New York (State). Commission to Examine Laws Relating to Child Welfare.

The commission was created by Chapter 699 of the Laws of 1920 to examine and collate laws relating to child welfare. In examining the laws it was the commission's responsiblity to investigate their operation and effect on children, ascertain overlapping and duplication of laws and/or activities of any public office, department or commission, and to propose remedial legislation. An amendment to the 1920 law (Chapter 342 of the Laws of 1921) required the commission to report to the legislature annually and at such other times as required by the governor or president of the senate.

The commission originated in a recommendation by a conference on child welfare held in October of 1919 in connection with the annual convocation of the regents. The conference brought together educators, industrial workers, and health experts to discuss the needs of the state's children. Many speakers stressed the need for better laws to meet modern conditions, and a conference committee prepared a bill, which was eventually passed by the legislature, creating the commission.

Commission membership included legislators from both houses, persons representing the public at large, and representatives from the state departments of Labor, Education, Health, the State Board of Charities, and the State Probation Commission. It had all the powers of a legislative committee and was authorized to conduct its investigations anywhere in the state, to take and hear proofs and testimony, and to subpoena and compel witnesses, books, records and papers.

The scope of the commission's work is revealed by its subcommittees, including: education; health; labor; delinquent children; dependent, neglected, and defective children; mothers' allowances; child protection; and collation of laws. In addition to its executive sessions, the commission held conferences around the state to which representatives of child welfare agencies were invited, and which were attended by a cross section of people who administered programs or worked with juveniles. The public hearings of the commission particularly considered the questions of the county children's courts; the jurisdiction of the New York City children's court; the institutional care of children; and the laws relating to placing out, boarding out, and adoption of children.

The commission prepared and distributed a manual of laws relating to children which indexed statutes classified under appropriate topics. It gathered much statistical data in the course of its investigations and was responsible for the enactment of at least two dozen pieces of legislation. Chief among these are laws that: established county children's courts statewide to hear cases of child offenders and neglected children (Laws of 1922, Chapter 547, the "Children's Court Act"); extended the powers of existing boards of child welfare (charged to administer mothers' allowances) to counties outside of New York City (Laws of 1922, Chapter 546); provided state aid to deaf and dumb children under the age of 12, so those from 5 to 18 years of age could be educated in institutions at state expense (Laws of 1922, Chapter 327); changed the procedures for issuing employment certificates for children to simplify administrative features (Laws of 1922, Chapter 464); expanded the power of child welfare boards to grant allowances under circumstances of a husband's incapacity/desertion, and amended domestic relations law for the legal support of children (Laws of 1923, Chapter 730, 731, 733; Laws of 1924, Chapter 459; among others); officially repealed dated provisions that had legalized the indenture of children (Laws of 1923, Chapter 306); added safeguards to procedures for legal adoptions (Laws of 1924, Chapter 323);

raised the age until which children must attend school, prior to entering industry, to 16 years (Laws of 1923, Chapter 306); and prohibited the use of the terms "bastard" and "illegitimate child" and substituted "child born out of wedlock" (Laws of 1925, Chapter 515).

The commission also conducted studies into child labor; work week limitations; tenement/homework manufacture; and the work of societies for prevention of cruelty to children, especially in reference to outside supervision over their shelters for children.

The legislature granted appropriations to the commission annually from 1920 through to 1925, until it only appropriated enough to cover a deficit and not working funds. The commission's last meeting was in December of 1926.

From the New York State Archives, Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY. Agency record NYSV93-A25