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SDLA Compliance Resource

Notify the Parent or Guardian When a Pupil Is Initially Classified as Truant

A first-notice guide for verifying the statutory threshold, including every required support-centered statement, correcting inaccurate attendance, and preserving delivery evidence.

  • Attendance
  • Truancy
Date(s)Upon initial classification as a truant during the school year
Applies toSchool districts reporting pupils subject to compulsory full-time or continuation education

In Plain Language: The FIRST NOTICE is triggered when a pupil reaches the section 48260 threshold: three full days without valid excuse, three unexcused tardies or absences of more than 30 minutes, or a combination. The district reports the pupil as a truant and notifies the parent or guardian using the most cost-effective method possible, which may include email or a telephone call, with every statement required by section 48260.5.

Why this matters

A generic absence alert is not the statutory first truancy notice. The notice must identify the classification and emphasize attendance responsibility, available alternatives, the right to meet, mental-health/supportive services, school partnership, and the research-based consequence of missing 10 percent of school.

Joint ownership

Record owner: attendance clerk. Classifier: attendance supervisor/superintendent designee. Notice/support team: school administrator, counselor, mental-health/student-support staff, and language-access staff.

From a truancy threshold to a complete first notice: the SDLA ITO workflow

The first notice must contain every required statement and give the family a way to correct the record. This SDLA ITO (Input, Transformation, Output) graphic shows how the attendance record, the absence verifications, and the family's contact information become the occurrences and report, the notice and delivery evidence, and the family response and follow-up.

SDLA ITO: eleven steps from the attendance record, the absence verifications, and the family's contact information, through auditing the record, reporting the classification, issuing the notice, and offering supports, to the occurrences and report, the notice and delivery evidence, and the family response and follow-up.
Read down each column, then move to the next: Input identifies what to collect; Transformation covers auditing the record, reporting the classification, issuing the notice, and offering supports; Output covers the occurrences and report, the notice and delivery evidence, and the family response and follow-up. Issue the notice when the pupil is first classified as truant during the school year.

Open the full-size workflow graphic

Three-document attendance sequence

EARLY ABSENCE NOTICEPromptly report the unexcused absence, verify the record, and offer support. This is not yet a truancy classification.
FIRST NOTICEAfter the Education Code section 48260 threshold is met, issue the complete initial truancy notice required by section 48260.5.
SECOND NOTICEAfter another unexcused absence or tardy, report the pupil again and schedule the pupil-and-parent attendance meeting.

Operational workflow

  1. Audit the attendance record and supporting absence verification against sections 48205, 48225.5, 48260, and local rules.
  2. Report the initial truancy classification to the attendance supervisor or superintendent.
  3. Issue the complete section 48260.5 notice through an authorized cost-effective method and in an understandable language.
  4. Offer record correction, a meeting, alternative programs, mental-health/supportive services, and attendance strategies.
  5. Retain the occurrences, notice content, delivery/attempt evidence, family response, and intervention follow-up.

Evidence to retain

  • Three qualifying occurrences and excuse/verification review
  • Truancy report and date of classification
  • Complete FIRST NOTICE content and language-access review
  • Delivery or contact evidence and returned/failed follow-up
  • Corrections, family contact, supports, and continuing attendance monitoring

Official guidance and help

Source review completed August 30, 2026. Verify current law, official guidance, local policy, language access, individual circumstances, and the exact persisted attendance or pupil-record state before acting.