LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, September 13, 1915. SIR: There has long been great need of an accurate and comprehensive compilation and digest of all the school laws of the several States, so arranged that students of school administration may easily find the law of any State on any subject and compare the laws of any two or more States. To meet this need I recommend that the manuscript transmitted herewith be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education. This manuscript has been prepared by Mr. William R. Hood, a member of the Bureau of Education, with the help of Dr. S. B. Weeks and Mr. A. S. Ford. Respectfully submitted. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. P. P. CLAXTON, Commissioner. 7 ERRATA. Page 94, line 22: For "bears no" read "bears to." Page 98, under Minnesota, line 15: Between "may hold county" and "such insti tute" insert, "teachers' institutes in various parts of county not to exceed two days for each." Page 129, lines 14-16: For sentence beginning "Books and accounts," etc., read Books and accounts of any trustee shall always be subject to inspection by county superintendent, auditor, or county commissioners.' Page 166, under South Dakota: Omit line 8. Page 174, lines 10-13: For "take annual census," etc., read "take annual census of persons between 5 and 21 years old, of defective children of such ages, and of Indian children under white guardianship or who have severed tribal relationship." Page 206, line 8: For "avoided" read "provided." Page 422, line 19: After "A person who has" omit "been." Page 533, line 23: For "Indian" read "Indiana." Page 728, under Missouri, line 5: For "two" read "three." Page 788, line 4: After "each year" insert "as case requires." Page 813, under North Dakota: Add "T (c), schools for the blind." Page 858, under Vermont, line 12: After "not less than " insert "10." 8 DIGEST OF STATE LAWS RELATING TO PUBLIC EDUCATION. INTRODUCTION. There has been recently an increased interest in educational legislation. The school administrator and the student of educational systems now turn for information and help to legal provisions as they turn to statistics or to the opinions of experienced schoolmen. And they often find in the law more that is definite and pointed than may be found in statistics or discussion. Legislation on most educational subjects has passed beyond the experimental stage. A particular law in a State may originally have been enacted years ago and may now be materially amended in the light of experience. The study of such a law proves of substantial benefit in a State which has had less experience with the operation of an enactment of its kind, and especially in a State where no enactment of its kind has found its way to the statute books. Nor is an old law alone helpful. A new statute is not now enacted in the same haphazard way as formerly. The help of experts, legislative reference bureaus, educational associations, and societies for the promotion of particular types of education is generally available and is often used with profit in drafting such statutes. Accompanied with this new interest in educational legislation have been increased demands upon the Bureau of Education for information regarding school laws. So numerous had requests for such information become, and so much work of a fragmentary nature had been made necessary thereby, that it was decided to attempt to bring together in one volume a digest, or summary, of all general laws relating to public education. This bulletin is the result. It contains all laws in force January 1, 1915, relating to publicly supported education, excepting ordinary appropriations, legislation of local application, and special charters, as charters of cities. The enactments of 1915 are not included for the reason that much of the work of digesting was completed prior to December 31, 1914, and for the further reason that complete data for presenting a digest of these enactments will not be available for use in the bureau until late in the autumn of 1915. These enactments, as well as those of each succeeding year, will be published in a separate bulletin. In that way this digest, published as of January 1, 1915, will become a landmark, and succeeding annual or biennial supplements will be published with a view to bringing the bureau's summary of educational legislation up to date. The preparation of a digest of this kind may be done with much labor and care, and yet the finished product will in all probability display palpable limitations. In the first place, the laws themselves with which the compiler must work are far from perfect. They contain many inconsistencies and are sometimes even contradictory. In a prefatory note one State superintendent of schools says that, owing to contradictions in different enactments, only extracts from the more important educational legislation are included in the pamphlet of school laws which he publishes. In another State the compiler of the general code has omitted legislation relating to certain institutions because of the want of authority to codify this legislation and eliminate confusion. When, as has been done in a few cases, each of the States writes a complete school code and enacts it into a single law, the contradictions and confusing provisions may be largely eliminated and the work of compiling a digest of school laws will be made easier and more nearly free from error. Another one of the limitations of a digest of this kind is due to general authorizations found in many statutes. Where large discretionary powers are conferred by statute upon boards or officers, obviously conditions prevailing under such general authorizations will not appear in the digest. For example, agriculture may be taught in a State under authority of the State board of education to prescribe the course of study for the public schools, and the fact that it is taught will not appear in a work of this kind. A third limitation is the absence of special charters from the digest. Much instructive law may appear in these charters, but it would require a greater amount of time and space than has been at the disposal of the compiler of this digest to give them adequate treatment. The digest, however, should serve a useful purpose. For the person desiring merely a ready reference work showing what States have legal provisions relating to any particular educational subject, it should meet all requirements; while to the more interested student it will give the main provisions of the law. References to sources might have been included, if it had not been for limitations of space. Approximately 13,000 pages of statutory law have been reduced to the compass of a few hundred pages here. Obviously the enormous number of references, which would have been added, if their inclusion had been thought advisable, would materially increase the size of the volume and the consequent cost of publication. The sources used in preparing the digest were the pamphlet school laws as published by each State; the code, or revised statutes, for subjects not appearing in the pamphlet school laws; and the acts |