atute books, and are now being increasingly
enacted. Already practically half of the states have them, nearly all of
which were enacted since 1900. In other states the matter is also being
agitated, with the likelihood that provisions will be extended to them
in time. States with such laws now number at least twenty-three:
California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North
Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South
Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.[541]

With respect to the provisions of these statutes, we find that in some
cases the general compulsory education law applies with its
age-periods, fines, etc., while in others there are special enactments
for the deaf. In most states an exception is made if there is
instruction at home, or with equal facilities, and at the same time and
in the same branches. In certain ones truancy officers are expressly
designated to enforce the law.[542] Fines for violation are placed at
sums varying from $5 to $200.[543] The period of attendance required may
be the school year, but more often a part, as five, six or eight
months;[544] and the term for which attendance is required is either a
designated number of years, as five or eight, or a period between
certain age limits, as from eight to sixteen or from seven to eighteen,
etc.[545]

FOOTNOTES:

[530] Special Reports, 1906, pp. 145, 146, 242. Of the colored deaf less
than one-half--1,169 out of 2,836--had been to school.

[531] In 1890 the proportion of deaf children between five and twenty
years found to be in school was only 40 per cent, to be accounted for in
part by the fact that only those children actually in school at the time
that the census was taken were included. Census Reports, 1890. Report on
Insane, Feeble-minded, Deaf and Dumb and Blind, 1895, p. 102.

[532] In the case of the Alabama School it is said that "there are many
deaf children of school age in the state not in school". Report, 1900,
p. 24. In the case of the Kentucky School it is stated that "there are
still 200 [children] of school age in the state who have not received
the benefit of the school". Report, 1903, p. 13. See also Report, 1887,
p. 98. In Tennessee it is stated that there are "doubtless quite a
number of deaf children of whom we have no knowledge in certain
counties". Report of Tennessee School, 1910, p. 11. In Texas there a