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California Education Code (E.C.) section 48200 states that each person between the ages of 6 and 18 years shall attend school for the full length of the school day.  E.C. section 48260 defines truancy as absence from school without a valid excuse; three full days in one school year, or tardy or absent for more than any 30-minute period during the school day without a valid excuse on three occasions in one school year, or any combination thereof.  E.C. section 48260 also mandates that school districts notify a pupil’s parent/legal guardian upon a pupil’s initial classification as a truant.  To comply with state law, LAUSD has automated the mandatory Initial Notification of Truancy (1st NOT) and schools are responsible to manually generate the 2nd and 3rd NOT letters.  Reference Guide 5464 Initial Notification of Truancy (1st NOT) Central Automation and School Generated (2nd and 3rd NOT) Procedures is now available.



Initial Notification of Truancy Letter Central Automation

The first central automation of the Initial Notification of Truancy (NOT) Letters for the 2022-2023 school year was scheduled for September 20, 2022 for the 7/1/21- 9/16/22 evaluation period.

To ensure the correct identification of students as truant, schools must update attendance records for all excused absences, tardies, and/or leave earlies. Refer to REF-5464, School Site Quick Reference Sheet (Attachment A), to view the Initial Notification of Truancy Process Timeline, which includes the evaluation periods and central office mailing dates. Schools may utilize the MiSiS Uncleared Absences Report and the MiSiS Unresolved Absences Screen to clear absences and help identify students who may qualify for truancy classification. For additional information visit the MiSiS Resources and Job Aids website.

Copies of the letters are no longer mailed to schools. An electronic copy is maintained in the student’s MiSiS profile under the Letters tab> Attendance Notifications section. When a notification of truancy letter is undeliverable and is returned, the LAUSD mail unit will reroute it to the school where the truancies occurred. It is the responsibility of the school to follow up on the reason the letter was undeliverable and update MiSiS student address information if needed.

District policy requires that all absences, tardies, and leave earlies be cleared within 10 school days. If school staff have made and documented reasonable efforts to obtain an explanation for an absence from the parent/legal guardian, educational rights holder, students 18-years or older and no explanation is received after 10 days of due diligence, school staff may update uncleared absences with absence reason code 0 No Note, after the tenth school day following the UC absence.

Second and Third Truancy Notifications
Schools must use the manually identify students for truancy letters 2 and 3 by using the MiSiS Student Truancy Report Screen located under the Admin Tab.

Major changes to the reference guide include:
In compliance with SB-14 Pupil health: school employee and pupil training: excused absences: youth mental and behavioral health existing attendance reason code 1 Excusable Absences, an absence for the benefit of the pupil’s mental or behavioral health has been added.

In compliance with AB-516 Pupil attendance: excused absences: cultural ceremonies or events existing attendance reason code 5 Administrator Approval - Justifiable Personal Reasons, observance of religious or cultural holiday, ceremony, or secular historical remembrance, now includes the following description: cultural in relation to the habits, practices, beliefs, and traditions of a certain group of people. 

Note, these two changes become effective January 1, 2022, but can be excused before that date pursuant to District policy.

The 2022-2023 school year Notification of Truancy Timeline has been updated.
The evaluation periods have been shortened and now include two evaluations per month, each mid-month evaluation is 10 instructional days after the previous full month evaluation period. The central automated, Initial Notification of Truancy (1st NOT) will be generated and mailed for each of the evaluation periods. For exact dates please refer to the 2022-2023 Initial Notification of Truancy Process Timeline in the School Site Quick Reference Sheet (Attachment A).

Schools will no longer have to submit the Request for Removal of Initial Notification (NOT) from Student Records form to request the removal of the initial notification of truancy from the student’s record. This process will be generated centrally through a MiSiS data cleanup. Corrections made to a student’s attendance record during the school year that lead to a student no longer qualifying as truant will have the truancy letter removed from their record. The data cleanup will occur in the month of January of the following school year and will remove the Notification of Truancy letters from the student’s record for the previous school year.  

Schools will be accountable for generating truancy letter 2 and 3. The Certify data rules ATT 010-0700- Students who qualify for truancy letter 2 for the current school year but do not have one recorded on their MiSiS profile and ATT 010-0800- Students who qualify for truancy letter 3 for the current school year but do not have one recorded on their MiSiS profile, are tools that notify schools of the students that qualify to receive the 2nd and 3rd letter but have not had a letter generated by the school through the Student Truancy Report screen.