CHILD LABOR [The employment of children during the school sessions is regulated by Article 23 of the Education Law, printed below. The Education Law also provides for their vocational training; see Industrial Education, p. 315. The employment of children in factories is regulated by Article 6, in mines and quarries by Article 9, in stores, hotels, offices, etc., by Article 12, and in the selling of newspapers by Article 15 of the Labor Law, ante. Special service of public employment offices for juveniles is required by § 66-j of the Labor Law, p. 42, ante. Article 44 of the Penal Law (§§ 480-494), entitled " Children," contains provisions relative to the employment of children in occupations dangerous to health or morals. Certain of these sections are printed below, pp. 260-262. See further, 1982 of the Penal Law, p. 307, post, prohibiting the employment of minors under 18 as telegraph operators on railroads; and the Liquor Tax Law, § 21, forbidding persons under 21 to traffic in liquors, and § 30-f, forbidding girls and minors under 18 to sell or serve liquors. As to registration of births, from which evidence of a child's attainment of the legal age of employment is derived, see Public Health Law, § 382.] EDUCATIONAL RESTRICTIONS COMPULSORY EDUCATION LAW: ARTICLE 23 OF CHAPTER 16 OF THE CONSOLIDATED LAWS [Enacted by ch. 140 of Laws of 1910, amending ch. 16 of the Consolidated Laws of 1909] § 620. Instruction required.- The instruction required under this article shall be: 1. At a public school in which at least the six common school branches of reading, writing, arithmetic, English language and geography are taught in English. 2. Elsewhere than a public school upon instruction in the same subjects taught in English by a competent teacher. § 621. Required attendance upon instruction.—1. Every child within the compulsory school ages, in proper physical and mental condition to attend school, residing in a city or school district having a population of five thousand or more and employing a superintendent of schools, shall regularly attend upon instruction as follows: (a) Each child between seven and fourteen years of age shall attend the entire time during which the school attended is in session, which period shall not be less than one hundred and sixty days of actual school. (b) Each child between fourteen and sixteen years of age not regularly and lawfully engaged in any useful employment or service, and to whom an employment certificate has not been duly issued under the provisions of the labor law, shall so attend the entire time during which the school attended is in session. 2. Every such child, residing elsewhere than in a city or school district having a population of five thousand or more and employing a superintendent of schools, shall attend upon instruction during the entire time that the school in the district shall be in session as follows: (a) Each child between eight and fourteen years of age. (b) Each child between fourteen and sixteen years of age not regularly and lawfully engaged in any useful employment or service. [Subd. 2 am'd by L. 1913, ch. 511.] 3. The provisions of this section are intended to include all blind children except such as may receive appointments under the provisions of article thirty-eight of this chapter. [Subd. 3 added by L. 1912, ch. 710.] § 622. When a boy is required to attend evening school.-1. Every boy between fourteen and sixteen years of age, in a city of the first class or a city of the second class in possession of an employment certificate duly issued under the provisions of the labor law, who has not completed such course of study as is required for graduation from the elementary public schools of such city, and who does not hold either a certificate of graduation from the public elementary school or the pre-academic certificate issued by the regents or the certificate of the completion of an elementary course issued by the education department, shall attend the public evening schools of such city, or other evening schools offering an equivalent course of instruction, for not less than six hours each week, for a period of not less than sixteen weeks. [Subd. 1 am'd by L. 1913, ch. 748.] 2. When the board of education in a city or district shall have established part-time and continuation schools or courses of instruction for the education of young persons between fourteen and sixteen years of age who are regularly employed in such city or district, said board of education may require the attendance in such schools or on such courses of instruction of any young person in such a city or district who is in possession of an employ. ment certificate duly issued under the provisions of the labor law, who has not completed such courses of study as are required for graduation from the elementary public schools of such city or district, or equivalent courses of study in parochial or other elementary schools, who does not hold either a certificate of graduation from the public elementary school or a pre-academic certificate of the completion of the elementary course issued by the education department, and who is not otherwise receiving instruction approved by the board of education as equivalent to that provided for in the schools and courses of instruction established under the provisions of this act. The required attendance provided for in this paragraph shall be for a total of not less than thirty-six weeks per year, at the rate of not less than four and not more than eight hours per week, and shall be between the hours of eight o'clock in the morning and five o'clock in the afternoon of any working day or days. [Subd. 2 added by L. 1913, ch. 748.] 3. The children attending such part-time or continuation schools as required in paragraph two of this section shall be exempt from the attendance on evening schools required in paragraph one of this section. [Subd. 3 added by L. 1913, ch. 748.] § 623. Instruction elsewhere than at a public school.-If any such child shall so attend upon instruction elsewhere than at a public school, such instruction shall be at least substantially equivalent to the instruction given children of like age at the public school of the city or district in which such child resides; and such attendance shall be for at least as many hours each day thereof as are required of children of like age at public schools; and no greater total amount of holidays or vacations shall be deducted from such attendance during the period such attendance is required than is allowed in such public school to children of like age. Occasional absences from such attendance, not amounting to irregular attendance in the fair meaning of the term, shall be allowed upon such excuses only as would be allowed in like cases by the general rules and practice of such public school. § 624. Duties of persons in parental relation to children.- Every person in parental relation to a child within the compulsory school ages and in proper physical and mental condition to attend school, shall cause such child to attend upon instruction, as follows: 1. In cities and school districts having a population of five thousand or above, every child between seven and sixteen years of age as required by section six hundred and twenty-one of this act unless an employment certificate shall have been duly issued to such child under the provisions of the labor law and he is regularly employed thereunder. 2. Elsewhere than in a city or school district having a population of five thousand or above, every child between eight and sixteen years of age, unless such child shall have received an employment certificate duly issued under the provisions of the labor law and is regularly employed thereunder in a factory or mercantile establishment, business or telegraph office, restaurant, hotel, apartment house or in the distribution or transmission of merchandise or messages, or unless such child shall have received the school record certificate issued under section six hundred and thirty of this act and is regularly employed elsewhere than in the factory or mercantile establishment, business or telegraph office, restaurant, hotel, apartment house or in the distribution or transmission of merchandise or messages. § 625. Penalty for failure to perform parental duty.- A violation of section six hundred and twenty-four shall be a misdemeanor, punishable for the first offense by a fine not exceeding five dollars, or five days' imprisonment, and for each subsequent offense by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Courts of special session and police magistrates shall, subject to removal as provided in sections fifty-seven and fifty-eight of the Code of Criminal Procedure, have exclusive jurisdiction in the first instance to hear, try and determine charges of violations of this section within their respective jurisdictions. § 626. Unlawful employment of children and penalty therefor.- It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation: 1. To *employe any child under fourteen years of age, in any business or service whatever, for any part of the term during which the public schools of the district or city in which the child resides are in session. 2. To employ, elsewhere than in a city of the first class or a city of the second class, in a factory or mercantile establishment, business or telegraph office, restaurant, hotel, apartment house or in the distribution or transmission of merchandise or messages, any child between fourteen and sixteen years of age who does not at the time of such employment present an employment certificate duly issued under the provisions of the labor law, So in original. |