shall be paid in equal monthly installments, not later than five days after the close of each month while the school shall be in session. Teachers employed in any graded school supported in whole or in part by State moneys shall receive salaries proportioned to their experience and success in the school district where they may be employed, the minimum salary ranging from $408 per annum for assistant teachers in primary and grammar schools and kindergartens, with less than two years' experience, to a minimum of $3,000 per annum for principals of high schools, with five years' experience and upward. Any contract or engagement between a board of education and a teacher shall cease and determine and be of no effect against said board whenever said board shall ascertain by notice in writing received from the county or city superintendent or otherwise, that said teacher is not in possession of a proper teacher's certificate in full force and effect, notwithstanding the term or engagement for which such contract shall have been made may not then have expired.

Duties. Every teacher in a public school shall keep a school register in the manner provided therefor, and no salary shall be paid to such teacher until the district clerk or other officer or person authorized to deliver the check, order, or warrant for such salary shall ascertain that such register has been properly kept for the time for which salary is demanded, and shall enter upon said register a certificate to that effect. A teacher shall hold every pupil accountable in school for disorderly conduct on the way to or from school, or on the playgrounds of the school, or during recess, and shall suspend from school any pupil for good cause. No principal, teacher, or other person employed or engaged in any capacity in any school or educational institution, whether public or private, shall inflict or cause to be inflicted corporal punishment upon any pupil attending such school or institution.

No religious service or exercise, except the reading of the Bible and the repeating of the Lord's Prayer, shall be held in any school receiving any portion of the moneys appropriated for the support of public schools.

No teacher shall be required to serve on any jury in this State while his school shall be in session.

Preliminary training.-State normal schools shall be maintained for the purpose of training and educating persons in the science of education and art of teaching. The name and title of each such school shall be designated by the State board of education. Tuition in said schools shall be free.

The State board of education shall have the control and care of the buildings and grounds owned and used by the State for normal schools and of the funds for the support thereof; shall appoint and remove principals, teachers, and other employees, and shall fix their salaries; shall purchase and furnish text-books, apparatus, and supplies for the use of the pupils; shall prescribe courses of study for such schools; shall make rules for their management, and shall grant diplomas.

Each county shall be entitled to at least six times as many pupils in such schools as it shall have representatives in the legislature. In case any county shall not have the full number of pupils to which it shall be entitled, pupils may be admitted from other counties. Pupils when admitted shall sign a declaration that they intend to teach in the public schools of this State for at least two years immediately after being graduated unless excused temporarily by the State board of education, and that if they do not so teach they will refund to the State the cost of their education.

The State board of education may maintain model schools under regular teachers, in which pupils of the normal schools shall have the opportunity to observe and practice approved methods of instruction and discipline.

Teachers' institutes.-The State superintendent of public instruction shall procure instructors and lecturers for teachers' institutes. To defray the expenses incurred in holding said institutes there shall be paid to him annually by the State treasurer, upon the warrant of the State comptroller, a sum not exceeding $4,000. Said State superintendent of public instruction shall make annually to the State board of education an itemized report of the expenses incurred in holding said teachers' institutes during the year for which said report shall be made. [An institute is prepared for each county; joint institutes are to be held when practicable. All teachers are required to attend the annual institute of their respective counties. (Rules and regulations of the State board of education.)]

ED 1904 M- -27

3. SCHOOLS.

Attendance-Text-books-Buildings.

Compulsory education.-Every parent, guardian, or other person having the legal control of a child between the ages of 7 and 14 years shall, unless such child is being taught at home in the branches usually taught in public schools to children of his or her age, send such child to a day school each day while such school shall be in session, unless it shall be shown to the satisfaction of the board of education of the school district in which such parent, guardian, or other person shall reside that the bodily or mental condition of such child is such as to prevent his or her attendance at school.

Any parent, guardian, or other person having the legal control of any child who shall fail to comply with the provisions of this act shall be deemed to be a disorderly person, and upon sworn complaint made by the truant officer or other person designated to any justice of the peace, police justice, or city or town recorder acting as such within the municipality wherein such school district shall be situate shall be apprehended upon warrant issued to any constable of the county, and upon conviction shall be punishable as a disorderly person.

Truant officer.-The board of education of each school district may appoint, and may remove at pleasure, one or more persons to be designated as truant officers, and may fix their compensation, prescribe their duties, not inconsistent with the provisions of this article, and shall make rules and regulations for the performance of such duties.

The police authorities in any municipality having an organized police force shall, upon the written request of the board of education of the school district situate in such municipality, detail one or more members of said police force to act as truant officers.

Truant disorderly person.--Every child between the ages of 7 and 14 years who shall be repeatedly absent from school, or found away from home during school hours, or whose parent, guardian, or other person having legal control of such child, is unable to cause him to attend school, or who shall be habitually a truant from school, or who shall habitually wander about the streets and public places of any municipality during school hours having no lawful business or occupation, or any pupil who shall be incorrigible, actually vagrant, vicious, or immoral in conduct shall be deemed and adjudged to be a disorderly person and proceeded against as [such].

Every truant officer or other person designated by a board of education, who shall find any child between 7 and 14 years of age away from home during school hours, who shall then be a truant from school, shall take such child and deliver him to his parent, guardian, or other person having legal control of such child, or to the teacher of the school which said child is lawfully required to attend. [The truant officer shall examine into cases of truancy, when requested to do so by the inspector of factories and workshops or the district board of education, and warn the pupil, or the parent or guardian, in writing, and request that the truant attend school within five days therefrom. In case of noncompliance the parent, etc., is to be regarded as a disorderly person.]

Parental school. The board of education of any school district may establish and maintain a school or schools, or may set apart separate rooms in a public school building for the use, restraint, and instruction of children between the ages of 7 and 14 years who shall be habitual truants from school, or who shall be habitually insubordinate or incorrigible and disorderly during their attendance at school. Such school or room shall be known as a parental school.

Said board of education may compel any such child to attend such parental school and, with the consent, in writing, of the parent, guardian, or other person having legal control of such child, may cause such child to be restrained and instructed therein for such a period and under such rules and regulations as said board of education may prescribe.

Free schools.--Public schools shall be free to all persons over 5 and under 20 years of age who shall be residents of the school district. Nonresidents of a school district, if otherwise competent, may be admitted to the schools of said district with the consent of the board of education, upon such terms as said board may prescribe: Provided, That the authority to charge tuition for nonresident pupils conferred by this section shall not apply to nonresident pupils transferred to any district by an order of the county superintendent of schools.

Whenever in any district there shall be children living remote from the schoolhouse, the board of education of such district may make rules and contracts for the transportation of such children to and from school.

Any child living remote from any public school in the district in which he or she shall reside shall be allowed to attend a public school in an adjoining district, with the consent of the county superintendent of schools.

No child between the ages of 4 and 20 years shall be excluded from any public school on account of his or her religion, nationality, or color,

Text-books.-Text-books and school supplies shall be furnished free of cost for use by all pupils in the public schools. Every school district shall raise and appropriate annually in the same manner as other school moneys shall be raised and appropriated in such district an amount sufficient to pay for such text-books and supplies. Every board of education shall make rules for the safe-keeping and proper care of text-books, and shall keep an account of all moneys expended by it for such text-books and supplies, and shall report the same in its annual financial statement. It shall be unlawful for any county superintendent of schools, member of a board of education, teacher, or any person officially connected with the public schools to be agent for or to be in any way pecuniarily or beneficially interested in the sale of any text-books, maps, charts, school apparatus, or supplies of any kind, or to receive compensation or reward of any kind for any such sale or for unlawfully promoting or favoring the same. A violation of the provisions of this section shall be punishable by removal from office or by revocation of certificate to teach.

Buildings. Each school district shall provide suitable school facilities and accommodations for all children residing in the district and desiring to attend the public schools therein.

[Each schoolhouse is to have two suitable and convenient outhouses or waterclosets, entirely separate from each other and having separate means of access, with a substantial closed fence between the buildings when detached from the schoolhouse. Noncompliance punished by withholding school funds.]

The State superintendent of public instruction shall procure architects' plans and specifications for school buildings and full detail working plans therefor. In the preparation of such plans due regard shall be given to proper heating, lighting, ventilating, and other hygienic requirements. Said plans and specifications shall be approved by the State board of education and shall be loaned to any district desiring to erect a new school building.

In any schoolhouse of two or more stories in height the doors leading from the class rooms to the corridors and from said corridors to the street or to the ground surrounding such schoolhouse shall open outwardly. All swing doors shall have plate glass windows of suitable dimensions.

In order that the health, sight, and comfort of the pupils may be properly protected, all schoolhouses hereafter erected shall comply with the following conditions: Light shall be admitted from the left or from the left and rear of class rooms, and the total light area must, unless strengthened by the use of reflecting lenses, equal at least 20 per cent of floor space. Schoolhouses shall have in each class room at least 18 square feet of floor space and not less than 200 cubic feet of air space per pupil. All school buildings shall have an approved system of ventilation, by means of which each class room shall be supplied with fresh air at the rate of not less than 30 cubic feet per minute for each pupil. All ceilings shall be at least 12 feet in height. All stairs, except cellar stairs, shall be not less than 4 feet in width and shall have intermediate landings. The several flights of stairs shall be inclosed by brick walls or by partitions of slow-burning construction and without open well holes. The risers of stairs shall not exceed 7 inches in height, and the treads shall be at least 10 inches in width, exclusive of the projecting nosings. Every schoolhouse having eight rooms shall have two flights of stairs of not less than 4 feet in width, or, in lieu thereof, one flight of stairs situated near the center of the building, not less than 6 feet in width. Every school building having more than eight and less than sixteen rooms shall have two flights of stairs not less than 5 feet in width. Every schoolhouse having sixteen or more rooms shall have three flights of stairs not less than 4 feet in width, or, in lieu thereof, two complete flights of stairs not less than 6 feet in width. Every building more than one story in height shall have metal ceilings, Wooden ceilings painted white, or some light tint or plastered ceilings on metal lath.

4. FINANCES.

Funds (permanent and special)—Taxation..

School fund.The governor, the attorney-general, the secretary of state, the State comptroller, and the State treasurer are hereby constituted a board of trustees of the fund for the support of public schools arising from appropriations heretofore made or which may be hereafter made by law, or which may arise from gift, grant, bequest, or devise, which board shall be known as “the trustees for the support of public schools.”

All lands belonging to this State now or formerly lying under water are appropriated for the support of public schools, and all moneys hereafter received from the sales of such lands shall be paid to "the trustees for the support of public schools," and shall be invested by said board, and shall constitute a part of the permanent school fund of the State.

All leases which have been heretofore made, or which shall be hereafter made, of such lands shall be held by "the trustees for the support of public schools," as a part of the principal of the school fund, and the income arising from said leases shall be a part of the income of said school fund.

Moneys belonging to the school fund shall be invested by said board in the bonds of the several school districts of this State, or in the bonds of the United States, or of this State, or in the bonds of any county, city, incorporated town, township, or borough of this State, the total indebtedness of which shall not exceed in the aggregate 15 per cent of the total assessable valuation of all taxable property therein, and the interest thereof shall be a part of the income of said school fund. The income of said school fund shall be used for the support of public schools, the payment of the salaries of the county superintendents of schools, the payment of premiums and accrued interest on bonds purchased by "the trustees for the support of the public schools," and for no other use or purpose whatsoever. An account of the management of said fund shall be laid before the legislature with the annual statements of the State treasurer's accounts. No compensation shall be paid to said trustees or treasurer for any services performed in pursuance of this article.

There shall be annually apportioned and paid from the income of the school fund for the support of public schools $200,000. If the income of said fund shall have not been received in full, or shall be insufficient for such appropriation, the sum necessary to make up the deficiency shall be drawn from the State treasury on the warrant of the State comptroller, which sum so drawn as aforesaid shall be replaced from the income of said school fund as soon as the same shall have been received.

The State superintendent of public instruction shall equitably apportion to the several counties the amount appropriated for the support of public schools from the State school fund on the basis of the aggregate number of days' attendance of all pupils attending the public schools during the year preceding that for which said apportionment shall be made, and shall furnish to the State comptroller and to the several county superintendents of schools and county collectors an abstract of such apportionment, and of the apportionment of the moneys due to the several counties from the State school tax and from the reserve fund, and shall draw his orders on the State comptroller and in favor of the county collector of each county for the amount to which such county shall be entitled.

Taxation. For the purpose of maintaining free public schools there shall be appropriated each year from any moneys in the State treasury not otherwise appropriated such sum, not less than $100,000, as may be determined by the legislature in the annual appropriation act; which sum shall be apportioned among and paid to the several counties in the proportion that the ratables of each of said counties shall bear to the total ratables of the State as exhibited by the latest abstract of ratables filed in the office of the State comptroller. In addition to the amount so determined and appropriated, a State school tax shall be annually assessed, levied, and collected upon the taxable real and personal property in the State, as exhibited by the latest abstract of ratables from the several counties made out by the several boards of assessors and filed in the office of the State comptroller. Said tax shall be such an amount as will make, when added to the amount determined and appropriated as aforesaid, a sum equal to 2 mills on each dollar of valuation of the taxable real and personal property in the State as exhibited by the last abstract of ratables from the several counties made out

by the several boards of assessors and filed in the office of the State comptroller, which tax shall be assessed, levied, and collected at the same time and in the same manner as other taxes shall be assessed, levied, and collected. The State comptroller shall apportion said tax and appropriation among the several counties in proportion to the amount of taxable real and personal estate of said counties, respectively.

The legal voters of each township, incorporated town, or borough school district may, at any annual or special meeting of said legal voters, by the vote of a majority of those present, raise by special district tax such sum or sums as a majority of said legal voters present at such meeting may agree upon for any or all of the following purposes: To enable the board of education to purchase or take and condemn land for school purposes; to build, enlarge, repair, or furnish a schoolhouse, or to pay a debt incurred therefor; for industrial schools, for manual training, and for the current expenses of the schools, in which term shall be included principals', teachers', janitors', and medical inspectors' salaries, fuel, text-books, school supplies, flags, transportation of pupils, tuition of pupils attending schools in other districts with the consent of the board of education, school libraries, compensation of the district clerk, of the custodian of the school moneys, and of truant officers; truant schools, insurance, and the incidental expenses of the schools.

NEW YORK.

[Mr. Edwin M. Holbrook, counsel to the department of education of New York, informs the Bureau that the present digest of the school law of that State will need another revision very soon. He says: "It is probable that the legislature of 1905 will adopt a revision of all laws relating to schools, and also of the university law."]

1. ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM.

Commissioner of education-School commissioners-District trustees and board of education-Superintendent-Attendance (truant) officers.

The office of superintendent of public instruction and the office of secretary of the board of regents shall be abolished from and after April 1, 1904, and the powers and duties of said offices shall be exercised and performed by the commissioner of education. All the powers and duties of the board of regents in relation to the supervision of elementary and secondary schools, including all schools except colleges and technical and professional schools are hereby devolved upon the commissioner of education. The said commissioner of education shall also act as the executive officer of the board of regents. He shall have power to create such departments as in his judgment shall be necessary. He shall also have power to appoint deputies and heads of such departments, subject to the approval of the State board of regents.

Within ten days after the passage of this act the legislature shall elect a commissioner of education in the same manner as members of the board of regents are now elected, who either may or may not be a resident of the State of New York. The commissioner shall receive an annual salary of $7,500, payable monthly, and shall also be paid $1,500 in lieu and in full for his traveling and other expenses, also payable monthly. The commissioner of education first elected shall serve for the term of six years, unless sooner removed for cause by the board of regents, and the legislature shall fill any vacancy that may occur during such period of six years for the balance of the term, and all successors in office after such term of six years shall serve during the pleasure of the board of regents, and all vacancies in the office of commissioner of education after such six years shall be filled by appointment by the board of regents.

On and after the 1st day of April, 1904, the corporation designated by the constitution as the University of the State of New York" shall be governed and its corporate powers exercised by eleven regents. There shall be no "ex officio " members of the board of regents.

Within ten days after the passage of this act the legislature shall proceed to the election of eleven regents of the University of the State of New York in the manner now prescribed by the law for the election of a regent. Such regents shall be elected for the term of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven years, respectively, from the 1st day of April, 1904, and, so far as may be, one shall be chosen from each judicial district.