Chap. 43.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 684, as heretofore amended, of
the Code of Virginia, providing methods for enforcing attendance of certain
children at public schools. [H B 112]

Approved February 17, 1942

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
six hundred and eighty-four, as heretofore amended, of the Code of
Virginia, be amended and re-enacted, as follows: = 3

Section 684. List of pupils enrolled; failure to comply with com-
pulsory attendance law; attendance officer ; proceedings; blind and deaf
children.— Within ten 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.

Within ten days after the opening of the school, each principal
teacher shall submit another report to the division superintendent giving
to the best of the principal teacher’s information the names of all chil-
dren not enrolled in school, with the name and address of parent or
guardian, within the limits of the compulsory education requirements with
regard to age and distance, according to the provisions of section six
hundred and eighty-three of the Code.

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 five 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 three days from the date of such notice. A list of
persons so notified shall be sent by the superintendent 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 fails, within the specified time, to comply with the law, it shall
be the duty of the division superintendent 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 before the
trial justice court of his county. If there be no.such juvenile and domestic
relations court in his city or trial justice court in his county, then the
prosecution shall be instituted against such person in the circuit or cor-
poration court of the county or city in which the offense occurred, and, in
addition thereto, such child or children may be proceeded 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 mis-
demeanor and shall, upon conviction thereof before a juvenile and domes-
tic relations court, or trial justice 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 thirty 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 seven and fifteen
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. deaf children to the respective
superintendents of the State schools for the deaf, and of all such blind or
partially blind children to the Virginia Commission for the Blind and to
the superintendents of the schools for the blind whose duty it shall be to
investigate all cases of non-enrollment of such blind children, and when
no valid reason is found therefor, such child or children shall be required
to attend school as provided in section six hundred and eighty-three of
the Code. :

For the practical interpretation of this and the preceding sections a
definition of a blind or partially blind child is as follows: A blind child is
a child who has, with correcting glasses, twenty-two-hundredths (20/200)
vision or less, in the better eye. A partially blind child is a child who has
twenty-seventy (20/70) vision or less, in the better eye, or one who has
some progressive eye trouble which in the opinion of a competent ophthal-
mologist makes it necessary for the child to attend a special school or a
special class in the public schools.