Compulsory+Education-+1852

=Compulsory Education Law Enancted in 1852:= The compulsory school attendance law was enacted to ensure that each and every student has/had the right to a proper and formal education. During the prescribed period of each year when the public schools are in session and for the same number of days and hours per day that the public schools are open, parents must send their children to a either a public, private, denominational or parochial school. [|Compulsory Education Requirements]. This Compulsory Education Law was particularly aimed at the children of the poor and disadvantaged, to ensure that they had the right to a proper education. If a student is between the ages of seven and sixteen and is not attending school, the legal guardian of the said child will be contacted by school officials and/or authorities and could be punished by the law.

=What we Believed Before:= Before 1852, the only children that were able to attend school were the sons of wealthy, aristocrat families. Girls were generally taught basic homemaking skills from the mother, while boys of lower class families had no formal education and were normally apprentices to their father. Thus, lower class children never really had a chance to move up at all in life and were destined to become like their parents. Parents could chose whether or not they wanted to send their children to school (if even allowed to attend) and if they did not, it was not at all a problem, as it was not required by law.

=What we Believed After:= After the Compulsory Education Act of 1852, all children, no matter what background, were required to attend school. Today, every state and territory requires children to enroll in either a public or private school, or to be home schooled. Most of the fifty states require that students begin their education by age seven, and must attend regularly until age 16. If a student wishes to withdraw from school after the age of sixteen but before their eighteenth birthday, they must have the written permission of their legal guardian. Compulsory school attendance is the responsibility of every parent, guardian, or other person having control or charge of a child in making sure they attend some form of school. There are some exceptions to this law, however. Children under seven and children over sixteen years old are not required to be enrolled in school. (With permission of guardian) Some children with disabilities between seven and sixteen may be excused from attending school part time or all day under certain circumstances. This Act also requires that the Commissioner of Education, superintendant of schools, school boards, and every school attendace and probation officer enforce the compulsory attendance laws. www.ncsl.org/programs/educ/CompulsoryEducation

=How do Schools Still Act as if we had the Same Belief?= Some schools have begun to adopt stricter enrollment policies. If there is a certain student they don't want in their district, they can just decline their application. Although these schools may have good reason to decline them, every child deserves the right to an education. The Compulsory Education Act was developed for all students, not just the "easy to teach ones." The following is a list of reasons why a Colorado state representative feels this Act should be amended: - Compulsory attendance can contribute to violence in schools, since those who don't want to be there will intimidate other students and teachers. - A recent study done in New Jersey revealed that education was widespread in America before schooling was mandatory, with a literacy rate of 90 percent in 1870. - Support for mandatory schooling comes from labor organizers who believe that young workers are taking jobs from adults.

=Resources: www.dese.mo.gov/schoollaw www.ncpa.org/pi/edu [|www.infoplease.com/ipa]=