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Reform of NYC Public Schools, 1896

Source: Board of Education. City of New York. Forty-fifth Annual Report of the Board of Education of the City of New York for the Year Ending December 31, 1886 (New York, 1887), p. 130-131. NYC Board of Education Archives, Milbank Memorial Library, Teachers College, Columbia University.

The law for compulsory education provides that "All parents and others who have the care of children shall instruct them, or cause them to be instructed, in spelling, reading, writing, English grammar, geography and arithmetic; and that every parent, guardian or other person having control or charge of any child between the ages of eight and fourteen years, shall cause such child to attend some public or private day school at least fourteen weeks in each year; eight weeks at least of which attendance shall be consecutive, or to be instructed regularly at home at least fourteen weeks each year, in spelling, reading, writing, English grammar, geography and arithmetic, unless the physical or mental condition of the child is such as to render such attendance or instruction inexpedient or impracticable."

It further provides that no child under fourteen years of age shall be employed by any person to labor in any business during the school hours, who has not attended school at least fourteen school weeks during the year preceding employment; that it shall be the duty of any person employing such a child to require a certificate, countersigned by the City Superintendent, certifying proper attendance and instruction; that any person who shall employ any child contrary to the provisions of the act, shall for each offense forfeit and pay a penalty of fifty dollars; that it shall be the duty of the proprietor, superintendent or manager of any establishment to present, on demand, to the City Superintendent or his agent, a correct list of all children employed in said establishment, with the certificates of attendance; that parents or guardians who violate the provisions of the law, on written notice of such violation, shall forfeit, for the first offense, and pay the sum of one dollar, and for each succeeding offense pay the sum of five dollars for each and every week, not exceeding thirteen weeks in any one year.