---
type: "Bill"
title: "Pupil attendance: excused absences: religious retreats."
description: "Existing law, notwithstanding the requirement that each person between 6 and 18 years of age who is not otherwise exempted is subject to compulsory full-time education, requires a pupil to be excused from school for specified types of absences, including, among others, for certain justifiable personal reasons. Existing law includes attendance at a religious retreat among these justifiable personal reasons and prohibits attendance at religious retreats from exceeding 4 hours per semester for purposes of this provision."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20232024"
identifier: "AB 1503"
citation: "California AB 1503 (20232024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Pupil attendance", "excused absences", "religious retreats"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Lee"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 23
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2023-02-17"
last_action: "2023-10-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1ef4b2a6-7f45-4afc-92f7-34baef4e8f5b"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1503"
source_hash: "0d77cc45b637ff0c27ef7ad4c3d99e9f9986a04456b07cc6b91bf23a957f8ae4"
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 1503 (20232024) — Pupil attendance: excused absences: religious retreats.

Existing law, notwithstanding the requirement that each person between 6 and 18 years of age who is not otherwise exempted is subject to compulsory full-time education, requires a pupil to be excused from school for specified types of absences, including, among others, for certain justifiable personal reasons. Existing law includes attendance at a religious retreat among these justifiable personal reasons and prohibits attendance at religious retreats from exceeding 4 hours per semester for purposes of this provision.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/17/23 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1503&version=20230AB150399INT)
2. **09/07/23 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1503&version=20230AB150398AMD)
3. **10/13/23 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1503&version=20230AB150396CHP)
4. **AB1503** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1503)
5. **09/18/23 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1503&version=20230AB150397ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1503 Lee Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **78–1** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **6–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 1503 Lee Assembly Third Reading — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB1503 Lee et al. By Ashby — **38–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Lee — primary (person)
- Arambula — coauthor (person)
- Rendon — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2023-02-18** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2023-03-09** Referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2023-03-30** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (March 29). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2023-04-19** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2023-05-18** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (May 18). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-05-18** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-05-26** Coauthors revised.
- **2023-06-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 2129.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2023-06-01** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2023-06-14** Referred to Com. on ED. `referral-committee`
- **2023-06-21** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 21). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2023-07-03** In committee: Referred to APPR suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2023-09-01** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (September 1). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-09-05** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-09-07** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2023-09-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-09-12** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 2633.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2023-09-12** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2023-09-13** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 78. Noes 1. Page 3375.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-09-21** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2023-10-13** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2023-10-13** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 846, Statutes of 2023. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/1ef4b2a6-7f45-4afc-92f7-34baef4e8f5b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).