In California, children are required by law to attend school between the ages of 6 and 18. The California Education Code includes truancy laws that give the definition and penalties for children who do not attend school without a valid excuse.
What Is the Legal Definition of Truancy?
A child is considered truant if they are:
- Late to school 3 times a school year
- Absent for 3 full days in a school year
- Absent 3 times for longer than 30 minutes
The above would not be considered truancy if there was a valid excuse.
A child is chronically truant if they miss 10% or more of the school year.
What Are Valid Excuses For Truancy?
The child would not be considered truant if they have an excuse that the California Education Code sees as valid. There are 11 valid excuses for truancy in California:
- Illness of the student
- Medical, chiropractic, vision, or dental appointments for the student
- The student stayed home to care for their sick child or take them to a medical appointment (if they are the custodial parent)
- A quarantine has been issued by a local health officer
- To spend time with a member of their immediate family who is an active duty member
- To attend the funeral services of an immediate family member
- Jury duty
- To attend their naturalization ceremony in order to become a citizen of the USA
- To serve as a precinct board member for an election
- Personal reasons that have been approved by the school
- Personal reasons at the discretion of the school administrator
There are also two truancy exceptions. If the student has a part-time work permit, they may be exempt from attending school. Also, if the parent can prove that their child was still educated while they were not in school, they may be exempt from truancy laws. The alternative education method must be approved, like private tutoring or home-schooling.
Is Truancy a Criminal Offense?
Yes, both parents and children may face criminal charges for truancy.
The parents will face truancy charges such as:
- Domestic violence
- Contributing to the delinquency of a minor
- Failure to supervise a child’s school attendance
Children may face juvenile charges related to truancy, such as:
- Drunk driving
- Underage DUI
- Marijuana possession
If a school is concerned about a child’s attendance, and they are at risk of truancy charges, then the school will try to arrange a meeting to discuss the issue. They may give the parents resources to help with the underlying issue or help them to look into alternative education methods.
What Are the Penalties For Truancy?
Along with the possible criminal charges listed above, truancy can have serious penalties for the student’s education and for the parent too.
School Attendance Review Boards or SARBS monitor the attendance of schools and help to ensure all minors have access to education. A student who is committing truancy may be required to attend counselling or regular check-in meetings with parents and teachers. In cases with repeated truancy, the student may be stripped of their school privileges.
If the SARB is unsuccessful at resolving the truancy issues, then they may refer the student to the district attorney or Juvenile Court. They may impose greater truancy penalties, like revoke driving privileges, impose make-up classes, declare the minor a ward of the court, or even put the minor on probation. The student penalties for truancy are intended to get the student to attend school.
Parents will face more severe penalties for the truancy of their child, especially if they are found to be encouraging or enabling the truancy. The SARB will try to bring the issue to the parent’s attention in order to get them to assist with fixing the truancy issue. However, if they believe the parent is complicit, they will refer the parent to the district attorney. If this happens, the parent may face criminal charges for their child’s truancy. It will be a misdemeanor criminal charge that may carry up to $2,500 in fines and up to a year in county jail. The prosecutor will examine the circumstances when they charge the parent, though. In some cases, they may charge the truancy with an infraction which would result in a small fine and no jail time.