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Michigan legislation for district crippled children's classes stipulates a minimum of five pupils of this classification.-4- Missouri provides state aid for such classes. Section 178, Article IX, of the New Jersey school law provides in part that the Board of Education of every school district must provide specially adapted equipment and facilities for crippled children, and that if there are ten or more of such children, a special class or special classes must be organized.. It is stipulated that such classes shall not exceed eighteen children. They must be financed by local authorities, as no state aid is provided. New York State has legislation providing for special classes for crippled children. At the present time, a committee has been authorized to investigate the local situation with a view toward making further recommendations.-1-

-4- Senate Bill No. 297, Michigan Legislative Session of 1923.

-1- Educational Law. (New York) 1917, Chapter 559, Section 1020.

Minnesota, under the laws of 1921, Chapter 141, authorized school districts to establish classes for crippled children provided that there were not less than five pupils of school age in each class. Boards of Education establishing such classes are to be paid $200.00 annually per pupil to cover the excess transportation and equipment, providing that the child attends school for a full nine month period. Should circumstances make it impossible for the child to continue classwork through out the year, payments are to be made in proportion to the amount of attendance. Wisconsin school boards in large cities are authorized to provide transportation and lunches for crippled pupils.

A stipulation in Mississippi school law provides transportation for crippled children in that state.

Bedside instruction is provided in Ohio, both at hospitals and at home. House Bill No. 200 provides that three hours of home instruction shall be counted as equal to the attendance of one child for two days at school. The Act, of course, limits such instruction to those patients who cannot, even with the help of transportation, be assembled. The Pennsylvania law includes the words "and provide suitable education." This bill is the most flexible of any of those under discussion and leaves a considerable latitude for the Juvenile Courts to insist on adequate care and education for these children. Minnesota is the only other state providing for the expenditure of funds for bedside instruction. The state hospital is made available for the "treatment, care and education of crippled and deformed children."

Massachusetts, Michigan, and Wisconsin have authorize state schools specifically for the education of crippled children. The Massachusetts institution is a combined orthopedic hospital, convalescent home, and school, both academic and industrial. The Wisconsin institution is primarily a state public school for dependent children, -2- but has special facilities to care for the crippled. Juvenile courts are empowered to commit children for treatment or education, and they are to determine the degree to which parents must pay for these facilities.-3- A portion of the Michigan State Public School at Coldwater is devoted to the handicapped. An unusual law, relative to crippled children, is the Wisconsin statute of 1919 which provides that midwives, physicians, parents, or guardians must register the birth of a congenitally deformed child within twenty-four hours. There is no analogous law in other states.

-2- Located at Sparta.

-3- School Laws, 1919, s. 573a. (Wisconsin.)

Most of the legislation discussed in this chapter is too new to justify or condemn its content. The future success of those laws modeled after Ohio Bills depends largely on the degree to which the public will support their continuance. Such statutes can easily become dead letters through lack of court applications and lack of petitions for public school classes. Their possibilities for efficiency with proper social co-operation are unlimited. Witness Ohio! The older legislation providing centralized facilities is rapidly proving itself inadequate for state needs. Two of the states which led the way with central orthopedic hospitals have already adopted laws to bring educational opportunities to the child in his own district. Other modifications in their plans must necessarily follow. It will be impossible for Minnesota to have special classes for crippled children located throughout the state and the only remedial facilities at Phalen Park. Similarly it would be ridiculous for Missouri to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a central hospital. Legislatures everywhere may well expect to be voting for a "decentralized" plan of orthopedic centers in the near future. More of this will be discussed in the next Chapter.

CHAPTER VI.

CARING FOR AND TREATING CRIPPLED CHILDREN

Many, many years ago, our forefathers believed in miracles. They had read of how the great Red Sea had parted that the children of Israel might cross in safety, and how a rock had produced water that the Israelites might quench their thirst. Their theology was a strange mixture of belief in unseen spiritual forces with thoroughly human attributes, and very literal interpretations of Biblical mythology. Then, in the course of time, came the mechanistic scientists who scoffed and "knew better than to believe such intangible nonsense." And now curiously enough, the scientists themselves produce the miracles, and make available for us the tangible evidence.