IN ASSEMBLY, January 7, 1833. ANNUAL REPORT Of the Superintendent of Common Schools. STATE OF NEW-YORK, SECRETARY'S OFFICE. Albany, January 7, 1833. To CHARLES L. LIVINGSTON, Speaker of the Assembly. SIR, Herewith is presented the Annual Report of the Superintendent of Common Schools. I have the honor to be, Your obedient servant, A. C. FLAGG, Sup. Common Schools. [Assem. No. 17.] 1 REPORT, &c. STATE OF NEW-YORK-SECRETARY'S OFFICE. Albany, January 7, 1833. The Secretary of State respectfully submits to the Legislature the report required of him as Superintendent of common schools. The statute relating to public instruction, requires the Superintendent to prepare and submit an annual report to the Legislature, containing, "1. A statement of the condition of the common schools of the State: "2. Estimates and accounts of expenditures of the school monies: "3. Plans for the improvement and management of the Common School Fund, and for the better organization of the common schools: and, "4. All such matters relating to his office, and to the common schools, as he shall deem expedient to communicate. I. As to the Condition of the Common Schools. There are fifty-five organized counties, and eight hundred and eleven towns and wards in the State. Returns have been received from the clerks of all the counties, containing copies of the reports of the commissioners of common schools from every town and ward in the State. Abstracts of the reports from the several towns and counties are appended to this report, and marked A. and B. It will be seen by these abstracts, that there are 9,600 organized school districts in the State, and that 8,941 of these districts have made their annual reports. The trustees are required to furnish a census of the children over 5 and under 16 years of age, who reside in their respective districts on the last day of December of each year; and also the number of children taught in each district school during the year ending on that day. It will be seen by abstract B, that in the districts from which reports have been received, there were, on the last day of December, 1831, five hundred and eight thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight children over 5 and under 16 years of age; and that four hundred and ninety-four thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine scholars were taught in the same districts during the year; and that eight thousand nine hundred and forty-one district schools have been kept open for the reception of pupils an average period of eight out of the twelve months. Two hundred and sixty-seven new districts have been formed during the year for which the reports are made; and the number of districts which have made reports to the commissioners has increased one hundred and six during the same time. Although reports have been received from 106 more districts than made reports last year, the number of children returned as having been instructed has decreased 2,146, as compared with the former reports. This apparent diminution has been occasioned, in some degree, by greater accuracy in the reports of trustees and commissioners Many districts are formed from two towns, and the trustees of such districts are required to make an annual report to the commissioners of each town from which the joint district is formed. In making an abstract of the reports from joint districts, the commissioners of each town would sometimes include the number of scholars taught in the whole district, instead of selecting such only as resided in that part of the district lying in their own town. There are in the State about fifteen hundred districts, formed from two or more towns; and the apparent excess of children taught over those between 5 and 16 in former years, is to be ascribed principally to the fact, that in many cases the whole number of chil dren taught in a double district were returned to the superintendent in the abstracts of the commissioners of two towns, To insure greater accuracy in this particular, special instructions were given to the commissioners in the forms which accompanied the Revised Statute in 1828, to embrace in the abstracts of joint districts such scholars only as resided in the same town with the commissioners. The proportion between the children enumerated and the scholars instructed has also been affected by the provision in the Revised Statutes requiring all over 5 and under 16 years to be included in the enumeration, instead of those from 5 to 15: A reference to the |