THE LAW RELATING TO THE RELIEF AND CARE OF DEPENDENTS. IV.
DEPENDENT CHILDREN.'
IT was not until the early seventies that the public care of dependent children began to differentiate from that of depend- ent adults. Until then dependent minors were cared for with the adults in the county or town almshouse, or supported with their parents upon outdoor relief. But at that time New York and Michigan excluded children from the almshouse and adopted systems of child-saving. 2 This movement has extended to a number of states, while in others it has not yet begun. It is the purpose of this paper to give the law relating to the care of dependent children now in force in the several states.
It must be borne in mind, however, that private institutions and child-saving organizations form an important part of the system of almost every state, so that, in searching out the public pro- vision in any state, we are dealing with only a part of its system. It must also be borne in mind that but few states distinguish clearly between "vagrant" and "incorrigible" children on the one hand, and "dependent" and "neglected" children on the other. The result is that many destitute and homeless children are committed to the industrial schools and reformatories along with young offenders. The extent to which this is done does not fall within the scope of this paper. Suffice it to say that in many of the southern and western states, where no special pro- vision is made for child-saving, the vagrancy laws are so general and so inclusive that md homeless children may come
within their scope.
1 The section reference* in this paper are to the statutes given in a preceding paper, JOURNAL OP SOCIOLOGY, March, 1898, pp. 632-3.
Michigan's state public school was established in 1871. New York passed her "children's act," excluding children from the almshouses, in 1875.
See Report of N. C. C. C, pp. 123-4.
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