Truancy is Decriminalized - What Happens Next?
By: Aidan Light
Growing up, all children are taught the importance of going to school. In the state of California, a student is considered chronically absent if they miss 18 days (10%) of the school year. Absenteeism in K-8 is correlated with lower GPAs in high school, and Kindergarteners deemed chronically absent are not only more likely to continue being chronic absentees, but to remain academically behind at age 15. Besides the academic implications, chronic absentees have worse social skills, lower lifetime earnings, reduced graduation rates at the secondary and post-secondary levels, and poorer health prospects.
Of course, illness happens. There are times when students should not attend school and are not defined as chronically truant, only chronically absent. In addition to illness, these excuses include medical appointments, funeral service attendance*, jury duty, spending time with an active duty member of the uniformed services, naturalization ceremonies for the student to become a United States citizen, cultural ceremonies, civic/political events*, bereavement*, military entrance processing, and justifiable personal reasons.
*The number of days authorized in a given school year for this excuse is limited.
Since becoming effective in January 2011, students who are chronically truant in California (miss 10% or more days in a school year without a valid excuse) are a misdemeanor for that student’s parents, punishable by up to one year in county jail and a $2000 fine. An effective education involves a strong collaboration between schools and their parents to understand and meet the students’ needs. The California School Boards Association advocates for identifying the root causes behind chronic truancy, which starts at home - after all, parents set the expectation for attendance, are often the drivers, and are legally responsible for ensuring their children receive compulsory education. Foster youth, homeless youth, students with disabilities, and socio-economically disadvantaged students all have higher chronic absenteeism rates…all groups that may benefit most from support and resources for school attendance, not additional punishments and barriers.
The law compensates for this, often allowing parents to defer punishment by working through the appropriate School Attendance Review Board (SARB) processes. SARBs are designed to meet students where they are. Made up of representatives from local youth-serving agencies, the school district, attorneys, parents, and more, individuals serving on SARB conduct extensive interviews with chronically truant students and their parents to understand their unique challenges better and offer resources/support to reduce future chronic truancies; when necessary, SARBs are also responsible for referring the student/family to court for the potential misdemeanor punishment. The looming threat of jail time, fines, and criminal records has been an attempt to ensure attendance forcefully, but it often hurts the most vulnerable…those who need support the most.
That is, until January 1, 2026. The criminal offense for chronic truancy has been repealed under the More Help Not Less Act of 2025. The bill’s author, Assemblymember Ahrens, said her bill “repeal[s the] failed policy of criminalizing struggling California families for their children missing school; families and kids need support, not criminal charges and fines, to improve school attendance. Fining or imprisoning parents did nothing to get kids the education and support they need.” Schools and SARBs will now have to be more diligent in identifying chronically truant students and providing the proper support they need, ensuring a humanistic approach to those impacted without coerced compliance. While it is uncertain how this repeal will affect chronic absenteeism (which sat around 20% in the 2023-2024 school year), this bill refines education as a public service designed to help and support students and families, removing the forceful history of existing legislation while promoting collaboration. In years to come, local policies will be refined to provide this support, and we’ll be closely watching whether this repeal and additional support reduces chronic absenteeism or if the lack of criminal penalties as motivation for attendance increases it. Public education is a gift, and there should never be fear around utilizing it.
Sources
https://www.panoramaed.com/blog/the-effects-of-chronic-absenteeism-in-schools
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002244051930055X?via%3Dihub
https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/education-code/edc-sect-48205/
https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-pen/part-1/title-9/chapter-2/section-270-1/
https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/education-code/edc-sect-48263-6/
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ai/sb/sarbhbkenforcement.asp
https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-pen/part-1/title-9/chapter-2/section-270-1/
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=48321.&lawCode=EDC
