Chap. 85.—An ACT to amend sections 653 and 654 of the Code of Virginia. 56]
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Approved February 25, 1920.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
six hundred and fifty three and six hundred and fifty-four of the Code
of Virginia be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Sec. 653. Quinquennial census of school population; how taken;
when and how cumulative census to be taken. At a time to be desig-
gated by the State superintendent of public instruction prior to June
One, nineteen hundred and twenty, and every five years thereafter, a
census of all persons between the ages of seven and twenty years re-
siding within each school district shall be taken on forms furnished by
the superintendent of public instruction. Said census shall be taken
by agents appointed by the district school board on the recommenda-
tion of the division superintendent, and each agent shall receive as com-
pensation for his services, to be paid out of the district school fund, an
amount to be fixed by the particular board, not to exceed, however, six
dollars per hundred of the children listed by him, subject to abatement,
on the discovery, before or after the settlement of the account, of errors
Or omissions in the list. The agents mentioned in this section shall
also, at the time of taking the census aforesaid, gather statistics relat-
ing to the interests of education in their respective districts according
to forms furnished by the superintendent of public instruction. The
lists prepared under the preceding part of this section shall be sub-
mitted for careful revision to the district school board as soon as may
be after their completion, and shall at all times be open to the inspec-
tion of any citizen. When so revised, they shall be submitted, along
with the other papers of the district, to the county school board at its
annual meeting and immediately thereafter delivered to the division
superintendent.

In addition to the census provided for above, there shall be taken
at a time to be designated by the superintendent of public instruction,
prior to June one, in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-one, and
in every year thereafter, except those years in which the quinquennial
census is taken, a cumulative census. The latter shall be recorded on
census cards to be provided by the superintendent of public instruction,
and shall be based on information which the respective division super-
intendents may secure from teachers, parents, local school leagues,
and reports submitted to them by the bureau of vital statistics, which
bureau is hereby directed to give the respective superintendents such
relevant information in itS possession relating to the school population
of their respective divisions as said superintendents may request. The
cumulative census shall deal only with- additions to and corrections
of the quinquennial census.

Sec. 654. Census of the deaf and the blind; division superinten-
dents to transmit consolidated reports to the school for the deaf and
blind. At the time the quinquennial census provided for by the pre-
ceding section is taken, there shall also be taken by the same agents
a separate census of the deaf and blind persons between said ages
residing within the school district, giving the sex, age, and residence
of each, and a copy thereof shall be returned to the division superin-
tendent. For this service the agents shall receive the same compensa-
tion as that allowed for listing other children, and out of the same
fund. The division superintendent shall consolidate the reports of
the county and transmit the same to the superintendent of the school
for the deaf and blind.

2. An emergency existing by reason of the necessity of taking
the quinquennial census in the year 1920, this act shall be in force
from its passage.