Education/Schools - Historical Notes

The following acts constitute part of the administrative and political heritage of the educational structure of Hancock County but are no longer operative since they have either been superseded, repealed, or failed to receive local approval.  Also referenced below are acts which repeal prior law without providing new substantive provisions.

1. Acts of 1847-48, Chapter 196, declared that "Whereas, knowledge and virtue being essential to the preservation of republican institutions, and the diffusion of the opportunities and advantages of education throughout the different portions of the state being highly conducive to the promotion of this end, and it being the declared duty of the general assembly to cherish literature and science," the trustees of Hawkins and Claiborne counties were ordered to pay over to the trustee of Hancock County those school monies belonging to the fractions of their counties which had formed Hancock County.
2. Acts of 1909, Chapter 256, was a compulsory school attendance law which required that children in Hancock County between the ages of eight and sixteen attend school for at least sixteen weeks or eighty days of each school year, unless their absence was excused by a school director.
3. Private Acts of 1911, Chapter 332, was the next compulsory attendance law for Hancock County.  It required that children between eight and sixteen attend school for at least sixteen weeks or eighty days.  The child could be excused by a school director, but he must have finished the primary course first, after which time he could be excused for a mental or physical disability or for reason of extreme poverty, necessitating the work of the child at home.  In this latter instance, the commissioner of the poor could make an allowance to the parents for the loss of the child's labor.  This act also provided that a teacher could excuse temporary absences.
4. Private Acts of 1911, Chapter 446, authorized the issuance of bonds in the amount of $8,000.00 to be spent on public schoolhouses.  These bonds were to mature in less than ten years and had varying rates of interest.
5. Private Acts of 1933, Chapter 393, exempted Hancock County from the general law providing for the election of an attendance officer, but this was repealed by Private Acts of 1939, Chapter 399.
6. Private Acts of 1935, Chapter 619, was a bond issue of $60,000.00, to be used to build a high school at Sneedville.  These bonds had a maximum annual interest rate of 5% and were to mature within twenty-five years.
7. Private Acts of 1939, Chapter 399, provided for a supervisor of attendance for the public schools of Hancock County, defined his duties, term of office and fixed his compensation.