An Act to amend and reenact § 46.1-299, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, relating to devices signalling intention to turn or stop and rules therefor.
Volume 1968 Law 99
Volume | 1908 |
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Law Number | 364 |
Subjects |
Law Body
Chap. 364.—An ACT to provide (in certain cases) for the compulsory attend-
ance of children between the ages of eight and twelve years upon the public
schools of Virginia, and providing penalty for failure, and designating the
manner of collecting such penalties.
Approved March 1+, 1908.
1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That every
parent, guardian, or other person having charge or control of any child
between the ages of eight and twelve years, shall be required to send
such child to a public school of this Commonwealth for at least twelve
weeks in each school year, at least six weeks of which shall be consecu-
tive, unless the district school trustees of the district in which such
parent, guardian or other person resides, excuse for cause such child,
or unless such child be weak in body or mind, or can read and write, or
is attending a private school, or lives more than two miles by the usual
traveled route from the nearest public school, or more than one mile from
the line of an established public free school wagon route: provided,
however, that the provisions of this act shall not apply in any county,
city or town of this Commonwealth, except, and until the qualified voters
of such county or city or town shall, as hereinafter provided, avail them-
selves of the provisions hereof.
2. The provisions of this act may be made to apply in any county,
city, town or magisterial district constituting a separate school district
of this Commonwealth by submitting the question of compulsory edu-
cation to the qualified voters of such county, city, or town at any general
election to be held in said county, city, town or magisterial district
composing a separate school district at any general election to be held
in said county, city or town, or at any special election held for the pur-
pose as hereinafter provided.
Whenever the school board of any county, city or town shall by a
recorded vote, express the desire to submit the question of compulsory
education to the people of such county, city, town or magisterial district
constituting a separate school district at a general election, it shall be
the duty of the division superintendent of such county or city to certify
that fact to the electoral board of such county or city, who shall, at
least thirty days before the next general election, see to it that the
question is printed upon the official ballot of such election in type similar
to that used for the rest of the ballot, and in the following form “for
compulsory education,” “against compulsory education.”
Whenever a majority of a county, city or town school board or a
number of qualified voters of such county, city, town or magisterial
district composing a separate school district equal in number to one-
third of the total number of votes cast in said county, city, town or
magisterial district composing a separate school district at the last preced-
ing regular November election by a petition duly signed, shall petition, in
writing, the judge of the circuit or corporation court of any county or
city for a special election in such county or city on the question of compul-
sory education therein, such court or judge shall, within ten days after the
receipt of said petition, issue a writ of election, in which shall be fixed
the day of holding such election, directed to the sheriff of his county or
sergeant of his corporation, as the case may be, whose duty it shall be
to post forwith a notice of said election at each voting precinct in said
county, city, town or magisterial district composing a separate school
district as the case may be. He shall also give notice to the officers
charged with the duty of conducting other elections in said county, city,
town or magisterial district constituting a separate school district, as
the case may be; but no special election shall be held under this act
within less than thirty days from the posting of such notices, as afore-
said. Said special election shall be held and conducted as other special
elections are held and conducted. If it appear from the abstracts and
returns of said general or special election that a majority of the votes
cast in the county, city, town or magisterial district constituting a
separate school district as a whole, as the case may be, were for com-
pulsory education then, at the beginning of the next school year after
_the holding of such election, the provisions of this act, for compulsory
education shall become effective in any county or city thus voting in
favor thereof.
After any such general or special election has been held in any county
or city, there shall not be another election under this act held in said
county or city within two years.
3. The ballots to be used in said special election shall be respectively
as follows:
“For compulsory education,” “against compulsory education.” In
all other particulars, except wherein otherwise provided by this act, said
election shall be held, conducted, the returns thereof canvassed and cer-
tified, or contested, according to the provisions of chapter twenty-five
of the Code of Virginia, so far as applicable. ,
Those qualified to vote in such special election shall be those who were
qualified to vote at the preceding regular November election, and such
others as may have come of age, registered and become qualified voters
since said preceding regular election.
4. In every county or city of this Commonwealth in which the pro-
visions of this act may be made to apply as aforesaid, each district
school board shall, on the second Monday in February and the second
Monday in September, or within fifteen days thereafter, each year, in
such manner as the State board of education may direct, ascertain the
condition of all children between the ages of eight and twelve years who
are not in attendance upon any public school, and shall report all
violation of this act to its district clerk, who shall at once proceed to
prosecute each and every such offense.
5. A parent, guardian, or other person, who fails to comply with the
provisions of this act shall be liable to a fine of not less than two nor
more than ten dollars for the first offense, nor less than five nor more
than twenty dollars for each subsequent offense; such fine shall be col-
lected by the clerk of the respective district school boards, in the name of
the Commonwealth, and in an action before any court of competent
jurisdiction, and the money so collected by each clerk shall be paid into
the State treasury and be applied to the district school fund of the dis-
trict, or districts, from which the said fines were received.
6. The clerk of the district school board in each district, in the
counties or cities wherein the provisions of this act. are adopted, as
aforesaid, shall prosecute every offense against the provisions of this act,
when a member of the district school board, or any taxpayer of the dis-
trict in which the offending party resides, files with him an affidavit
setting forth the facts constituting the offense; and-if he neglect to
do so within fifteen days after such affidavit is filed, he shall be liable
to a fine of not less than five nor more than ten dollars for each case
of such neglect, to be collected in the name of the Commonwealth before
any court of competent jurisdiction, by any person feeling aggrieved
thereby, and the money collected for such fine shall be paid into the
Stdte treasury and applied to the district school fund of the district in
which such clerk resides.
7. Two weeks attendance at half time or night school shall be con-
sidered, within the meaning of this act, equivalent to an attendance
of one week at a day school.
8. For each and every prosecution under the provisions of this act
the clerk of the district school board, of the district wherein such prose-
sution is had, shall receive a fee of two dollars, to be paid out of the
district school fund of said district.