Texas truancy laws treat a student’s unexcused absences as a civil matter, not a crime, and require schools to try intervention before anything reaches a courtroom. A district must start truancy prevention measures once a student piles up three or more unexcused absences in a four-week window, and it cannot file a truancy case in court until the student has 10 or more unexcused absences within a six-month stretch of the same school year.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 65.003 – Truant Conduct Parents face a separate track of their own, with escalating fines under the Education Code if the school warned them and the child still didn’t attend.
Who Has to Be in School
Compulsory attendance in Texas runs from age six through age 18, ending earlier if the student graduates.2State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 25.085 – Compulsory School Attendance A younger child who is enrolled in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten is also required to attend once enrolled. During that window, the child must be in school every day the program of instruction is offered.
Excused vs. Unexcused Absences
Only unexcused absences count toward the truancy thresholds. Texas Education Code Section 25.087 requires schools to excuse several specific categories of absence:3State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 25.087 – Excused Absences
- Appointments with a healthcare professional, including mental health providers, as long as the student starts or returns to class the same day.
- Observance of religious holy days, including travel time.
- Any legally required court appearance.
- Citizenship paperwork at a government office, a naturalization ceremony, or serving as an election clerk.
- Court-ordered activities or service plan requirements for a student in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services, when they cannot be scheduled outside school hours.
- A serious or life-threatening illness, when a licensed physician certifies the illness and the expected length of the absence.
Beyond those mandatory categories, a teacher, principal, or superintendent may excuse any other temporary absence they consider acceptable. That discretion is real, but it also varies by campus. If you aren’t sure a reason will clear, ask the school in writing before the day of the absence rather than afterward.
The 90% Rule for Course Credit
Attendance affects grades directly, separate from any truancy question. A student must attend at least 90% of the days a class is offered to receive credit for it.4State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 25.092 – Minimum Attendance for Class Credit For a 180-day school year, that’s roughly 18 absences across the year, or about nine per semester. This rule counts every absence, excused or not, and it applies even to students with an Individualized Education Program or Section 504 plan.5Navigate Life Texas. Texas 90% Attendance Rule and Children with Disabilities and Special Health Care Needs
Falling under 90% is not an automatic loss of credit. A student who attends at least 75% but less than 90% can still earn credit if an attendance committee reviews the situation and decides the credit is warranted. If your child is approaching that line, request the committee review early. Waiting for the school to raise it means less time to gather documentation.
What the School Must Do Before Court
At three or more unexcused absences within four weeks, the district is required to put truancy prevention measures in place. It isn’t optional, and it isn’t satisfied by a form letter. The statute requires at least one of the following:6State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 25.0915 – Truancy Prevention Measures
- A written behavior improvement plan, signed by a school employee, with a good-faith effort to get the student’s and parent’s signatures. The plan must spell out the attendance expected, cover a period of no more than 45 school days, and state the consequences for continued absences, including possible court referral.
- School-based community service performed on or through the campus.
- Referral to counseling, mediation, mentoring, a teen court program, or other services that address what’s driving the absences.
If the school hands you a generic attendance letter without the components the statute names, it has not met its obligation. Keep copies of what you receive and when, and document any outreach the school made (or didn’t make) to involve you in the plan. That paper trail matters if the case later escalates.
Schools also must send a written warning at the start of each school year explaining compulsory attendance and the consequences of violating it.7State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 25.095 – Warning Notices That annual warning is a prerequisite for charging a parent under the Parent Contributing to Nonattendance statute. A parent who was never issued the notice has a procedural defense.
When Truancy Court Gets Involved
A referral to truancy court is only permitted when a student has accumulated 10 or more days, or parts of days, of unexcused absences within a six-month period in the same school year.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 65.003 – Truant Conduct The case is a civil matter brought against the student in a court the county has designated to hear truancy. Before filing, the district has to certify that it carried out the required prevention measures. Skipping that step is itself grounds to challenge the referral.
Defenses the Student Can Raise
Family Code Section 65.003(c) gives a student several affirmative defenses. The student can argue that one or more of the counted absences were actually excused by a school official or the court, were involuntary, or resulted from the student leaving home because of abuse. The student has to prove the defense by a preponderance of the evidence. One important limit: the court subtracts only the absences that qualify for a defense. If enough unexcused days remain after the subtraction to still hit 10, the case moves forward.
Court Costs and Remedial Orders
A court that finds the student engaged in truant conduct must order remedial action aimed at returning the student to regular attendance. Typical orders include attending school with no further unexcused absences, participating in counseling or mentoring, or completing community-based services.
The court may also order the student, parent, or other person responsible for the child’s support to pay a $50 court cost, if that person is able to pay. The order must be written and signed by the judge.8State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 65.107 – Court Cost A $50 cost sounds small, but failure to pay can lead to contempt, and contempt can lead the court to direct the Department of Public Safety to suspend or deny the student’s driver’s license.9Texas Municipal Courts Education Center. Truancy FAQ For a working or college-bound 16- or 17-year-old, that consequence often lands harder than the original fine.
How Parents Can Be Charged
Parents face their own exposure under Texas Education Code Section 25.093. If the school issued the required annual warning notice, and the parent with criminal negligence failed to require the child to attend, and the child racked up the absences described in Family Code Section 65.003(a), the parent commits a fine-only misdemeanor.10State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 25.093 – Parent Contributing to Nonattendance The fines scale with repeat offenses:
- First offense: up to $100.
- Second offense: up to $200.
- Third offense: up to $300.
- Fourth offense: up to $400.
- Fifth or later offense: up to $500.
Each day the child is out of school may be treated as a separate offense, and multiple offenses can be joined in a single prosecution. A two-week run of unexcused absences could, in theory, produce 10 charges bundled into one case. If the court grants deferred disposition, it may require the parent to perform community service for a charitable or educational organization. The “criminal negligence” standard matters: a prosecutor has to show the parent should have been aware of a substantial risk the child wasn’t attending and failed to act, not simply that the absences happened.
Chronic Absenteeism Is Not the Same Thing
Truancy counts only unexcused absences and leads to court. Chronic absenteeism counts all absences, excused or unexcused, including those from suspensions. A student missing 10% or more of the school year is chronically absent regardless of the reason. A child who is never truant under the law can still be chronically absent from illness or appointments alone. The 90% credit rule follows the chronic-absenteeism logic, not the truancy logic, which is why some families end up losing course credit without ever hearing the word “truancy.”
Clearing a Truancy Record
A truancy adjudication is a court record. It can appear on a high school transcript and may come up during college admissions, and schools vary in how they handle transcript notations versus internal discipline files. Ask the registrar directly rather than assuming.
Texas law allows truancy case records to be expunged. If a driver’s license suspension was part of the case, the court should direct DPS to remove that suspension when the record is expunged.9Texas Municipal Courts Education Center. Truancy FAQ Expungement is not automatic. Once the student has completed every remedial order, request it in writing. Finding out the record still exists during a background check is the wrong time to start the process.