Chap. 457.-An ACT to amend and re-enact section 684 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, as enacted in law by chapter 471 of the acts of 1928, relating to the
compulsory attendance of children at school and providing for the com-
pulsory education of blind and deaf children. [S B 201]

Approved March 27, 1930

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

Section 684. Within fifteen days after the opening of the school,
each principal teacher shall report to the division superintendent the
names of the pupils enrolled in the school, giving age, grade and the
name and address of parent or guardian. With such list shall be sub-
mitted another list giving to the best of the principal teacher’s infor-
mation the names of all children within the ages of seven and fifteen
years, or within the ages of eight and sixteen years when the local
board, pursuant to the provisions of section six hundred and eighty-
three of the Code, has fixed such limits as to the ages of attendance,
who reside within two miles of the school or within one mile of a
wagon route and who are not enrolled in the school. The division
superintendent shall check these lists with the last school census and
with reports from the bureau of vital statistics. From these reports
and from any other reliable source the superintendent shall within
fifteen days make a list of the names of children who are not enrolled
in any school, and who are not exempt from school attendance. It
shall be the duty of the division superintendent, or the attendance
officer, if one be employed, to investigate all cases of non-enrollment
and, when no valid reason is found therefor, to notify the parent,
guardian or other. person having control of the child, to require the
attendance of such child at the school within five days from the date of
such notice. A list of persons so notified shall be sent by the super-
intendent of schools, or the attendance officer, if there is one, to the
principal teacher of the school. If the parent, guardian or other person
having control of the child or children tails, within the specified time,
to comply with the law, it shall be the duty of the division superintend-
ent or the chief attendance officer, if there be one, to make complaint
in the name of the Commonwealth before the juvenile and domestic
relations court of his city or county, if there be one. If there be no
such juvenile and domestic relations court in his city or county, then
the prosecution shall be instituted against such person in the circuit
or corporation court of the county or city in which the offense. oc-
curred, and, in addition thereto, such child or children may be pro-
ceeded against as a neglected child or children in the manner provided
by chapter seventy-eight of the Code, as amended.

Any person who induces, or attempts to induce, any blind or par-
tially blind child or a deaf child to absent himself or herself unlawfully
from school or employs or harbors any such child absent unlawfully
from school, while said school is in session, shall be deemed guilty of
a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction thereof before a juvenile
and domestic relations court, be fined a sum not exceeding ten dollars
for each offense.

The principal teacher of every public school in the counties and
towns and the truant officers of the cities shall, within sixty days from
the beginning of the school year, furnish the division superintendent
and the county or city school board with the names of all children
who are blind or partially blind or deaf between the ages of six and
eighteen years, inclusive, living within the boundaries of his or her
school district who do not attend school. It shall be the duty of the
school board to certify forthwith the names of all such blind or par-
tially blind children to the Virginia commission for the blind and all
deaf children to the respective superintendents of the State schools
for the deaf.

For the practical interpretation of this section a definition of a
blind or partially blind child as follows: A blind child is a child
who does not have useful vision or who cannot see large objects at
close range. A partially blind child is a child who has twenty /seventy
vision, or less in best eye, or one who has some progressive eye trouble
which in the opinion of a competent ophthalmologist makes it neces-
sary for the child to attend a special school or a special class in the
public schools.