2013 Rhode Island General Laws
Title 16 - Education
Chapter 16-29 - Americanization Schools
Section 16-29-9 - Penalty for failure to attend schools.

§ 16-29-9 Penalty for failure to attend schools. – Any person who has completed sixteen (16) years of life and who has not completed twenty-one (21) years of life, and who does not speak, read, and write English in accordance with standards approved by the department of elementary and secondary education, who resides in a city or town in which the school committee has made provision for the teaching of the English language in compliance with this chapter, who habitually absents himself or herself from public instruction, is sufficiently irregular to make it impossible for him or her to complete two hundred (200) hours of instruction annually within the time set by the school committee for conducting the schools, and is not attending private instruction approved by the school committee as provided in § 16-29-8, may be fined for each willful absence one dollar ($1.00) and not exceeding twenty dollars ($20.00) in the aggregate during one year or, for persistent refusal to attend the instruction, may be committed to an institution during his or her minority.

History of Section.
(P.L. 1919, ch. 1802, § 4; G.L. 1923, ch. 80, § 4; G.L. 1938, ch. 196, § 4; impl. am. P.L. 1951, ch. 2752, § 21; G.L. 1956, § 16-29-9.)