§ 9d. Whenever it shall appear to the court before or after the appointment of a guardian under this Act that the home of the child or of his parents, former guardian or custodian is a suitable place for such child and that such child could be permitted to remain or ordered to be returned to said home consistent with the public good and the good of such child, the court may enter an order to that effect returning such child to his home under probation, parole or otherwise; it being the intention of this Act that no child shall be taken away or kept out of his home or away from his parents and guardian any longer than is reasonably necessary to preserve the welfare of such child and the interest of this State: Provided, however, that no such order shall be entered without first giving ten days' notice to the guardian, institution or association to whose care such child has been committed, unless such guardian, institution or association consents to such order.

§ 9e. The court may, from time to time, cite into court the guardian, institution or association to whose care any dependent, neglected or delinquent child has been awarded, and to require him or it to make a full, true and perfect report as to his or its doings in behalf of such child; and it shall be the duty of such guardian, institution or association, within ten days after such citation, to make such report either in writing verified by affidavit, or verbally under oath in open court, or otherwise as the court shall direct; and upon the hearing of such report, with or without further evidence, the court may, if it sees fit, remove such guardian and appoint another in his stead, or take such child away from such institution or association and place it in another, or restore such child to the custody of its parents or former guardian or custodian.

§ 10. When in any county where a court is held as provided in section 3 of this Act, a male child under the age of 17 years or a female child under the age of 18 years is arrested with or without warrant such child may, instead of being taken before a justice of the peace or police magistrate, be taken directly before such court; or if the child is taken before a justice of the. peace or police magistrate, it shall be the duty of such justice of the peace or police magistrate to transfer the case to such court, and the officer having the child in charge to take the child before such court, and, in any case, the court may proceed to hear and dispose of the case in the same manner as if the child had been brought before the court upon petition as herein provided. In any case, the court shall require notice to be given and investigation to be made as in other cases under this Act, and may adjourn the hearing from time to time for that purpose. (As amended by an Act approved May 16, 1905.)

§ 11. No court or magistrate shall commit a child under 12 years of age to a jail or police station, but if such child is unable to give bail it may be committed to the care of the sheriff, police officer or probation officer, who shall keep such child in some suitable place provided by the city or county outside of the inclosure of any jail or police station. When any child shall be sentenced to confinement in any institution to which adult convicts are sentenced it shall be unlawful to confine such child in the same building with such adult convicts, or to confine such child in the same yard or inclosure with such adult convicts, or to bring such child into any yard or building in which such adult convicts may be present.

§ 12. It shall be the duty of the superintendent of the State Reformatory at Pontiac and the board of managers of the State Home for Juvenile Female Offenders at Geneva, and the board of managers of any other institution to which juvenile delinquents may be committed by the courts, to maintain an agent of such institution, whose duty it shall be to examine the homes of children paroled from such institution for the purpose of ascertaining and reporting to said court whether they are suitable homes; to assist children paroled or discharged from such institution in finding suitable employment, and to maintain a friendly supervision over paroled inmates during the continuance of their parole; such agents shall hold office subject to the pleasure of the board making the appointment, and shall receive such compensation as such board may determine out of any funds appropriated for such institution applicable thereto.

§ 13. All associations receiving children under this Act shall be subject to the same visitation, inspection and supervision by the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities as are the public charitable institutions of this State, and it shall be the duty of the said board of commissioners to pass annually upon the fitness of every such association as may receive, or desire to receive, children under the supervision of this Act, and every such association shall annually, at such time as said board shall direct, make report thereto, showing its condition, management and competency to adequately care for such children as are, or may be, committed to it, and such other facts as said board may require, and upon said board being satisfied that such association is competent and has adequate facilities to care for such children, it shall issue to the same a certificate to that effect, which certificate shall continue in force for one year, unless sooner revoked by said board, and no child shall be committed to any such association which shall not have received such a certificate within fifteen months next preceding the commitment. The court may, at any time, require from any association receiving, or desiring to receive, children under the provisions of this Act, such reports, information and statements as the judge shall deem proper or necessary for his action, and the court shall in no case be required to commit a child to any association whose standing, conduct or care of children, or ability to care for the same, is not satisfactory to the court. (As amended by an Act approved May 11, 1901.)

§ 14. No association whose objects may embrace the caring for dependent, neglected or delinquent children shall hereafter be incorporated unless the proposed articles of incorporation shall first have been submitted to the examination of the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities, and the Secretary of State shall not issue a certificate of incorporation unless there shall first be filed in his office the certificate of said Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities that said board has examined the said articles of incorporation and that, in its judgment, the incorporators are reputable and responsible persons, the proposed work is needed, and the incorporation of such association is desirable and for the public good; amendments proposed to the articles of incorporation or association having as an object the care and disposal of dependent, neglected or delinquent children shall be submitted in like manner to the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities, and the Secretary of State shall not record such amendment or issue his certificate therefor unless there shall first be filed in his office the certificate of said Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities that they have examined the said amendment, that the association in question is, in their judgment, performing in good faith the work undertaken by it, and that the said amendment is, in their judgment, a proper one and for the public good.

§ 15. Whenever the petition filed, as is provided in section 3 hereof, or a supplemental petition filed at any time after the appointment of the guardian shall pray that the guardian to be appointed shall be authorized to consent to the legal adoption of the child, and the court upon the hearing shall find that it is to the best interest of such child that the guardian be given such authority, the court may, in its order appointing such guardian, empower him to appear in court where any proceedings for the adoption of such child may be pending, and to consent to such adoption; and such consent shall be sufficient to authorize the court where the adoption proceedings are pending to enter a proper order or decree of adoption without further notice to, or consent by the parents or relatives of such child: Provided, however, that before entering such order the court shall find from the evidence that the parents or surviving parent of a legitimate child or the mother of an illegitimate child, or if the child has no parents living the guardian of the child, if any, or if there is no parent living and the child has no guardian or the guardian is not known to petitioner, then a near relative of the child, if any there be, consents to such order; or that one parent consents and the other is unfit for any of the reasons hereinafter specified to have the child or that both parents are or that the surviving parent or the mother of an illegitimate child is so unfit for any of such reasons— the grounds of unfitness being (a) depravity, (b) open and notorious adultery or fornication, (c) habitual drunkenness for the space of one year prior to the filing of the petition, (d) extreme and repeated cruelty to the child, (e) abandonment of the child, or (f) desertion of the child for more than six months next preceding the filing of the petition. (As amended by an Act approved June 4, 1907.)

§ 16. No association which is incorporated under the laws of any other state than the State of Illinois shall place any child in any family home within the boundaries of the State of Illinois, either with or without indenture, or for adoption, unless the said association shall have furnished the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities with such guarantee as they may require that no child shall be brought into the State of Illinois by such society or its agents having any contagious or incurable disease, or having any deformity, or being of feeble mind, or of vicious character, and that said association will promptly receive and remove from the State any child brought into the State of Illinois by its agent which shall become a public charge within the period of five years after being brought into this State. Any person who shall receive, to be placed in a home, or shall place in a home, any child in behalf of any association incorporated in any other state than the State of Illinois which shall not have complied with the requirements of this Act, shall be imprisoned in the county jail not more than thirty days, or fined not less than $5.00 or more than $100.00, or both, in the discretion of the court.

§ 17. The court in committing children shall place them as far as practicable in the care and custody of some individual holding the same religious belief as the parents of said child, or with some association which is controlled by persons of like religious faith of the parents of the said child.

§ 18. The county judge of each county may appoint a board of six reputable inhabitants, who will serve without compensation, to constitute a board of visitation, whose duty it shall be to visit as often as once a year all institutions, societies and associations receiving children under this Act. Said visits shall be made by not less than two of the members of the board, who shall go together or make a joint report; the said board of visitors shall report to the court from time to time the condition of children received by or in the charge of such associations and institutions, and shall make an annual report to the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities in such form as the board may prescribe. The county board may, at their discretion, make appropriations for the payment of the actual and necessary expenses incurred by the visitors in the discharge of their official duties.

§19. The powers and duties herein provided to be exercised by the county court or the judges thereof may, in counties having over 500,000 population, be exercised by the circuit courts and their judges as hereinbefore provided for.

§ 20. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to repeal any portion of the Act to aid industrial schools for girls, the Act to provide for and aid training schools for boys, the Act to establish the Illinois State Reformatory or the Act to provide for a State Home for Juvenile Female Offenders. And in all commitments to said institutions the Acts in reference to said institutions shall govern the same.

§ 21. This Act shall be liberally construed, to the end that its purpose may be carried out, to-wit: That the care, custody and discipline of a child shall approximate as nearly as may be that which should be given by its parents, and in all cases where it can properly be done the child be placed in an improved family home and become a member of the family by legal adoption or otherwise.

§ 22. If it shall appear, upon the hearing of the cause that the parent, parents, or any person or persons named in such petition who are in law liable for the support of such child, are able to contribute to the support of such child, the court shall enter an order requiring such parent, parents or other persons to pay to the guardian so appointed or to the institution to which such child may be committed, a reasonable sum from time to time for the support, maintenance or education of such child and the court may order such parent, parents or other persons to give reasonable security for the payment of such sum or sums, and upon failure to pay, the court may enforce obedience to such order by a proceeding as for contempt of court. The court may, on application and on such notice as the court may direct from time to time, make such alterations in the allowance as shall appear reasonable and proper. § 23. If the person so ordered to pay for the support, maintenance or education of a dependent, neglected or delinquent child shall be employed for wages, salary or commission, the court may also order that the sum to be paid by him shall be paid to the guardian or institution out of his wages, salary or commission and that he shall execute an assignment thereof pro tanto. The court may also order the parent or the person so ordered to pay the sum of money for the support, maintenance or education of a child, from time to time make discovery to the court as to his place of employment and amount earned by him. Upon his failure to obey the orders of court he may be punished as for contempt of court.

§ 24. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to give the guardian appointed under this Act the guardianship of the estate of the child or to change the age of minority for any other purpose except the custody of the child.

APPROVED April 21, 1899.

PENSION FUND

AN ACT to provide for the contribution from public moneys to the public school teachers' pension and retirement fund in cities having a population exceeding one hundred thousand inhabitants.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly: That the board of education of any city having a population exceeding one hundred thousand inhabitants shall annually set aside, appropriate and pay into the public school teachers' pension and retirement fund in such city now created or existing, or such as may hereafter be created pursuant to any law, a sum of public money, so that the same when taken together with the moneys added to such pension fund for that year from interest on school funds raised by taxation, as provided for in section 165 of an Act entitled, "An Act to establish and maintain a system of free schools, approved and in force June 12, 1909, and Acts amendatory thereto," shall equal in amount the aggregate of the sums set apart for that year and contributed to such pension fund from the salaries of the teachers in the employ of said board of education, and in addition thereto the aforesaid board of education shall have power annually to set aside, appropriate and pay into the public school teachers' pension and retirement fund in such city, now created or existing, or such as may hereafter be created, pursuant to any law, an additional sum of public money, so that the same, when taken together with the moneys added to such pension fund for that year from interest on school funds raised by taxation, as provided for in section 165 of this Act, shall equal in amount double the aggregate of the sums set apart for that year, and contributed to such pension fund from the salaries of the teachers in the employ of said board of education.

APPROVED June 27, 1913.