two years immediately prior to such employment. Any such board or trustees may employ one or more school nurses, who shall be registered trained nurses and authorized to practice as such. Such nurses when so employed shall aid the medical inspector of the district and shall perform such duties for the benefit of the public schools as may be prescribed by such inspector. A medical inspector or school nurse may be employed by the trustees or boards of education of two or more school districts, and the compensation of such inspector, and the expenses incurred in making inspections of pupils as provided herein, shall be borne jointly by such districts, and be apportioned among them according to the assessed valuation of the taxable property therein. In cities and union free school districts having more than five thousand inhabitants, the board of education may employ such additional medical inspectors as may be necessary to properly inspect the pupils in the school in such cities and union free school district. The trustees of a common school district or the board of education of a union free school district whose boundaries are coterminous with the boundaries of an incorporated village shall, in the employment of medical inspectors, employ the health officer of the town in which such common school district is located or the health officer of such union free school district, so far as may be advantageous to the interests of such district. § 572. Pupils to furnish health certificates. A health certificate shall be furnished by each pupil in the public schools upon his entrance in such schools, and thereafter at the opening of such schools at the beginning of each school year. Each certificate shall be signed by a duly licensed physician who is authorized to practice medicine in this state, and shall describe the condition of the pupil when the examination was made, which shall not be more than thirty days prior to the presentation of such certificate, and state whether such pupil is in a fit condition. of bodily health to permit his or her attendance at the public schools. Such certificate shall be submitted within thirty days to the principal or teacher having charge of the school and shall be filed with the clerk of the district. If such pupil does not present a health certificate as herein required, the principal or teacher in charge of the school shall cause a notice to be sent to the parents of such pupil that if the required health certificate is not furnished within thirty days from the date of such notice, an examination will be made of such pupil as provided herein. § 573. Examinations by medical inspectors. Each principal or teacher in charge of a public school shall report to the medical inspector having jurisdiction over such school the names of all pupils who have not furnished health certificates as provided in the preceding section, and the medical inspector shall cause such pupils to be separately and carefully examined and tested to ascertain whether any of them are suffering from defective sight or hearing, or from any other physical disability tending to prevent them from receiving the full benefit of school work, or requiring a modification of such work to prevent injury to the pupils or to receive the best educational results. If it be ascertained upon such test or examination that any of such pupils are inflicted with defective sight or hearing or other physical disability as above described the principal or teacher, having charge of such school, shall notify the parents or other persons with whom such pupils are living, as to the existence of such defects and physical disability. If the parents or guardians are unable or unwilling to provide the necessary relief and treatment for such pupils, such fact shall be reported by the principal or teacher to the medical inspector, whose duty it shall be to provide relief for such pupils. § 574. Record of examinations; eye and ear tests. Medical inspectors or principals and teachers in charge of public schools shall make eye and ear tests of the pupils in such schools, at least once in each school year. The state commissioner of health shall prescribe the method of making such tests, and shall furnish general instruction in respect to such tests. The commissioner of education, after consultation with the state commissioner of health, shall prescribe and furnish to the school authorities suitable rules of instruction as to tests and examinations made as provided in this article, together with test cards, blanks, record books and other useful appliances for carrying out the purposes of this article. The commissioner of education shall provide for pupils in the normal schools, city training schools and training classes instruction and practice in the best methods of testing the sight and hearing of children. § 575. Existence of contagious diseases; return after illness. Whenever upon investigation a pupil in the public schools shows symptoms of small-pox, scarlet fever, measles, chicken-pox, tuberculosis, diphtheria, influenza, tonsilitis, whooping-cough, mumps, scabies or trachoma, he shall be excluded from the school and sent to his home immediately, in a safe and proper conveyance, and the health officer of the city or town shall be immediately notified of the existence of such disease. The medical inspector shall examine each pupil returning to a school without a certificate from the health officer of the city or town, or the family physician, after absence on account of illness or from unknown cause. Such medical inspectors may make such examinations of teachers, janitors and school buildings as in their opinion the protection of the health of the pupil and teachers may require. § 576. Enforcement of law. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of education to enforce the provisions of this article, and he may adopt such rules and regulations not inconsistent herewith, after consultation with the state commissioner of health, for the purpose of carrying into full force and effect the objects and intent of this article. He may, in his discretion, withhold the public money from a district which willfully refuses or neglects to comply with this article, and the rules and regulations made hereunder. § 577. State medical inspection of schools. The commissioner of education shall appoint a competent physician who has been in the actual practice of his profession for a period of at least five years, as state medical inspector of schools. The state medical inspector of schools, under the supervision of the commissioner of education, shall perform such duties as may be required for carrying out the provisions of this article. The said medical inspector shall be appointed in the same manner as other employces of the education department. ARTICLE XXIII. Compulsory Education. Section 620. Instruction required. 621. Required attendance upon instruction. 622. When a boy is required to attend evening school. for. 627. Employer must display record certificate and evening certificate. 628. Punishment for unlawful employment of children. 629. Teachers must keep record of attendance. 630. School record certificate. 631. Evening school certificate. 632. Attendance officers. 633. Arrest of truants. 634. Interference with attendance officers. 635. Truant schools. 636. Enforcement of law and withholding the state moneys by commissioner of education. § 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, spelling, 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 as many days annually between the first day of October and the following June as the public school of the district in which such child resides shall be in session during such period, 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. 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. (As amended by chapter 710 of the Laws of 1911). § 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. |