Three unexcused full days in one school year. Or three tardies or absences of more than 30 minutes without a valid excuse. Or any mix of those. That is when Education Code 48260 classifies a compulsory-age pupil as a truant and requires a report to the attendance supervisor or the superintendent.
The first letter is not a vibe. It is a list. Education Code 48260.5 names seven things the parent or guardian has to be told, by the most cost-effective method, on that initial classification. CDE’s truancy page, last reviewed February 6, 2026, calls that the first notification mandate.
This post stays on those three sections: 48260, 48261, 48262. The SARB hearing, the referral packet, and the meeting that actually changes attendance live in other posts. Use those when you need them. Do not paste a 2019 certified-mail script onto 2026 letterhead and call it done.
Related posts stay live and do different jobs:
- SARB in California, Step by Step
- Attendance Recovery in California: The Complete Guide
- Saturday School vs. Attendance Recovery
- What AB 461 Means for California Districts
- 1,143,668 Kids: What California’s Chronic Absence Count Means
What the three sections actually do
48260, then 48261, then 48262
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Classify and report
Education Code 48260 is the first report. Three full unexcused days, or three more-than-30-minute unexcused tardies or absences, or a mix. Tell the attendance supervisor or the superintendent.
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Notify the family
On that initial classification, Education Code 48260.5 requires the first parent or guardian notice. Email or a call can satisfy the cost-effective method. The body of the notice still has to cover (a) through (g).
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Report again
After that first report, one more unexcused day or tardy is another truancy report under Education Code 48261. That section is one sentence. Districts still skip it and jump to habitual.
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Conference, then habitual
Three or more truancy reports in a year can make a habitual truant, but only after a conscientious effort to hold at least one conference with the parent or guardian and the pupil. Education Code 48262 is that gate. CDE calls it the habitual truant mandate.
Statute requires the sequence. The letter is step 2. Habitual is not a font choice on letterhead.
SART is how many sites document the 48262 conference. There is no Education Code article titled Student Attendance Review Team. Do not tell a cabinet that “SART is required by the Education Code.” The conference effort is. Education Code 48262.
48260 in the actual words
Education Code 48260(a) is one paragraph. A pupil subject to compulsory full-time education or compulsory continuation education who is absent from school without a valid excuse three full days in one school year, or tardy or absent for more than a 30-minute period during the schoolday without a valid excuse on three occasions in one school year, or any combination of those, shall be classified as a truant and shall be reported to the attendance supervisor or to the superintendent of the school district.
That pupil has to be on the compulsory clock. Education Code 48200 is each person between 6 and 18 who is not exempt. A TK or kindergarten pupil who is not yet 6 is not on that clock. Do not run a truancy ladder on a five-year-old and call the letter statutory.
CDE summarizes 48260 by highlighting the 30-minute path: a student missing more than 30 minutes of instruction without an excuse three times during the school year must be classified as a truant and reported. That summary is true. It is not the whole section. Three full unexcused days also classify. A mix of full days and 30-minute events also classifies. If your SIS query only counts full days, you will miss the tardy path. If it only counts tardies, you will miss the days.
Education Code 48260(b) is the sentence fiscal teams need. The Legislature’s intent is that districts shall not change the method of attendance accounting provided for in existing law, and shall not be required to employ period-by-period attendance accounting, just to run this article. You can classify a truant without turning every elementary school into a period shop.
Education Code 48260(c) defines a valid excuse for this article. It includes, but is not limited to, the reasons in Education Code 48205 and Education Code 48225.5. It may also include other reasons that are within the discretion of school administrators and, based on the facts of the pupil’s circumstances, are deemed to constitute a valid excuse. CDE notes that amendment, effective January 1, 2013. If the clerk codes a doctor’s visit unexcused because the note arrived on Thursday, you can manufacture a truant on paper.
Illness, including mental or behavioral health, sits on the 48205 list. So do certain medical appointments, funerals, court, and other named reasons. Read the current section before you mail. Do not treat “no note by 10 a.m.” as a statute.
The first letter is a statutory list
On a pupil’s initial classification as a truant, Education Code 48260.5 requires the district to notify the parent or guardian using the most cost-effective method possible, which may include email or a telephone call. Then it lists what that notice shall say.
What the first notice has to say
Statute: Education Code 48260.5(a) through (g), operative July 1, 2025. CDE repeats the first-notification mandate. Cost-effective includes email or a call. A certified letter is not required. Proof that the notice went, with the list inside it, is.
Education Code 48260.5(h) says this version became operative on July 1, 2025. The Legislature repealed the prior section and added this one through SB 691 (Chapter 863, Statutes of 2024). If your merge file still talks only about possible prosecution and weekend makeup, you are mailing last year’s statute.
This is the first stall I see. Someone waits three weeks for letterhead. Someone logs “called home” with no date and no script that covers (a) through (g). Someone mails a template that still cites Penal Code 270.1. That section is gone. AB 461 repealed it effective January 1, 2026. Pull those sentences. Do not tell a board that every parent consequence disappeared. Article 6 of the truancy chapter is still in the Education Code.
48261 is the next report, not a louder font
Education Code 48261 is one sentence. Any pupil who has once been reported as a truant and who is again absent from school without valid excuse one or more days, or tardy on one or more days, shall again be reported as a truant to the attendance supervisor or the superintendent of the district.
One more unexcused day. Or one more tardy. After the first 48260 report. That is report two. Do not wait for another pile of three days. Do not skip the report because you already mailed the first letter.
Education Code 48264.5 then attaches possible next steps to the count of truancy reports in the same year. A pupil classified under 48260 or 48261 may be required to attend makeup classes on one day of a weekend under Education Code 37223(c). First report: the pupil and, as appropriate, the parent or legal guardian may be requested to attend a meeting with a counselor or other designee to discuss root causes and write a joint plan. Second report: a peace officer may give a written warning, and the school may assign an afterschool or weekend study program. Third report: the pupil shall be classified a habitual truant as Education Code 48262 defines that term, and may be referred to an attendance review board or a truancy mediation program. Fourth report: the pupil may be within juvenile court jurisdiction under Welfare and Institutions Code 601.
Weekend makeup for a truant still sits in Education Code 37223(c), which CDE keeps on the instructional-time page. That is Saturday school, not Attendance Recovery. Do not print “truancy Saturday” on a Recovery flyer. Recovery shall not be compulsory or punitive. Education Code 46211(c).
48262 will not let you brand a pupil habitual from the letter file alone
Education Code 48262 is two tests, not one. The pupil has been reported as a truant three or more times per school year. And an appropriate district officer or employee has made a conscientious effort to hold at least one conference with a parent or guardian of the pupil and the pupil, after the filing of either a 48260 or a 48261 report.
Conscientious effort, in that section, means attempting to communicate with the parents of the pupil at least once using the most cost-effective method possible, which may include electronic mail or a telephone call. One documented attempt can satisfy the floor. A no-show does not erase the attempt if you can prove you tried.
CDE frames the point of that conference: solutions for students who failed to respond to the normal avenues of school intervention. A useful SART meeting is higher than the floor. Written plan. Next date. Someone who can actually offer support. The floor is still the attempt. If you stamp “habitual” on the third report with no conference log, 48262 disagrees.
Three stalls show up here. The meeting is held in May, after habitual has already been printed. The family brings notes that would have been valid excuses under Education Code 48205, and nobody recodes the days. Someone treats Attendance Recovery as the consequence. Offer Recovery as extra instruction. Keep truancy on its own statute.
If you want the Recovery rulebook after the meeting, use the Attendance Recovery hub. If the leak is the folder, Absences Aren’t the Biggest Leak. Paperwork Is. is the shorter version. If you need the whole SARB sequence after habitual, keep SARB in California, Step by Step.
Two clocks, two letters
Truancy is unexcused time. Chronic absence is different. Education Code 60901 counts a pupil absent on 10 percent or more of the schooldays enrolled, excused or not, excluding Saturdays and Sundays. PACE and Attendance Works counted 1,143,668 California students as chronically absent in 2024-25. A pupil can sit in that count with a stack of excused illnesses and never meet 48260.
Do not run one mail merge for both clocks. A family drowning in asthma absences needs a health plan, not a habitual-truant stamp. They may still be referable to SARB as a chronic absentee under Education Code 48263. Say that clearly. Do not put 48260 in the subject line if the days were excused.
Chronic truant is a third label. Education Code 48263.6 is unexcused absence for 10 percent or more of the schooldays from enrollment to the current date, after the district has already walked 48260 through 48263 and 48291. CDE repeats that definition. Keep that label off a first letter.
Independent study is not a truancy letter either. A concurrent program with a written agreement under Education Code 51747 is a different file. Short-term independent study walks the 15-day line. Independent study agreements is the checklist for the form.
A worked path, with no names
A grade 7 pupil is 12. Compulsory attendance applies. Education Code 48200.
In September the pupil has two full unexcused days and one unexcused tardy of 40 minutes. That mix meets Education Code 48260(a). The attendance supervisor gets the report. The first 48260.5 notice goes by email the same week, with all seven items. That is report one.
In October one more full unexcused day lands. Education Code 48261 is report two. The site holds the 48264.5 meeting and writes a joint plan. The plan offers a Recovery seat after school. Recovery is optional. Education Code 46211(c).
In November another unexcused tardy of 35 minutes lands. That is report three. The site already has a conference on file, so Education Code 48262 can treat the pupil as habitual. At that meeting the parent produces Education Code 48205 notes for the two September full days. Those two days recode as excused. One unexcused 40-minute tardy remains from September, plus the October day, plus the November tardy. Recode the file before you print habitual. If the remaining unexcused events no longer support three reports, habitual waits.
None of that needs a student name in a public post. It needs dates in the file, and a letter that still matches 48260.5 after you recode.
What I tell CWA directors this week
Print Education Code 48260.5 next to your first letter. Check (a) through (g). Check the date. If the template still threatens Penal Code 270.1, stop the merge.
Print Education Code 48260 next to the query that builds the list. Confirm it counts full days and the 30-minute path, and that it does not pull excused 48205 days.
Print Education Code 48262 next to the habitual checkbox. If there is no conference attempt, the box stays empty.
Your SIS is your system of record. Attendly is your system of action. We do not replace the SIS. The school-day codes still live there. The next letter has to actually go, with the list the current statute requires.
FAQ
Does the first truancy notice have to be a certified letter? No. Education Code 48260.5 requires the most cost-effective method possible, which may include email or a telephone call. Keep a record of what went and when.
Can three tardies of 20 minutes classify a truant? No. Education Code 48260(a) uses more than a 30-minute period. Twenty minutes is not that period. Three full unexcused days still classify.
Do we have to switch to period-by-period attendance to run truancy? No. Education Code 48260(b) says districts shall not be required to employ period-by-period attendance accounting for this article.
Is a pupil habitual after three reports, period? No. Three or more reports, and a conscientious effort to hold the conference. Education Code 48262.
Can we require Attendance Recovery in the first letter? No. Participation shall not be compulsory or punitive. Education Code 46211(c). You can offer it. You cannot make it the stick.
Did AB 461 end truancy letters? No. AB 461 repealed Penal Code 270.1. Education Code 48260 through 48262 remain.
Does a recovered day erase the 48260 classification? Recovery can offset an absence for ADA under Education Code 46211. CDE describes an alternate chronic absenteeism rate. It does not rewrite a truancy classification.
If the next step after a closed truancy file is extra instruction that can earn ADA, start with Attendance Recovery.
Sources
- Education Code 48200
- Education Code 48205
- Education Code 48225.5
- Education Code 48260
- Education Code 48260.5
- Education Code 48261
- Education Code 48262
- Education Code 48263
- Education Code 48263.6
- Education Code 48264.5
- Education Code 37223
- Education Code 46211
- Education Code 51747
- Education Code 60901
- SB 691 (2024)
- CDE truancy
- CDE SARB
- CDE Attendance Recovery
- CDE instructional time and attendance accounting
- PACE and Attendance Works, February 2026
- AB 461 walkthrough
Where Attendly fits
See how Attendance Recovery runs in Attendly
Scheduling, certificated ratios, and the documentation trail a board or auditor can follow.
Attendance Recovery
