Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 55 Part 1.djvu/908

 55 STAT.] 77TH CONG., 1ST SESS.-CH. 649-JAN. 12, 1942 (5) Upon proper showing, in its discretion, to discharge from custody or guardianship any child committed to its care. SEC. 2. Any person who shall entice or attempt to entice, away from any home or institution, any child legally committed to the Board of Public Welfare and placed by said Board in such home or institution, or any person who shall assist or attempt to assist any such child to leave without permission such home or institution, knowing such child to be an inmate of such institution or to have been placed in such home, or any person who shall harbor, conceal, or aid in harboring or concealing any such child who shall be absent without leave from a home or institution in which he has been placed by the Board of Public Welfare, shall, upon conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall pay a fine of not less than $10 nor more than $100; and any policeman shall have power, and it is hereby made his duty, to take into custody any child, when in his power to do so, who shall be absent without leave from a home or institution in which he has been placed and return him thereto or to the Receiving Home. SEc. 3. Section 5 of the Act entitled "An Act to provide for the care of dependent children in the District of Columbia and to create a Board of Children's Guardians", approved July 26, 1892, as amended, is hereby amended to read as follows: "SEo. 5 . The Board shall have full power (1) to accept for care, custody, and guardianship dependent or neglected children whose custody or parental control has been transferred to the Board, and to provide for the care and support of such children during their minority or during the term of their commitment; (2) the Board shall also have full power with respect to all children accepted by it for care to place them in private families either without expense or at a fixed rate of board, to place them in institutions willing to receive them either without expense or at a fixed rate of board; (3) to consent to the adoption of all children committed to its care whose parents have been permanently deprived of custody by court order." SEC. 4. Section 6 of the Act entitled "An Act to provide for the care of dependent children in the District of Columbia and to create a Board of Children's Guardians", approved July 26, 1892, as amended, is hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 6 . The antecedents, character, and condition of life of each child received by the Board shall be investigated as fully as possible, and the facts learned entered in permanent records, in which shall also be noted the subsequent history of each child, so far as it can be ascertained. Such records shall be confidential but may be made available in the discretion of the Board. Provision shall be made for study of the physical and mental conditions of children received for care in order that care for each child may be planned to meet his particular physical and mental needs." Approved, January 12, 1942. 883 Discharge from cus- tody. Enticing or harbor- ing children commit- ted to Board. Penalty. Children absent without leave. 27 Stat. 269. D. C. Code §3-117. Authority of Board. Placing children in private families, etc. Consent to adop- tion. 27 Stat. 21>9. I). (. Code §3-118. Investigations and studies.

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