SUMMARY CHART X

SYNOPSIS

Almost all states have a statutory requirement that a school census be taken in order to discover the identity and location of individuals who should attend school. All states have compulsory school attendance laws. The statutes of all states stipulate the ages of individuals subject to the compulsory attendance laws.

Every state places the legal responsibility for attendance of minors upon the parents or guardians under penalty of fine for non-compliance.

Every state excuses those who are mentally or physically unfit from the compulsory attendance provisions of the statutes. Other common legal causes for exemption stipulated by the statutes of various states are: undue distance of residence from a public school, previous prescribed school achievement, private or parochial school instruction, and urgent financial need of dependents.

Certain states require part-time or evening continuation education for youthful workers. Illiterate adults are required to attend either evening or part-time day classes in many states. An employer is subject to fine for illegally employing individuals who would attend continuation schools, in twenty-three states.

Many states either prescribe or authorize the employment of attendance officers to assist in the furthering of the educational rights of children and the eradication of illiteracy among adults by enforcing the compulsory school attendance laws. Of fundamental significance are the provisions of several states that those whose welfare may be furthered thereby may be admitted into secondary school classes irrespective of previous achievement.

CHAPTER VII

PROVISIONS FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY OF THOSE
ATTENDING PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS

A great responsibility has been assumed by the states by the enactment of compulsory school attendance laws. Years ago, when all students in public secondary schools were there by their own choice, the responsibility of the states for their physical welfare was not so keenly apparent. Now that every state has statutory requirements which force almost one hundred per cent of all youths into the schools, a situation furnishing the basis for vital and challenging physical welfare problems is created. In the ensuing chapter are presented the statutory provisions of the several states which have been enacted with a view to meeting the new demands for protecting the health and safety of students in the public secondary schools of the United States. Court decisions relating to those statutes that have been involved in litigation are also presented.

No

The provisions included within the statutes of the various states seem to emphasize the general social principal that the selfish liberty of the individual must be subordinated to the general physical welfare of the public secondary school student group. In accordance with this principle, we find state,1 county, and local boards of health given both discretionary and executive powers in protecting the health of public secondary school student bodies.

The State Supreme Court of Arkansas has held that the state board of health has power to require students to be vaccinated or prove immunity from smallpox as a condition of attendance, during a prevalence of smallpox, upon the public schools of the state. Such a

See key number 1373, Summary Chart XI, post
*See key number 1372, Summary Chart XI, post
See key number 1371, Summary Chart XI, post
State v Martin (1918) 134 Ark. 420, 204 S. W. 622

power is not an infringement upon the authority of other agencies to manage or control the public schools, but is rather a reasonable restriction to prevent the spread of infectious or contagious diseases. Therefore, an order from a state board of health to local school directors, directing them to require vaccination before attendance, where an epidemic existed, is valid. The state board of health has legal authority to require vaccination as a condition of attendance upon public schools only when there is a condition of actual or apprehended danger of infection or contagion. 7

6

The statutes of Kentucky grant control of health conditions in the public secondary schools of each county to the county board of health. The authority, thus delegated, was upheld by the Kentucky court in 1916 when a county board of health ordered vaccination of all school children and teachers before admission to the public schools. Such an order was held to be reasonable in a situation where there was a probability of an outbreak of smallpox in the district. The court in an obiter dictum included in the opinion rendered in the case of Hill v Bickers expressed a belief that a state legislature, in exercise of its police power, may require or empower a local school board to require vaccination as a condition of admission, even in absence of, or apprehension of, an outbreak of smallpox. This belief was supported in an official decision of the Michigan Supreme Court in October, 1923. In this Michigan case a local board of health was held to have power to protect the health of the community by requiring vaccination as a general prerequisite to admission to the public schools. 10

Legislatures of many states limit the discretionary powers of local secondary school boards by laws re

Brazil v State (1918) State v Martin (1918) 134 Ark. 420, 204 S. W. 622, 624, 625 State ex rel. Lehman v Partlow (1922) 119 Wash. 316, 205 Pac. 420, 422 'Rhea v Board of Education of Devil's Lake Special School District (1919) 41

N. D. 449, 171 N. W. 103, 105, 106

Rhea v Board of Education of Devil's Lake Special School District (1919) 41

N. D. 449, 171 N. W. 103, 105, 106

Hill et al v Bickers et al (1916) 171 Ky. 705, 188 S. W. 766, 767 10People ex rel. Hill, Health Officer v Board of Education of City of Lansing et al (1923) 224 Mich. 388, 195 N. W. 96, 99

quiring healthful sites.11 and types of building construction that will minimize fire risks and other possibilities for physical injuries to students, 12 elimination of common drinking cups13 and common towels, 14 and other similar provisions.

This restrictive policy has been applied also in legislation affecting employment of teachers and other employees. Several states require that teachers and other public employees must pass a physical examination before being employed. 15 Statutes of many states require the principals and teachers to conduct fire drills at regular intervals. Ten states prescribe, by statutes, certain regulations that school bus drivers must follow as an aid to the protection of the health and safety of students. Five of these states require the driver to furnish a bond in order to insure his faithful performance of duties.

The physical welfare, as well as the mental welfare, of students is quite generally recognized now as a legitimate responsibility of the public school system. Thirty states provide by statutes for the physical examination or inspection of public secondary school students. The Colorado Supreme Court rendered an opinion in 1920 which supported the board of education of Denver in employing specially trained people to give physical examinations to students in the public schools. The chief grounds upon which the opinion was based were that it is universally accepted that public schools may exclude those students from attendance whose physical condition is such as to cause their presence to be a menace to the health of others, and, therefore, an effective system for determining when such conditions are present is both desirable and legal.16

It has also been held that the requirement of a physical examination of students, either by a school