| Chapter 092 |
| 2019 -- H 5168 Enacted 07/08/2019 |
| A N A C T |
| RELATING TO EDUCATION -- AMERICANIZATION OF SCHOOLS |
| Introduced By: Representatives Edwards, Diaz, Alzate, Mendez, and Tobon |
| Date Introduced: January 23, 2019 |
| It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows: |
| SECTION 1. Sections 16-29-7 and 16-29-9 of the General Laws in Chapter 16-29 |
| entitled "Americanization Schools" are hereby repealed. |
| 16-29-7. Required attendance by persons over compulsory school age. |
| Every person who has completed sixteen (16) years of life and who has not completed |
| twenty-one (21) years of life, and who cannot speak, read, and write the English language in |
| accordance with standards approved by the department of elementary and secondary education, |
| and who resides in a city or town in which the school committee has established a day |
| continuation school for the teaching of the English language, or an evening school, shall attend |
| either the day continuation school or the evening school at least two hundred (200) hours between |
| the first day of September and the first day of June in every year until he shall have acquired |
| reasonable facility in speaking, reading, and writing the English language in accordance with |
| standards approved by the department of elementary and secondary education. |
| 16-29-9. Penalty for failure to attend schools. |
| Any person who has completed sixteen (16) years of life and who has not completed |
| twenty-one (21) years of life, and who does not speak, read, and write English in accordance with |
| standards approved by the department of elementary and secondary education, who resides in a |
| city or town in which the school committee has made provision for the teaching of the English |
| language in compliance with this chapter, who habitually absents himself or herself from public |
| instruction, is sufficiently irregular to make it impossible for him or her to complete two hundred |
| (200) hours of instruction annually within the time set by the school committee for conducting the |
| schools, and is not attending private instruction approved by the school committee as provided in |
| ยง 16-29-8, may be fined for each willful absence one dollar ($1.00) and not exceeding twenty |
| dollars ($20.00) in the aggregate during one year or, for persistent refusal to attend the |
| instruction, may be committed to an institution during his or her minority. |
| SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage. |
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| LC000281 |
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