California's truancy laws require children to go to school. The laws apply to children between the ages of 6 and 18. These children are subject to compulsory education. California's truancy laws are found in the Education Code. One of them is California Education Code 48260. This law defines a truant as a child who, without a valid excuse, is: absent for 3 full days in a single school year, tardy 3 times in a year, absent 3 times for more than 30 minutes, or any combination of the above. Students can also be chronically truant. California Education Code 48263.6 defines chronic truants as children who have missed 10 percent of the school year.