St. Clair County Schools

1919 Attendance Laws

St. Clair County Democrat
14 August 1919

Notice To Parents and Guardians
Provisions of Compulsory Attendance Law

1 – Every child between 7 and 14 years old must attend day school the entire term each year.

2 – Every child between 14 and 16 years old, when not regularly employed for six hours a day in some useful employment, must attend some day school the entire term each year.

3 – The attendance officer or courts having jurisdiction (Justice of the Peace or Juvenile division of the Circuit Court) may excuse children from attending school for the following reasons: (1) Child is mentally or physically unable to attend; (2) child has completed the common school course or its equivalent, and has received certificate of graduation therefrom.

4 – It is the duty of attendance officers to notify parents and guardians when children fail to comply with the provisions of the law.

5 – THE SECRETARY OR CLERK OF BOARD MUST FURNISH PRINCIPAL OR TEACHER AT BEGINNING OF THE TERM WITH COPY OF ENUMERATION. The Principal or teacher must compare the list with enrollment and report at the end of each week during the first month, once a month thereafter, and oftener if necessary, the names of non-attendants to the County Superintendent of Schools.

6 – The penalty for non-attendance falls on parent or guardian, and is a fine of not less than $10.00 nor more than $25.00, or imprisonment for not less than two days nor more than ten days, or both such fine and imprisonment.

Following are some of the powers of the attendance officers:

He may require a properly attested birth certificate or an affidavit stating child’s age. He shall have the right to visit and enter any mine, office, factory, workshop, business house, place of amusement, or other places in which children are employed or engaged in any kind of service, or any place or building in which children loiter or idle during school hours. He shall have the right to require a properly attested certificate of the attendance of any child or children at such day school. He shall have the power to arrest without warrant any truant or non-attendants or other juvenile disorderly persons, and place them in some school, or take them to their homes, or take them to any place of detention provided for neglected children in such county or school district. He shall serve as a prosecuting officer in non-attendance cases, and shall carry into effect such other regulations as may lawfully be required by the board or superintendent appointing him.

D.W. Denney, Co. Supt.