ments will be refused permit, whicf
 must be issued by the department. A survey of institutions within thg , class was made by the department an' : it waslfound that in a great majority O instances are inadequate while equlpmeh was foand to be scanty. The report Wa
 rather critical of the institutions as
 whole but specific mention was mad' of instances where equipment and pulld ines are good and the work as nea nerfect as can be done under the cir cumstances.
 5 LIST OF STATISTICS
 ] Figures from institutions making re
 1 ,orts of admissions and discharges, in i eresting facts are revealed. Nine.eel .per cent were admitted because o ], death of mother; 26 per cent because 0 ! ldeath of father; per cent because o : ldeath of both parents; per cen
 abandoned by mother; 19 per cea |, abandoned by father; per cent, aban
 doned by both parents: per cent, com
 mitted by courts, and per cent n F reason shown. s
 < Seventy per cent of those discharge d were taken by father or mother, 10 pc s cent by other relatives, 2 per cent b : transfer to other institutions and l e per cent ran away.
 6 During the period covered by the in r lspections of this division. it was foun l. that 1,S21 children are cared for in in h stitutions, SIS by Children's Aid society