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66
MENTALLY DEFECTIVE CHILDREN.
The Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, which came into
operation on April 1st, 1914, cast certain duties on the
Education Committee. The procedure adopted is as
follows :—-Children reputed or known to be mentally defective
are reported by the Head Teachers, Attendance Officers,
and School Doctor. They are then the subject of a detailed
examination and report by the School Medical Officer.
Those children found to be idiots, imbeciles, and moral
imbeciles are to be notified to the County Council, and thereupon
pass out of the hands of the Committee. Those children
found to be merely feeble-minded remain under the
supervision of the Committee and will be educated in special
schools or classes under the provisions of the Elementary
Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act, 1914.
This Act came into force at the beginning of the year 1915.
No mentally defective children were notified to the
County Council during the year. During the latter portion
of the year a census of children of school age was being
taken, and the systematic examination of suspected children
was not initiated until the results of the census were available.
It is not possible therefore to indicate the numbers of
children in Ilford who are mentally defective, but accurate
and classified figures will shortly be available.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN SCHOOL CHILDREN.
General comment is made on the various infectious
diseases in another portion of this report. Following are
particulars of each disease as it affected the school children.
SCARLET FEVER.
115 cases of scarlet fever were reported in school children.
There was no undue incidence of the disease in any