Excused absences from school in California are governed by Education Code Section 48205, which lists the specific reasons a student can miss class without penalty: personal illness (including mental and behavioral health), medical and dental appointments, quarantine ordered by a health officer, bereavement, court appearances, religious observances and holidays, jury duty, serving on an election precinct board, spending time with an immediate family member on active military duty, attending the student’s own naturalization ceremony, participating in a cultural ceremony or civic event, caring for a child the student is the custodial parent of, and other justifiable personal reasons approved in writing by the principal. When an absence falls into one of these categories, the student has a legal right to make up the work for full credit.
Illness, Mental Health, and Medical Appointments
A student’s own illness is the most common excused absence, and the statute specifically includes mental or behavioral health, not just physical sickness. If a city or county health officer orders a quarantine, that absence is also excused.
Scheduled medical, dental, vision, and chiropractic appointments during school hours qualify as well. There’s a separate protection for students who are themselves custodial parents: they can miss school to care for a sick child or take the child to a medical appointment, and the school is prohibited from requiring a doctor’s note for that absence.
Section 48205 does not, as a matter of state law, broadly require a doctor’s note for a student’s own routine illness. Individual districts set their own documentation policies, so check the school handbook, but the statute itself does not mandate medical proof for every sick day.
Bereavement
A student may take up to five excused days per death to attend services or grieve. The law defines “immediate family” broadly, covering not only traditional relatives but also anyone the parent or guardian determines is in close enough association with the student to be considered immediate family. Godparents, longtime caregivers, and close family friends can qualify.
Court, Religious, and Conference Absences
Section 48205 groups several absence types under “justifiable personal reasons.” These require a written request from the parent or guardian and approval from the principal or a designated representative, under uniform standards set by the district’s governing board. They include:
- Attending any court proceeding, whether as a party, witness, or otherwise.
- Religious holidays, ceremonies, or retreats. Retreats are capped at one school day per semester.
- Employment conferences the student needs to attend.
- Educational conferences on the legislative or judicial process offered by a nonprofit organization.
The statutory list is illustrative, not exhaustive. A principal has discretion to approve other personal reasons that fit the district’s standards, so a situation that doesn’t match a named category may still be excused if the parent submits a written request and the school agrees it’s justified.
Civic, Military, and Cultural Absences
Several categories reflect the state’s recognition that some obligations and experiences outside school are worth protecting:
- Students called for jury duty are excused for the duration of their service.
- A student serving as a precinct board member on election day has an excused absence.
- Middle and high school students may take one excused day per school year to participate in a civic or political event, with additional days at administrator discretion.
- A student may miss school to spend time with an immediate family member who is an active-duty member of the uniformed services and has been called to duty, is on leave from deployment, or has just returned. The district superintendent decides how many days to allow.
- A student attending their own ceremony to become a United States citizen has an excused absence.
- Participation in a cultural ceremony or event qualifies.
The cultural ceremony category and the civic or political event category were added in recent years and are not widely known. If an absence fits one of these, report it under the specific category rather than as a generic personal reason.
The Right to Make Up Missed Work
This is the provision that matters most in practice. When a student has an excused absence under Section 48205, they have a legal right to complete all assignments and tests they missed and, upon satisfactory completion within a reasonable period, receive full credit. The classroom teacher decides which assignments and tests are “reasonably equivalent” to what was missed. The makeup work does not have to be identical, but it does have to be comparable.
A school cannot dock grades, deny credit, or otherwise penalize a student for an excused absence. If a teacher refuses to allow makeup work or lowers a grade for missing class on a day covered by any of these categories, that conflicts with state law. Raising the issue with the principal and citing Section 48205(b) directly usually resolves it.
How to Report and Document the Absence
For most health-related absences, a phone call, written note, or submission through the school’s electronic attendance system is standard. Districts set their own specific procedures.
Absences in the “justifiable personal reasons” category carry a stricter requirement built into the statute: the parent or guardian must submit a written request, and the principal or designated representative must approve it. This applies to court appearances, religious observances, employment conferences, and educational conferences. For any absence you can anticipate, a written note submitted in advance is the safest approach.
What Doesn’t Count as an Excused Absence
Family emergencies, including accidents and natural disasters, are not listed as a named category in Section 48205. An emergency might be approved under “justifiable personal reasons” at the principal’s discretion, but it is not automatically excused the way illness or bereavement is. If your child misses school for an emergency, submit a written explanation to the principal promptly and ask for approval.
Family vacations and travel are also absent from the statute. Extended trips during the school year are generally counted as unexcused unless the school agrees to an independent study contract or the absence happens to fit one of the specific categories above.
When Unexcused Absences Become Truancy
Only unexcused absences count toward truancy. Under Education Code Section 48260, a student is classified as truant after three full days of unexcused absence in one school year, or after being tardy or absent without a valid excuse for more than 30 minutes on three occasions, or any combination of the two. From there, the law recognizes two further levels: a habitual truant, meaning a student reported truant three or more times in one school year after the district has made a genuine effort to hold at least one conference with the parent and student; and a chronic truant, meaning a student absent without a valid excuse for 10 percent or more of school days from enrollment to the current date, after the district has followed all required procedural steps.
A major change took effect in 2026. Before then, parents of chronically truant students in kindergarten through eighth grade could face misdemeanor charges carrying fines up to $2,000 or up to one year in county jail. Assembly Bill 461, signed by Governor Newsom on October 1, 2025, repealed that criminal penalty effective January 1, 2026. Parents can no longer be jailed or fined under state law for their child’s truancy. Schools and districts still use attendance review boards, counseling referrals, and other non-criminal measures to address chronic absences.