cases of this kind
will soon gain an experience with them which will enable him to act more
intelligently and with greater justice both to the offender and to the
interests of society than can be done by a local official who may have
but one or two such cases to handle during his whole term of office. In
several states legislation has been passed creating juvenile courts in
each county, which have jurisdiction over all juvenile cases and which
can deal not only with the children but also with their parents or
guardians. The general adoption of such a system seems to be the most
important step in the intelligent treatment of juvenile delinquents in
rural districts.

Very often the first waywardness of a child is in truancy from school,
which, if it cannot be handled by the teacher, is turned over to the
local truant officer. In many cases the truant officer is appointed
because of his availability for such work rather than his special
competency, and the enforcement of the truancy law is handled in a most
perfunctory manner, whereas an intelligent investigation of home
conditions and an effort to gain the cooperation of the parents and the
confidence and interest of the child are the only means of securing any
real reform. In several cities truancy is in charge of what are known as
"visiting teachers," who not only look after truants but visit the homes
of those children who are not doing well in their school work, in order
to determine whether home conditions are responsible and how they may be
improved. Usually the country school teacher is more in touch with the
homes of her pupils, but some of the more progressive rural counties are
providing an assistant to the county superintendent of schools, who acts
both in the capacity of truant officer and visiting teacher, assisting
the local teacher in the more difficult cases which require a
considerable amount of time to develop proper relations in the home. To
be of most service such a person should not only have experience in
school work but should have had the training of a social worker, so that
she may understand the best means of dealing with the wayward child and
with unfavorable home conditions. It seems probable that more may be
done toward the prevention of delinquency through such social workers
connected with the school system than by any other means.

In many states there seems to be no definite system for the supervision
of children for whom the state is re