California Ends Kamala Harris’s Truancy Law Punishing Parents

A new law that takes effect next year will decriminalize truancy in the state.
California Ends Kamala Harris’s Truancy Law Punishing Parents
A school bus heads toward downtown Los Angeles on June 9, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times
|Updated:
0:00

California parents will no longer face arrest if their children miss school following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Oct. 1 decision to approve legislation repealing Kamala Harris’s truancy law.

The 2011 law that the former vice president sponsored when she served as the state’s attorney general made it a misdemeanor for parents if their children were chronically truant by missing 10 percent or more of school days, starting in kindergarten.
Jill McLaughlin
Jill McLaughlin
Author
Jill McLaughlin is an award-winning journalist covering politics, environment, and statewide issues. She has been a reporter and editor for newspapers in Oregon, Nevada, and New Mexico. Jill was born in Yosemite National Park and enjoys the majestic outdoors, traveling, golfing, and hiking.