POLITICAL CODE.

General right of the state over persons.

$37. The state has the following rights over persons within its limits, to be exercised in the cases and in the manner provided by law:

1. To punish for crime;

2. To imprison or confine for the protection of the public peace or health, or of individual life or safety;

3. To imprison or confine for the purpose of enforcing civil remedies; 4. To establish custody and restraint for the persons of idiots, lunatics, drunkards, and other persons of unsound mind;

5. To establish custody and restraint of paupers for the purpose of their maintenance;

6. To establish custody and restraint of minors unprovided for by natural guardians, for the purposes of their education, reformation and maintenance;

7. To require services of persons, with or without compensation: In military duty; in jury duty; as witnesses; as town or village officers; in highway labor; in maintaining the public peace; in enforcing the service of process; in protecting life and property from fire, pestilence, wreck and flood; and in such other cases as are provided by statute.

Qualifications of notaries public.

§ 792. Every person appointed as notary public must, at the time of appointment, be a citizen of the United States and of this state, and twentyone years of age; must have resided in the county for which the appointment is made for six months. Women having these qualifications may be appointed. [Amended March 10, 1891.]

Qualifications of voters.

§ 1083. Every native citizen of the United States, every person who shall have acquired the right of citizenship under or by virtue of the treaty of Queretaro, and every naturalized citizen thereof or female person who has acquired citizenship by virtue of her marriage to a citizen, or by the naturalization of her husband, and every other person who has otherwise become a citizen of the United States who shall have acquired such citizenship ninety days prior to any election, of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of the state one year next preceding the election, and of the county in which such citizen claims to be entitled to vote ninety days, and in the election precinct thirty days, and who has conformed to the law governing the registration of voters, shall be a qualified elector at any and all elections held within the county, city and county, city, town, or district within which such elector resides. [Amended December 23, 1911.]

NOTE The Political Code was enacted March 12, 1872. Sections amended since that date are followed by date of amendment.

Registry of marriages.

§ 3076. All persons who perform the marriage ceremony in this state shall within three days after the ceremony file with the county recorder a certificate of registry of the marriage performed by them in such form as may be prescribed by the state registrar which shall contain among other matters as near as can be ascertained, the place and date of marriage, sex, race, color, age, name and surname, birthplace, residence of the parties married, number of marriage and condition of each, whether single, widowed, or divorced, the occupation of the parties, maiden name of the female, if previously married, the names and birthplace of the parents of each and the maiden name of the mother of each. [Amended March 18, 1905.]

Registry of Births.

§ 3077. Physicians, midwives, nurses and other persons assisting at a birth shall return in writing within five days thereafter to the county recorder of the county where such birth takes place in such form as may be prescribed by the state registrar a certificate of registry of such birth which shall contain among other matters, the time and place of such birth, name, sex, race and color of the child, the name, residence, age, birthplace and occupation of the parents and the maiden name of the mother, and whether born in or out of wedlock, and such other information as may be required by the state registrar; provided, however, that in cities having a freeholders charter the health officer shall act as local registrar and perform all the duties thereof. In case the child is not named the recorder or registrar of such locality shall deliver to such parent, next of kin, physician, midwife or other person furnishing such certificate of birth a supplementary blank for report of given name, which shall be filled out and returned as soon as the child shall be named. In case there shall be no physician, midwife, or nurse attending at such birth, then, it shall be the duty of the parents of any child born in this state (and if there be no parent alive, then the next of kin of said child) within ten days after such birth to report in writing to the recorder of the county or health officer of cities having a freeholders charter where such birth takes place, in such form as may be prescribed by the state registrar, the date, place and residence, name, sex, race, and color of such child, and the names, residence, birthplace and age of the parents, their occupations, and the maiden name of the mother, and whether born in or out of wedlock, and such other information required by the state registrar. [Amended March 18, 1905.]

EDUCATIONAL RIGHTS OF CHILDREN.

An act to enforce the educational rights of children and providing penalties for violation of the act.

[Approved March 24, 1903.]

Each child must attend school.

SECTION 1. Unless excused, as hereinafter provided, each parent, guardian, or other person, in the State of California, having control or charge of any child between the ages of eight and fifteen years, shall be required to send such child to a public school, during the time in which a public school shall be in session, in the city or city and county or school district in which said child resides; provided, that should it be shown to the satisfaction of the board of education of the city or city and county, or of the board of trustees of the school district, in which such child resides, that the child's bodily or mental condition is such as to prevent or render inadvisable attendance at school or application to study, a certificate from any reputable physician that the child is not able to attend school, or that in attendance is inadvisable, must be taken as satisfactory evidence by any such board, or that such child is being taught in a private school, or by a private tutor, or at home by any person capable of teaching, in such branches as are usually taught in the primary and grammar schools of this state; or that any such child between the age of twelve and fifteen has been given a permit to work by the proper judicial officers in accordance with section two of “An act regulating the employment and hours of labor of children, prohibiting the employment of minors under certain ages, prohibiting the employment of certain illiterate minors, providing for the enforcement hereof by the commissioner of the bureau of labor statistics and providing penalties for the violation hereof approved February 20, 1905"; or that no public school is located within two miles, by the nearest traveled road, of the residence of the child; or that the child has completed the prescribed grammar school course; then it shall be the duty of such board of education or board of trustees, upon application of the parent, or guardian, or other person having control or charge of such child, to excuse such child from attendance at school, during the continuance of such defect or condition upon which such excuse is granted; and provided, further, that circumstances rendering attendance impracticable or dangerous to health, owing to unusual storm or other sufficient cause, shall work an exemption from the penalties of this act. If any parent or guardian or other person having control or charge of any such child presents proof to such board of education or board of trustees, by affidavit, that he is unable to compel such child to attend school, said parent, guardian or other person shall be exempt from the penalties of this act, as regards the subsequent nonattendance at school of such child, and said child may, in the discretion of such board, be deemed a truant and subject to assignment to the parental school. [Amended April 21, 1911.]

Penalty for failure to send child to school.

SEC. 2. Any parent, guardian, or other person having control or charge of any such child, who shall fail to comply with the provisions of this act, shall, unless excused or exempted therefrom as hereinbefore provided, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall be liable, for the first offense, to a fine of not more than ten dollars or to imprisonment for not more than five days, and for each subsequent offense he shall be liable to a fine of not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars, or to imprisonment for not less than five days nor more than twenty-five days, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Investigation.

SEC. 3. The board of education of any city or city and county, or the board of trustees of any school district, shall, on the complaint of any person, make full and impartial investigation of all charges against parents or guardians or other persons having control or charge of any such child, for violation of any of the provisions of this act. If it shall appear upon such investigation that any such parent or guardian or other person has violated any of the provisions of this act, it is hereby made the duty of the secretary of such board of education, except as hereinafter provided, or the clerk of such board of trustees, to make and file in the proper court a criminal complaint against such parent, guardian or other person, charging such violation, and to see that such charge is prosecuted by the proper authorities; provided, that in cities, and in cities and counties, and in school districts having an attendance officer or officers, such officer or officers shall, under the direction of the board of education, or the city superintendent of schools, or the board of trustees, make and file such complaint, and see that such charge is prosecuted by the proper authorities. [Amended March 4, 1907.]

Attendance officer.

SEC. 4. The board of education of any city, or city and county, may appoint and remove at pleasure one or more attendance officers of such city, or city and county, or the board of trustees of any school district having at least six hundred census children, may appoint and remove at pleasure one attendance officer, and shall fix his or their compensation, not exceeding one thousand dollars per annum for any such officer, payable from the county or special school fund of such city, city and county, or school district, and shall prescribe their duties, not inconsistent with law, and make rules and regulations for the performance thereof; provided, that in any city, or city and county, containing less than twenty thousand school census children, not more than one attendance officer shall be appointed, and in any city, or city and county, containing more than twenty thousand school census children, not more than one attendance officer shall be appointed for each twenty thousand school census children, or fraction greater than one half thereof. [Amended March 4, 1907.]

Commitment of truant children to parental school.

SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the attendance officer, or of any peace officer or any school officer, to arrest during school hours, without warrant, any child between eight and fourteen years of age, found away from his home, and who has been reported to him by the teacher, the superintendent of schools, or other person connected with the school department or schools as a truant from instruction upon which he is lawfully required to attend within the county, city, or city and county, or school district. Such arresting officer shall forthwith deliver the child so arrested either to the parent, guardian or other person having control or charge of such child, or to the teacher from whom said child is then a truant, or if such child shall have been declared an habitual truant, he shall bring such child before a magistrate for commitment by him to a parental school, as provided in this act. The attendance officer or other arresting officer shall report promptly such arrest, and the disposition made by him of such child to the school authorities of such city, or city and county, or school district. Any child may be reported as a truant, in the meaning of this act, who shall have been absent from school without valid excuse more than three days or tardy on more than three days, any absence for a part of a day being regarded as a tardiness. Any child who has once been reported as a truant and who is again absent from school, without valid excuse, one or more days, or tardy on one or more days, may again be reported as a truant. Any child may be deemed an habitual truant who shall have been reported as a truant three or more times. Any child who has once been declared an habitual truant and who, in a succeeding year, is reported as a truant from school one or more days or tardy on one or more days without valid excuse, may be again declared an habitual truant. [Amended March 4, 1907.]

Establishment of parental schools.

SEC. 6. The board of education of any city, or of any city and county, or the board of trustees of any school district having at least six hundred census children, may establish schools in a manner hereinafter prescribed, or set apart in public school buildings for children between eight and fourteen years of age, who are habitual truants from instruction upon which they are lawfully required to attend, or who are insubordinate or disorderly during their attendance upon such instruction, or irregular in such attendance. Such school or room shall be known as a parental school. A parental school, as herein designated and provided for, shall be one of the primary or grammar schools of the city, or city and county, or school district, and the teachers therein shall have the same qualifications and be employed and paid in the same manner as in other primary and grammar schools; but such parental school shall be established and maintained specially for the instruction therein of such pupils, between the ages of eight and fourteen years, as shall be committed thereto as provided in this act. and no pupil shall be committed to, or required to attend, such school, except as in this act provided. Said board of education or board of trustees may make such special rules and regulations for the government of a parental