Chap. 159.-An ACT to amend and re-enact section 683 of the Code of Virginia,
as heretofore amended, relating to compulsory education. [H B 272]

Approved March 24, 1934

I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
six hundred and eighty-three of the Code of Virginia, as heretofore
amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 683. Every parent, guardian, or other person in the Com-
monwealth, having control or charge of any child, or children, who
have reached the seventh birthday and have not passed the fifteenth
birthday, shall send such child, or children, to a public school, or to
a private, denominational or parochial school, or have such child or
children taught by a tutor or teacher of qualification prescribed by the
State Board of Education and approved by the division superintendent
in a home, and such child, or children, shall regularly attend such school
during the period of each year the public schools are in session and for
the same number of days and hours per day as in the public schools.
The period of compulsory attendance shall commence at the opening
of the first term of the school which the pupil attends and shall con-
tinue until the close of such school for the school year. The provisions
of this section shall not apply to children physically or mentally in-
capacitated for school work, nor to those children suffering from con-
tagious or infectious diseases during the existence of such disease; nor
shall it apply to children between the ages aforesaid who have completed
the elementary course of study prescribed by the State Board of Edu-
cation, or the elementary course of study of such grade, provided by the
school he attends, and who is actually, regularly and lawfully employed;
nor to children who live more than one and one-half miles by the near-
est traveled road from a public school, unless public transportation 1s
provided within one mile of the place where such children live. Phy-
sical incapacity or disease shall be established by the certificate of a
reputable practicing physician, made in accordance with the rules and
regulations adopted by the State Board of Education, and mental in-
capacity is to be determined by such mental test or tests as may be pre-
scribed by the State Board of Education.

Every blind or partially blind child, and every deaf child between
six and eighteen years of age, shall attend some school for the blind, or
the public schools, or some school for the deaf, for eight months, or
during the scholastic year, unless it can be shown that the child is else-
where receiving regularly thorough instruction during the said period
in studies usually taught in said public schools to children of the same
age, provided that the superintendent or principal of any school for the
blind, or the public schools, or the schools for the deaf, or person or
persons duly authorized by such superintendents or principals, may
excuse cases of necessary absence among its enrolled pupils, and pro-
vided, further, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to a
child whose physical or mental condition is such as to render its instruc-
tion as above described inexpedient or impracticable. Every person
having under his or her control a child between six and eighteen years
of age, shall cause such child to attend school or receive instructions as
required by this section.

Provided, however, that in the several counties and cities the local
board may, in its discretion, after public hearing thereon, at a meeting
held not less than thirty days after public notice shall have been given
in some newspaper having general circulation in the county or city

affected, fix the age for compulsory attendance in such county or city
as applicable to children who have reached the eighth birthday and have
not passed the sixteenth birthday in lieu of the requirements of this
section as to age.