---
type: "Bill"
title: "School districts: truancy."
description: "Existing law defines a truant as any pupil subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuation education who is absent from school without a valid excuse 3 full days in one school year, or tardy or absent for more than any 30-minute period during the schoolday without a valid excuse on 3 occasions in one school year, or any combination thereof. Existing law specifies that a pupil who is required to be reported as a truant is subject to specified penalties for the first through 4th instances that a truancy report is issued to a pupil."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 2616"
citation: "California AB 2616 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["School districts: truancy."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Carter"]
version_count: 9
action_count: 33
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2012-02-24"
last_action: "2012-09-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/af9dab94-5b19-4a76-afa5-e6e9c2084719"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2616"
source_hash: "df426917f44b3c072fa10c30fadf29114c69f7f49d2573b2a6091068e0dbe442"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 2616 (20112012) — School districts: truancy.

Existing law defines a truant as any pupil subject to compulsory full-time education or to compulsory continuation education who is absent from school without a valid excuse 3 full days in one school year, or tardy or absent for more than any 30-minute period during the schoolday without a valid excuse on 3 occasions in one school year, or any combination thereof. Existing law specifies that a pupil who is required to be reported as a truant is subject to specified penalties for the first through 4th instances that a truancy report is issued to a pupil.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/24/12 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2616&version=20110AB261699INT)
2. **03/29/12 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2616&version=20110AB261698AMD)
3. **04/18/12 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2616&version=20110AB261697AMD)
4. **05/02/12 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2616&version=20110AB261696AMD)
5. **05/09/12 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2616&version=20110AB261695AMD)
6. **08/06/12 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2616&version=20110AB261694AMD)
7. **09/21/12 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2616&version=20110AB261692CHP)
8. **AB2616** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2616)
9. **09/07/12 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2616&version=20110AB261693ENR)

## Votes

- AB 2616 CARTER Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 2616 CARTER Assembly Third Reading — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Special Consent #16 — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **8–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Carter — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2012-02-24** Introduced. To print. `introduction`
- **2012-02-26** From printer. May be heard in committee March 27.
- **2012-02-27** Read first time. `reading-1`
- **2012-03-29** Referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2012-03-29** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on ED. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-04-09** Re-referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2012-04-11** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2012-04-18** In committee: Set, second hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2012-04-18** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on ED. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-04-19** Re-referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2012-05-01** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (April 25). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-05-02** Read second time and amended. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-05-03** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2012-05-09** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-05-10** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2012-05-16** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2012-05-25** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (May 25). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-05-25** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2012-05-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 5096.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-05-31** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2012-06-14** Referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2012-06-28** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 27). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-08-06** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2012-08-07** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 6). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-08-08** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2012-08-15** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2012-08-23** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 4784.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-08-24** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 28 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2012-08-27** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Page 6357.)
- **2012-08-28** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 6427.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2012-09-11** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 12:30 p.m.
- **2012-09-21** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2012-09-21** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 432, Statutes of 2012.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/af9dab94-5b19-4a76-afa5-e6e9c2084719`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).