[name] public [or private] day school according to law for [number of weeks, which must be at least thirty] weeks during the year next preceding this date, and that the last thirty weeks of such attendance began [date]. This certificate expires [date one year later than the above date].

[Signature of the person authorized to sign, with official character or authority.] If the attendance has been at a private school, there must be added also the signature of a teacher of such school, followed by words certifying to school attendance. [Town or city and date.]

In case a child can not read and write, as above stated, the following may be substituted for the clause beginning “and I hereby certify" through to and including the word "language": "And I hereby certify that [he or she] is a regular attendant at the [name] public evening school"; but in such case the certificate shall only continue in force for as long a time as attendance of such child at such evening school is indorsed weekly during the session of such evening school, not exceeding the length of the public school year minus twenty weeks, in place of attendance at day school as now provided by law, with a statement from a teacher thereof certifying that his attendance continues regular. If attendance has been at a half-time school, forty weeks of such attendance must be certified to instead of thirty. The foregoing certificate must be filled out in duplicate and one copy thereof shall be kept on file by the school committee. Any explanatory matter may be printed with such certificate in the discretion of the school committee or superintendent of schools.

The following words shall appear on all age and schooling certificates after the name of the town or city and date: “This certificate belongs to the person in whose behalf it is drawn, and it shall be surrendered to [him or her] whenever [he or she] leaves the service of the corporation or employer holding the same."

In cities and towns having a superintendent of schools, said certificate shall be signed only by such superintendent or by some person authorized by him in writing; in other cities and towns it shall be signed by some member or members of the school committee authorized by vote thereof: Provided, however, that no member of a school committee, or other person authorized as aforesaid, shall have authority to sign such certificate for any child then in or about to enter his own employment, or the employment of a firm of which he is a member, or of a corporation of which he is an officer or employee. The person signing the certificate shall have authority to administer the oath provided for therein, but no fee shall be charged therefor; such oath may also be administered by any justice of the peace. The certificate as to the birthplace and age of the child shall be signed by his father, if living and a resident of the same city or town; if not, by his mother; or if his mother is not living, or if living is not a resident of the same city or town, by his guardian; if a child has no father, mother, or guardian living in the same city or town his own signature to the certificate may be accepted by the person authorized to approve the same.

No child who has been continuously a resident of a city or town since reaching the age of 13 years shall be entitled to receive a certificate that he has reached the age of 14 unless or until he has attended school according to law in such city or town for at least thirty weeks since reaching the age of 13, unless such child can read at sight and write legibly simple sentences in the English language, or is exempt by law from such attendance. Before signing the approval of the certificate of age of a child the person authorized to sign the same shall refer to the last school census taken under the provisions of section 3 of chapter 46 of the public statutes, and if the name of such child is found therein and there is a material difference between his age as given therein and as given by his parent or guardian in the certificate, allowing for lapse of time, or if such child plainly appears to be of materially less age than that so given, then such certificate shall not be signed until a copy of the certificate of birth or of baptism of such child, or a copy of the register of its birth with a town or city clerk, has been produced, or other satisfactory evidence furnished that such child is of the age stated in the certificate. Any corporation or employer holding any age or schooling certificate shall deliver the same to the person in whose behalf it has been drawn when such person shall leave the employ of such corporation or employer.

The truant officers may, when so authorized and required by a vote of the school committee, visit the factories, workshops, and mercantile establishments in their several cities and towns and ascertain whether any children under the age of 14 are employed therein contrary to the provisions of this act, and they shall report any cases of such illegal employment to the school committee and to the chief of the district police or the inspector of factories for the district. The inspectors of factories and the truant officers, when authorized as aforesaid, may demand the names of all children under 16 years of age employed in such factories, workshops, and

mercantile establishments, and may require that the certificates and lists of such children provided for in this act shall be produced for their inspection. Such truant officers shall inquire into the employment, otherwise than in such factories, workshops, and mercantile establishments, of children under the age of 14 years, during the hours when the public schools are in session, and may require that the aforesaid certificates of all children under 16 shall be produced for their inspection, and any such officer or any inspector of factories may bring a prosecution against a person or corporation employing any such child, otherwise than as aforesaid, during the hours when the public schools are in session, contrary to the provisions of this act, if such employment still continues for one week after written notice from such officer or inspector that such prosecution will be brought, or if more than one such written notice, whether relating to the same child or to any other child, has been given to such employer by a truant officer or inspector of factories at any time within one year.

No person shall employ or permit to be employed a minor under 14 years of age, or over, who can not read and write in the English language, and who resides in a city or town in this Commonwealth wherein public evening schools are maintained, and is not a regular attendant of a day school, or has not attained an attendance of 70 per cent or more of the yearly session of the evening school.

Whenever it appears that the labor of any minor who would be debarred from employment under a section of this act is necessary for the support of the family to which said minor belongs, or for his own support, the school committee of said city or town may, in the exercise of their discretion, issue a permit authorizing the employment of such minor within such time or times as they may fix: Provided, That such minor makes application to said school committee, or some person duly authorized by said committee, for such a permit before the opening of the yearly session of the evening school of said city or town; and the provisions of said section shall not apply to such minor so long as said permit is in force: Provided also, That if such minor has been prevented by sickness or injury from attending said evening school, as provided in said section, the school committee shall issue to such minor the permit provided for in this section, upon the presentation of the following blank properly filled and signed:

To the School Committee of the -:

I hereby certify that I have attended was sick or injured with

from

: and that said

physical condition to attend evening school for the term of

(Dated)

(Signed)

The school committee of every city and town in this Commonwealth wherein public evening schools are maintained shall furnish blanks in the above form upon application.

Every public building and every schoolhouse shall be kept in a cleanly state and free from effluvia arising from any drain, privy, or other nuisance, and shall be provided with a sufficient number of proper water-closets, earth closets, or privies for the reasonable use of the persons admitted to such public building or of the pupils attending such schoolhouse.

Every public building and every schoolhouse shall be ventilated in such a proper manner that the air shall not become so exhausted as to be injurious to the health of the persons present therein. The provisions of this section and the preceding section shall be enforced by the inspection department of the district police. Whenever it appears to an inspector of factories and public buildings that further or different sanitary provisions or means of ventilation are required in any public building or schoolhouse in order to conform to the requirements of this act, and that the same can be provided without incurring unreasonable expense, such inspector may issue a written order to the proper person or authority, directing such sanitary provisions or means of ventilation to be provided, and they shall thereupon be provided, in accordance with such order, by the public authority, corporation, or person having charge of, owning, or leasing such public building or schoolhouse.

Any school committee, public officer, corporation, or person shall within four weeks after the receipt of an order from an inspector, as provided in the preceding section, provide the sanitary provisions or means of ventilation required thereby. No person shall employ or exhibit, or sell, apprentice, or give away for the purpose of employing or exhibiting, a child under 15 years of age, in dancing, playing on musical instruments, singing, walking on a wire or rope, or riding or performing as a gymnast, contortionist, or acrobat in any circus or theatrical exhibition,

or in any public place whatsoever, or cause, procure, or encourage any such child to engage therein: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the education of children in vocal and instrumental music, or their employment as musicians in any church, chapel, or school, or school exhibition, or to prevent their taking part in any concert or musical exhibition on the special written permission of the mayor and aldermen of a city or of the selectmen of a town. No license shall be granted for a theatrical exhibition or public show in which children under 15 years of age are employed as acrobats, contortionists, or in any feats of gymnastics or equestrianism, or in which such children belonging to the public schools are employed or allowed to take part as performers on the stage in any capacity, or where in the opinion of the board authorized to grant licenses such children are employed in such a manner as to corrupt their morals or impair their physical health; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the giving of special permission as provided by the preceding section.

The following expressions used in this act shall have the following meanings: The expression "person means any individual, corporation, partnership, company, or association. The expression "child" means a person under the age of 14 years. The expression "young person" means a person of the age of 14 years and under the age of 18 years. The expression "public building" means any building or premises used as a place of public entertainment, instruction, resort, or assemblage. The expression "schoolhouse" means any building or premises in which public or private instruction is afforded to not less than ten pupils at one time. The aforesaid expressions shall have the meanings above defined for them respectively in all laws of this Commonwealth relating to the employment of labor, whether heretofore or hereafter enacted, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context.

A certificate of the age of a minor made and sworn to by him and by his parent or guardian at the time of his employment in a mercantile establishment shall be prima facie evidence of his age in any prosecution under the preceding section. Every parent, guardian, or person authorized to sign the certificates prescribed by the sections of this act who certifies to any materially false statement therein shall be punished by fine not exceeding $50 or by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, or by both.

Any person violating the provisions of this act, forbidding the employment of children in any circus or public place, shall be punished by fine not exceeding $200 or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months.

Every parent or guardian of a child under 14 years of age who permits any employment of such child contrary to the provisions of this act, and every owner, superintendent, or overseer of any factory, workshop, or mercantile establishment who employs or permits to be employed therein any child contrary to the provisions of this act, and any other person who employs any child contrary to the provisions of this act, shall for every such offense forfeit not less than $20 nor more than $50 for the use of the public schools of the city or town. A failure to produce to a truant officer or inspector of factories the certificate required by the provisions of this act shall be prima facie evidence of the illegal employment of the child whose certificate is not produced.

Any corporation or employer retaining any age or schooling certificate in violation of this act shall be punished by fine of $10.

Any person who employs or permits to be employed a minor in violation of the provisions of this act shall for each offense forfeit not less than $50 nor more than $100 for the use of the evening schools of such city or town.

Any school committee, public officer, corporation, or person neglecting for four weeks to obey an order from an inspector under this act shall be punished by fine not exceeding $100.

Any person violating any provision of this act where no special provision as to the penalty for such violation is made shall be punished by fine not exceeding $100. Within one month after the passage of this act the chief of the district police shall cause a printed copy thereof to be transmitted to the school committee of every city and town in the Commonwealth.

Character of the instruction.-A school committee may approve a private school only when the teaching of the studies required by law is in the English language. (Section 2, act of June 21, 1894, regarding attendance.)

In every town there shall be kept, for at least six months and in towns of 4,000 or more inhabitants at least eight months in each year, at the expense of said town, by a teacher or teachers of competent ability and good morals, a sufficient number of schools for the instruction of all the children who may legally attend public school therein, in orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, drawing, the history of the United States, and good behavior.

Algebra, vocal music, agriculture, sewing, physiology, hygiene, physical and industrial training, and the elementary use of hand tools shall be taught, by lectures or otherwise, in all the public schools in which the school committee deem it expedient. The Bible shall be read in the schools without comment.

Every town may, and every town containing 500 families or householders, according to the latest public census taken by the authority either of the Commonwealth or of the United States, shall, besides the schools prescribed above, maintain a high school, to be kept by a master of competent ability and good morals, who, in addition to the branches of learning before mentioned, shall give instruction in general history, bookkeeping, surveying, geometry, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, the civil polity of this Commonwealth and of the United States, and the Latin language. Such high school shall be kept for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town, ten months at least, exclusive of vacations, in each year, and at such convenient place or alternately at such places in the town as the legal voters at their annual meeting determine. And in every town containing 4,000 inhabitants the teacher or teachers of the schools required by this section shall, in addition to the branches of instruction before required, be competent to give instruction in the Greek and French languages, astronomy, geology, rhetoric, logic, intellectual and moral science, and political economy.

After the first day of September, 1895, every city of 20,000 or more inhabitants shall maintain as a part of its high school system the teaching of manual training. The course to be pursued in such instruction shall be subject to the approval of the State board of education.

Two adjacent towns, having each less than 500 families or householders, may form one high school district for establishing such a school, when a majority of the legal voters of each town, in meetings called for that purpose, so determine. The school committees of the two towns so united shall elect one person from each of their respective boards, and the two so elected shall form the committee for the management and control of such school, with all the powers conferred upon school committees and prudential committees. The committee thus formed shall determine the location of the schoolhouse authorized to be built by the towns forming the district, or if the towns do not determine to erect a house, shall authorize the location of such school alternately in the two towns. In the erection of a schoolhouse for the permanent location of such school, in the support and maintenance of the school, and in all incidental expenses attending the same, the proportions to be paid by each town, unless otherwise agreed upon, shall be according to its proportion of the county tax.

Evening schools shall be maintained by towns having 10,000 inhabitants for the instruction of persons over 12 years of age in orthography, reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, drawing, history of the United States, good behavior, and such other branches as the school committee may deem expedient, and any town may establish such a school. Every town of 50,000 inhabitants must maintain an evening high school.

Any town may, and every city and town having more than 10,000 inhabitants shall, annually make provision for giving free instruction in industrial or mechanical drawing to persons over 15 years of age, in either day or evening schools, under the direction of the school committee.

Any town may establish and maintain one or more industrial (including nautical) schools, which shall be under the superintendence of the school committee, who shall employ the teachers, prescribe the arts, trades, and occupations to be taught therein, and have the general control and management thereof, but attendance upon such schools shall not take the place of the attendance upon public schools required by law.

The school committees of cities and towns maintaining free evening schools are hereby authorized to employ competent persons to deliver lectures on the natural sciences, history, and kindred subjects in such places as said committees may provide. Said committees are hereby authorized to provide cards or pamphlets giving the titles and names of authors of books of reference contained in the local public libraries on the subject-matter of said lectures.

Text-books.-The school committee shall direct what text-books shall be used in the public schools, but a change in those in use may be made by a vote of twothirds of the whole committee at a meeting of the committee, notice of the intended change having been given at a previous meeting. The school committee shall purchase, at the expense of the city or town, the necessary text-books and other supplies and loan them to the pupils.

Buildings.-Every town shall provide and maintain a sufficient number of schoolhouses, properly furnished, hygienically arranged, and conveniently located for the accommodation of all the children therein entitled to attend the public schools;

and the school committee, unless the town otherwise directs, shall keep such houses in good order, and shall procure a suitable place for the schools where there is no schoolhouse, and provide fuel and all other things necessary for the comfort of the scholars therein at the expense of the town. A town which refuses or neglects for one year to comply with the requirements of this section shall forfeit not less than $500 nor more than $1,000. Any school committee neglecting for four weeks after the receipt of an order from an inspector of buildings to provide the sanitary provisions required by law shall be fined $100. [See also under Schools; attendance, where the hygienic requirements are set forth in the compulsory school law.]

Whoever willfully and maliciously or wantonly and without cause destroys, defaces, mars, or injures a schoolhouse or any of its appurtenances shall be fined $500 or imprisoned in the jail not exceeding one year.

FINANCES.

Funds (permanent or special).—Taxation.—The Massachusetts school fund.

The present school fund of the Commonwealth, together with such additions as may be made thereto, shall constitute a permanent fund to be called "the Massachusetts school fund," the principal of which shall not be diminished, and the income, including the interest on notes and bonds taken for sale of Maine lands and belonging to said fund, shall be appropriated as follows [The fund is now nearly $4,000,000, and is increased annually by $100,000 from the State treasury until it shall be $5,000,000]:

One-half of the annual income of the school fund of the Commonwealth shall be apportioned and distributed, without a specific appropriation, for the support of public schools, and in the manner following, to wit: Every town complying with all laws in force relating to the distribution of said income and whose valuation of real and personal estate, as shown by the last preceding assessors' valuation thereof, does not exceed $500,000, shall annually receive $300; every such town whose valuation is more than $500,000 and does not exceed $1,000,000 shall receive $250, provided that any such town for any year for which its rate of taxation shall be $18 or more on $1,000 shall receive $50 additional; and every such town whose valuation is more than $1,000,000 and does not exceed $2,000,000 shall receive $100; and every such town whose valuation is more than $2,000,000 and does not exceed $3,000,000 shall receive $50. The remainder of said half shall be distributed to all towns whose valuation does not exceed $3,000,000 and whose annual tax rate for the support of public schools is not less than one-sixth of their whole tax rate for the year, as follows: Every town whose public school tax is not less than onethird of its whole tax shall receive a proportion of said remainder expressed by one-third; every such town whose school tax is not less than one-fourth of its whole tax shall receive a proportion expressed by one-fourth; every such town whose school tax is not less than one-fifth of its whole tax shall receive a proportion expressed by one-fifth, and every such town whose school tax is not less than onesixth of its whole tax shall receive a proportion expressed by one-sixth. All money appropriated for other educational purposes, unless otherwise specially provided, shall be paid from the other half of said income. If the income in any year exceeds such appropriations the surplus shall be added to the principal of said fund.

The income of said fund, appropriated to the support of public schools, shall be apportioned by the secretary and treasurer (who, as Commissioners of the School Fund, manage and invest it) in the manner provided, and paid over by the treasurer to the treasurers of the several cities and towns.

No such apportionment and distribution shall be made to a city or town which has not maintained a school as required by law; or which, if containing the number of families or householders named in the law, has not maintained, for at least thirty-six weeks during the year, exclusive of vacations, a high school such as is mentioned therein; or which has not made the returns required and complied with the laws relating to truancy; or which has not raised by taxation for the wages and board of teachers, fuel for the schools, and care of fires and schoolrooms during the school year embraced in the last annual returns a sum not less than $3 for each person between the ages of 5 and 15 years belonging to such city or town on the 1st day of May of said school year.

The income of said funds received by the several cities and towns shall be applied by the school committees thereof to the support of the public schools therein; but said committees may, if they see fit, appropriate therefrom any sum, not exceeding