Part 2 — CHAPTER XVII
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PROVISIONS CONCERNING ADMISSION OF PUPILS INTO SCHOOLS
Rules as to the Payment of Fees
Hitherto we have considered the several forms of provision for the schools for the deaf, and the general treatment accorded them. We now turn our examination to the schools themselves in their relation to the pupils who enter them. Our first concern is with the provisions as to the admission of pupils into the schools.
We find that the schools, to all intents and purposes, are free to all applicants mentally and physically qualified to enter.[519] Usually, when started, the schools were free to the indigent only, though some, especially in the West, were made free to all from the very beginning. However, there was little attempt to observe closely these limitations, and in time, as we have seen, they were for the most part given up.[520] At present limitations of any kind are found in the smaller number of states, and exist in these in form rather than in practice, so that to-day laws or regulations of a restrictive nature may be regarded as but nominal.
In all the states the schools are by statute free to the indigent at least, and in less than a score is there a regulation short of universal admittance prescribed. By the wording of the statute, either directly or by implication, it would seem to be indicated that the schools, or, in their absence, the proper public authorities, in the following states were still empowered to demand a charge in whole or in part from those able to pay: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia—these states at least making reference in some place to the indigent.[521] But with or without such reference, as we have noted, in but few instances is there a charge to any, indigent or not.[522] In some states proof of indigence is still formally necessary,[523] and in others payment may be made if desired.[524]
Little effort, then, is made to collect fees in American schools for the deaf. The circumstances of the deaf themselves are usually such as to demand for them education without cost; while at the same time the general American feeling that education should be a free gift of the state to its youth would be sufficient to prevent attempts to secure payment, even if such action should be considered proper.
Provision for Collateral Support of Pupils
The state thus supplies the means for the education and maintenance of pupils without cost to them; but to insure the attendance of those who by reason of poverty might be prevented from availing themselves of its bounty, it assists even further. Where no other means are provided, clothing and transportation to and from the schools are furnished free of expense. Such charges are usually paid by the counties from which the pupils come, though a few states undertake this directly. A given sum may be allowed for this purpose, or the actual cost may be collected.[525]
Age Limits of Attendance
With most of the schools the age limits of attendance are fixed, and pupils may be admitted only within the time prescribed by the law. In some the age permitted is the common school age; in others pupils are admitted who are of "suitable age and qualifications," or "capacity;" and in some cases, no limits being set down, the matter seems to be left to the discretion of the authorities.[526]
In schools where the limits of attendance are specified, the minimum age is usually six, seven or eight, while a few schools admit at five. In a few of the day schools, and in most of the oral home schools, children may be received as early as three, or even two, to make an early beginning in the use of speech, some of the home schools being designed expressly to receive children under five, or before the regular school period. The age limit for the completion of the school period is often twenty or twenty-one, while a few schools may keep pupils longer, as to twenty-five. The most frequent age period at present, where age limits are stated, is from six to twenty-one, but the period often begins and ends at other ages.[527]
In some cases pupils are allowed to remain a certain number of years, but none beyond a certain limit, while in many the period may be extended two, three or five years, when it appears that the progress of the pupil justifies a more protracted residence.[528] Finally, it is to be noted that the limits of attendance have in general been lowered, and have been made to conform more and more with those of the regular schools.[529]