§ MR. TILLETTasked the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, Whether his attention has been called to the letter of the Education Department of the 8th of January 1878, addressed to the Norwich School Board, which states that a School Board or the managers of a voluntary school are justified in refusing admission to any child who does not prepay the school fee, unless the parent is prevented by poverty from paying the same, and that, in the opinion of their Lordships, when a child is absent from school because the parent does not choose to pay the fee, there was no reason why the parent should not be summoned for violating the bye-laws; whether, having regard to the recent decision in the case of Richardson v. Saunders, to the effect that a parent cannot be fined for not causing his child to attend school, if the child is sent to school without the weekly fee and is refused admission, and having regard to Article 17a of the New Code, which provides, as a
Condition of a school receiving Government Grant, that no child is refused admission to the school on other than reasonable grounds,a child can, under any and what circumstances, be refused admission, on the ground of non-payment of the fee, without endangering the Government Grant; 1808 whether the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown has been taken on the subject; and, whether the Government propose to introduce any Bill dealing with the question?
§ MR. MUNDELLAMy attention has been directed to the letter of January 8, 1878, which I find it has been the practice of the Department in past years to send in similar cases. The effect of the decision in "Richardson v. Saunders" seems to have been generally misunderstood. In this case the order to attend a particular school was made under Section 11 of the Elementary Education Act, 1876; and it was found, by the case submitted to the High Court of Justice, that the parent was unable to pay the school fee. Having regard to this admitted fact, the Judges held that the parent, by sending his child to the school, had done everything in his power. But this decision does not in any way affect the rule laid down in the Code, according to which a child may be refused admission who does not pay the fee, and is not prevented by poverty from paying it. I make this statement after conference with the Law Officers of the Crown; and we are considering with them whether further legislation is necessary to enforce the liability of parents in regard to the payment of school fees for their children.