Chapter 126
2019 -- S 0265
Enacted 07/08/2019

A N   A C T
RELATING TO EDUCATION -- AMERICANIZATION OF SCHOOLS

Introduced By: Senators Cano, Crowley, Nesselbush, Conley, and Metts
Date Introduced: February 13, 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entitled "Americanization Schools" are hereby repealed.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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LC001202
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