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are definitely and plainly described in the records of the proper town clerks, and when found defective, indefinite, or disputed, to cause the same to be amended at the expense of the district or districts affected.

2. To examine all the schools and school districts within his district as often in each year as shall be practicable; to inquire into all matters relating to the management, the course of study and mode of instruction, and the text-books and discipline of such schools, and the condition of the schoolhouses, sites, outbuildings and appendages, and of the district generally; to examine the district libraries; to advise with and counsel the trustees and other officers of the district in relation to their duties, and particularly in respect to the construction, warming, and ventilation of schoolhouses and the improving and adorning of the school grounds connected therewith, and to recommend to the trustees and teachers the proper studies, discipline, and management of the schools and the course of instruction to be pursued.

3. Upon such examination to direct the trustees to make any alteration or repair on the schoolhouse or outbuildings necessary for the health or comfort of the pupils, not to exceed the sum of $200, unless an additional sum shall be voted by the district. He may also direct the trustee to make any alterations or repairs to school furniture when it is unfit for use or to be repaired and to provide sufficient furniture, not to exceed the sum of $100. He may also direct the trustees to abate any nuisance in or upon the premises. provided the same can be done at an expense not exceeding $25.

4. By an order under his hand, reciting the reason or reasons, to condemn a schoolhouse if he deems it wholly unfit for use and not worth repairing, and to deliver the order to the trustees, or one of them, and transmit a copy to the superintendent of public instruction. Such order, if no time for its taking effect be stated in it, shall take effect immediately. He shall also state what sum, not exceeding $800, will, in his opinion, be necessary to erect a schoolhouse capable of accommodating the children of the district. Immediately upon the receipt of said order the trustee or trustees of such district shall call a special meeting of the inhabitants of said district for the purpose of considering the question of building a schoolhouse therein. Such meeting shall have power to determine the size of said schoolhouse, the material to be used in its erection, and to vote a tax to build the same; but such meeting shall have no power to reduce the estimate made by the commissioner aforesaid by more than 25 per cent of such estimate. And where no tax for building such house shall have been voted by such district within thirty days from the time of holding the first meeting to consider the question, then it shall be the duty of the trustee or trustees of such district to contract for the building of a schoolhouse capable of accommodating the children of the district, and to levy a tax to pay for the same, not to exceed the sum estimated as necessary by the commissioner, and which shall not be less than such estimated sum by mor than 25 per cent thereof. But such estimated sum may be increased by a vote of the inhabitants at any school meeting subsequently called and held according to law.

5. To examine, under such rules and regulations as have been or may be prescribed by the State superintendent, persons proposing to teach common schools within his district and not possessing the superintendent's certificate of qualification or a diploma of the State normal school, and to inquire into their moral fitness and capacity, and, if he find them qualified, to grant them certificates of qualification in the forms which are or may be prescribed by the superintendent. 6. To examine any charge affecting the moral character of any teacher within his district, first giving such teacher reasonable notice of the charge, and an opportunity to defend himself therefrom; and if he find the charge sustained, to annul the teacher's certificate, by whomsoever granted, and to declare him unfit to teach; and if the teacher held certificate of the superintendent, or a diploma of the State normal school, to notify the superintendent forthwith of such annulment and declaration.

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7. And, generally, to use his utmost influence and most strenuous exertions to promote sound education, elevate the character and qualifications of teachers, improve the means of instruction, and advance the interest of the schools under his supervision.

The commissioner may administer oaths relating to the public school affairs, and by direction of the State superintendent may subpœna witnesses. An appeal from his action may be carried to the State superintendent.

District trustees and board of education. -Each school commissioner subdivides the territory of his district into school districts, and the inhabitants of each subdivision entitled to vote shall elect by ballot one or three trustees-one retiring annually-a district clerk, and a district collector, and, if the district so determine,

a treasurer. The trustee or trustees of a district compose a board, vacancies to be filled at a special meeting of the district. They call special meetings of the inhabitants; make out a tax list of every district tax voted by the district; purchase or lease sites for schoolhouses, and build and furnish them and hire rooms or buildings for school purposes and supply fuel and other incidentals, but the expense for furnishing and incidental running expenses shall not exceed $50 in any one year, unless authorized by the district; insure the buildings and furniture; employ teachers and fix their compensation and term of service, but not for fewer than ten weeks unless to fill a vacancy; establish rules for the government and discipline of the schools and the course of study to be pursued therein; see that the conditions of the school buildings are good hygienically; report to the district annually and to the school commissioner as follows: The duration of the term of schools, their expenditures for teachers' wages and for books and school apparatus, the number of children in the district schools and the sum of the days' attendance, the number of children 5 to 21 residing in the district, and the names of the parents or persons with whom they reside, the number of vaccinated children of school age, the amount of money paid for teachers' wages in addition to the public money paid therefor, the amount of taxes levied in said district for purchasing schoolhouse sites, for building, hiring, purchasing, repairing, and insuring such schoolhouses, for fuel, for school libraries, or for any other purpose allowed by law, and such other information as the superintendent may require.

Whenever 15 legal voters of one or more school districts shall sign a call, a meeting shall be held for the formation of a union free-school district. Such union district shall elect not fewer than three nor more than nine trustees, one-third of whom shall retire annually, called, collectively, the board of education. This board shall have in all respects the superintendence, management, and control of said union free schools, and power to establish in the same an academical department whenever, in their judgment, it is warranted, and shall possess all the powers and privileges and be subject to all the duties in respect to the common schools which the trustees of common (district) schools possess or are subject to.

Superintendent of cities and union free-school districts. - In an incorporated village having a population of 5,000 and upward, or in any union free-school district having a like population, the board of education may appoint a superintendent of schools having such powers and duties as the board may prescribe.

Attendance (truant) officers. - City and union free-school districts shall appoint and remove at pleasure one or more attendance officers, fix their compensation, and may make regular times, in conformity with the compulsory-education law, for the performance of their duties under the supervision of the local superintendent. if there be one.

2. TEACHERS.

Appointment and qualifications. Duties. --Preliminary training.--Meetings.

Appointment and qualifications. No teacher is a qualified one, within the meaning of this act, unless he possesses an unannulled diploma granted to him by the State normal school, or an unrevoked and unannulled certificate of qualification given to him by the superintendent of public instruction, or an unexpired certificate of qualification given to him by the school commissioner within whose district he is employed.

No person shall be qualified to teach who is under the age of 16 years, nor shall a person related to a trustee by blood or marriage be employed except by the approval of two-thirds of the voters at a district meeting, nor shall the trustees contract with a teacher for more than one year in advance. No part of the school moneys apportioned to a district can be applied or permitted to be applied to the payment of the wages of an unqualified teacher, nor can they or any part of them be collected by a district tax. Any trustee who applies, or directs, or consents to the application of any such money to the payment of an unqualified teacher's wages commits a misdemeanor. Teachers shall keep, prepare, and enter in the books provided for that purpose the school lists and accounts of attendance hereinafter mentioned, and shall be responsible for their safe-keeping and delivery to the clerk of the district at the close of their engagements or terms. Willful failure to attend an institute shall be sufficient cause for the revocation of the delinquent's license.

Preliminary training. There shall be annually appropriated out of the income of the United States deposit fund the sum of $30,000, and out of the free-school

Not more than one member of a family shall be a member of the same board of education in any school district.

fund the sum of $30,000, for the instruction of competent persons in academies and union schools in the science and practice of common-school teaching under a course to be prescribed by the State superintendent, the academies and union schools to be designated by him with reference to the school districts in each. Every academy or union school so designated shall instruct a class of not fewer than 10 nor more than 25 scholars, each of whom shall continue under instruction not fewer than sixteen weeks, unless excused for cause by the State superintendent, who shall prescribe the conditions of admission to the classes, the course of instruction, and the rules and regulations under which said instruction shall be given, and the number of classes which may be formed in any one year, and the length of time exceeding sixteen weeks, during which such instruction may be given. Instruction is free, and the trustees of the school are allowed $1 for each week's instruction of a scholar. The classes are subject to the visitation of the school commissioner.

[The 11 State normal schools of New York appear to have been organized by special acts under the general provisions of the act of April 7, 1866, the material features of which are as follows:

The governor, the lieutenant-governor, the secretary of state, the comptroller, the State treasurer, the attorney-general, and the superintend superintendent of public instruction shall constitute a commission to receive proposals in writing in regard to the establishment of normal and training schools for the education and discipline of teachers in the common schools of this State from the board of supervisors of any county, from the corporate authority of any village or city, from the board of trustees of any college or academy, and from one or more individuals; but the number of proposals accepted shall not be more than four. Such proposals shall contain specifications for the purchase of lands and the erection thereon of suitable buildings for such schools, or for the appropriation of land and buildings for such use, also the furnishing of such schools and everything necessary to their support. The proposals may have in view either the grant and conveyance of such land and premises to the State, or the use of the same for a limited time and for the gift to the State of furniture, apparatus, etc., necessary to conduct such school.

If the proposals made by any board of supervisors, or by the corporate authorities of any city or village, shall be accepted, said board or corporate authorities shall have the power to raise, by tax, and expend the money necessary to carry the same into effect; and if in their judgment it shall be deemed expedient, they shall have power to borrow money for such purpose for any time not exceeding ten years, and at a rate of interest not exceeding 7 per cent, and issue the corporate bonds of said county, city, or village therefor.

When the said commission shall have accepted proposals it shall certify the same in writing, and then their power under this act in relation to such school shall cease, and thereupon the superintendent of public instruction shall appoint a local board, consisting of not less than 3 persons nor more than 13 persons who shall, respectively, hold their offices until removed by the concurrent action of the chancellor of the university and the superintendent of public instruction, and who shall have the immediate supervision and management of such school, subject, however, to his general supervision and to his direction in all things pertaining to the school. It shall be the duty of such board to make rules and regulations for the government of such schools, subject to the approval of the superintendent of public instruction. They shall also severally transmit through him, and subject to his approval, 1, a report report to the legislature on the 1st day of January in each year, showing the condition of the school under their charge during the year next preceding, and which report shall be in such form and contain such an account of their acts and doings as the superintendent shall direct, including especially an account in detail of their receipts and expenditures, which shall be duly verified by the oath or affirmation of their chairman and secretary.

The sum of $12,000 shall be annually appropriated for the support of each normal school payable out of the common-school fund.]

Meetings. The State superintendent shall annually appoint a teachers' institute once in each year in each school commissioner's district for the benefit and instruction of the teachers in the public schools and intending teachers, with special reference to the presentation of subjects relating to the principles of education and methods of instruction in the various branches of study pursued in the schools. He shall also fix the duration of the institute and the number and compensation of its instructors. The school commissioner shall notify all school officers, teachers, and candidates for teacher's certificate of the time and place of the institute and assist the conductor, and he has the right, when appointed, to hold an institute in any school building without expense to the State beyond allowance

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for janitor's fees and lights and fuel. During the duration of an institute all the schools of a district shall be closed. Union school districts of 5,000, employing a superintendent, may close or not. There shall be annually appropriated out of the free-school fund the sum of $30,000 for the maintenance of teachers' institutes. There is a law allowing a town at its annual meeting to pension teachers who have served 25 years continuously. The provisions of this law will appear in a chapter on "Pensions for Teachers," in the next report of this Bureau.

3. SCHOOLS.

Attendance.-Character of instruction. -Text-books.-Buildings.

Attendance.-Common schools shall be free to all 5 to 21 years of age, but children 4 years of age or more shall be admitted to kindergartens. Cities, incorporated villages, and union and special districts may establish separate schools for the instruction of colored youth 5 to 20 years of age.

Every child between 8 and 16 years of age, in proper physical and mental condition to attend school, shall regularly attend upon instruction at a school in which at least the common-school branches of reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, and geography are taught, or upon equivalent instruction by a competent teacher elsewhere than at a public school, as follows:

Every child between 14 and 16 years of age not regularly and lawfully engaged in any useful employment or service, and every child between 8 and 12 years of age, shall so attend upon instruction as many days annually, during the period between the first days of October and the following June, as the public school of the district or city in which such child resides shall be in session.

Every child between 12 and 14 years of age shall attend upon instruction during said period at least eighty consecutive secular days, unless sickness, holidays, or vacations prevent, and absence for sickness, holidays, or vacations shall not be counted as part of said eighty days. In addition to the said eighty days, every such child shall attend upon instruction every school day when not regularly and lawfully engaged in any useful employment or service, unless prevented by sickness or just cause.

If any such child shall so attend upon instruction elsewhere than at a public school, such instruction shall be at least substantially equivalent to that given to children of like age at the public school of the city or district in which such child resides; and such attendance shall be for at least as many hours of each day as are required of children of like age at public schools, and no greater total amount of holidays and vacations shall be deducted from such attendance during the period such attendance is required than is allowed in such public school to children of like age; but occasional absences from such attendance, not amounting to irregular attendance, shall be allowed upon such excuses only as would be allowed in like cases in such public school.

The teacher of every school shall keep an accurate record of the attendance of all children between 8 and 16 years of age, showing such attendance each day by the year, month, day of the month, and day of the week, and the number of hours in each day thereof; and each teacher upon whose instruction any such child shall attend elsewhere than at a public school shall keep a like record of such attendance.

Such record shall at all times be open to the attendance officers or other persons duly authorized by the school authorities [this term means the trustees or board of education or corresponding officers, whether one or more, by whatever name known, of a city union free school district, common-school district, or school district created by special law] of the city or district, who may inspect or copy the same; and every such teacher shall fully answer all pertinent and reasonable inquiries made by such school authorities, inspectors, or other persons; and a willful neglect or refusal so to answer any such inquiry shall be a misdemeanor. Every person in parental relation to any child [this term means and includes the parents, guardians, and other persons, one or more, having the care, custody, or control of such child] between 8 and 16 years of age, in proper physical and mental condition to attend school, shall cause such child to so as aforesaid attend upon instruction, or shall give notice to the school authorities of his or her city or district of his or her inability so to do. Any violation of the foregoing provisions shall be a misdemeanor, punishable for the first offense by a fine not exceeding $5, and for each subsequent offense by a fine not exceeding $50, or by imprisonment not exceeding ing thirty days, or both such fine and imprisonment.

Courts of special sessions shall, subject to removal as provided in sections 57 and 58 of the code of criminal procedure, have exclusive jurisdiction in the first instance to hear, try, and determine charges of violations of the foregoing provisions within their respective jurisdictions.

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It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to employ any child between the ages of 8 and 12 years in any business or service whatever during any part of the term during which the public schools of the district in which the child resides are in session, or to employ any child between 12 and 14 years of age who does not, at the time of such employment, present a certificate signed by the superintendent of schools of the city or district in which the child resides, or, where there is no superintendent, by such other officer as the school authorities may designate, certifying that such child has complied with the law relating to attendance at school during the school year between September and July then current; and any person, firm, or corporation who shall employ any child contrary to the foregoing provisions 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 offense shall occur, a penalty of $50, the same, when paid, to be added to the public-school moneys of the city, village, or district in which the offense occurred.

The attendance officer may arrest without warrant any child between 8 and 16 years of age found away from his or her home, and who is a truant from instruction upon which he or she is lawfully required to attend, within the city or district of such attendance officer. He shall forthwith deliver a 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 in section 9 of said law. The attendance officer shall promptly report such arrest and the disposition made by him of such child to the school authorities of his city or district, or to such person as they may direct.

The school authorities of a city or union free school district may establish schools or set apart separate rooms in public school buildings for children between 7 and 16 years of age who are habitual truants from instruction which they are lawfully required to attend, or who are insubordinate or disorderly during their attendance upon instruction or irregular in such attendance. Such school or room 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 may, after reasonable notice to such child and the persons in parental relation to such child, order such child to attend such school or to be confined and maintained therein for such period and under such rules and regulations as such authorities may prescribe, not exceeding the remainder of the school year, or may order such 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 of such orders, such conduct of the child shall be deemed disorderly conduct, and the child may be proceeded against as a disorderly person, and if, upon conviction, the child was lawfully required to attend a public school, the child shall be sentenced to be confined and maintained in such fruant school for the remainder of the current school year, 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 the balance of such school year in such private school, orphans' home, or other similar instruction, 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 a child for a reasonable compensation, which shall be a charge against the city or district. 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 or she may be lawfully required to attend. Every hild 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 or county having a truant school for the confinement, maintenance, and instruction therein of children 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 State superintendent of public instruction has the power to employ assistants. It shall be the duty of such assistants to make investigation and to report to said State superintendent under his instructions the extent to which said

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