Prepare the file for a compulsory-attendance notice

Key facts

Human involvement

Yellow · Close supervision

How AI is used

From the roll, list each full-day or hourly absence, whether a written excuse is on the file, the date it was received, and the name of the person in parental relation. Do not decide that an excuse is lawful, and do not write the notice.

What the lawyer must review

You decide whether an absence is excused and whether a notice or a conference is required, and you write any notice. The rules differ by State. Pennsylvania's basic education circular on 24 P.S. sections 13-1326 to 13-1354, reviewed January 2024, defines compulsory school age as the period from when the parents elect to have the child enter school, no later than age 6, until age 18, and it excludes a child who holds a high-school graduation certificate. From the 2020-21 year, a child who is 6 on or before 1 September must enroll and attend or begin a home-education program that year. Absences are treated as unlawful until the school receives a written excuse. The school informs the parent in writing on each unlawful absence. A child is truant at three or more school days of unexcused absence in the current school year, and habitually truant at six or more. The school must give written notice to the person in parental relation within 10 school days of the third unexcused absence, in the parent's preferred language, describing the consequences of habitual truancy. If further unexcused absences follow, the school must offer a school attendance improvement conference if it has not already done so, hold it even if the parent does not attend after advance written notice and telephone attempts, and record the outcome in a written school attendance improvement plan. A public school may not expel, impose an out-of-school suspension, or reassign the student to an alternative education for disruptive youth program for truant behavior, and it may not start a truancy proceeding until after the conference. Ohio's attendance questions, reflecting the law as of 30 September 2025, define compulsory school age as between 6 and 18, and a child under 6 who is enrolled in kindergarten unless the parent formally withdraws the child. Habitual truancy is absence without legitimate excuse for 30 or more consecutive hours, 42 or more hours in one school month, or 72 or more hours in one school year. Chronic absence is missing at least 10 percent of the minimum hours required in the school year, for any reason. Out-of-school suspension hours do not count toward the habitual-truancy triggers on that page. California's school-discipline guidance says Education Code section 48900(w)(1) provides that a suspension or expulsion shall not be imposed based solely on the pupil being truant, tardy, or otherwise absent from school activities. The same guidance says the prohibition on suspension and expulsion for willful defiance or disruption now covers kindergarten through grade 12, with the exception of a teacher's suspension from the classroom under Education Code section 48910. For a referral for in-school interventions under section 48900.5, an administrator documents the actions within five business days, places that documentation in the pupil's record as section 49069.7 allows, and by the end of the fifth business day tells the referring employee what was done. Use the statute of the student's State. These three pages do not state another State's rule.

Written for / version

United States versionUS