Your fourteen-year-old cannot face the building today. Not sick in the way the attendance office means, or so you assume. In California the attendance office has meant it since the autumn of 2021.
The short answer: yes. Education Code §48205 lists the grounds on which a pupil "shall be excused from school," and the first is "due to the pupil's illness, including an absence for the benefit of the pupil's mental or behavioral health."¹ The Legislature added those words in 2021 as an urgency statute, in force from 8 October 2021.² An excused pupil "shall be allowed to complete all assignments and tests missed during the absence that can be reasonably provided and, upon satisfactory completion within a reasonable period of time, shall be given full credit for those assignments and tests."¹ The statute sets no number of such days, and it does not require a doctor's note; how an illness absence is verified is decided by each district's governing board, by resolution.³ A therapy appointment during school hours is separately excused as a medical service.¹
What the statute says, and what it does not
The mental-health language sits inside the illness ground. That is deliberate: it makes a mental-health absence the legal equal of a fever, with the same rights to make up work and the same treatment in attendance records. The statute does not create a separate quota of "mental health days," does not cap them, and does not define what counts as "the benefit of the pupil's mental or behavioral health" — the family does.
Two other grounds in the same section matter to families in this situation:
- "For purposes of having medical, dental, optometrical, or chiropractic services rendered."¹ A therapy or psychiatry appointment during the school day is excused on this ground, independently of the illness ground.
- Absence "for purposes of attending the funeral services or grieving the death" of an immediate family member, for up to five days per incident.¹
What "excused" buys
An excused absence under §48205 carries the make-up right: assignments and tests that "can be reasonably provided," with "full credit" on satisfactory completion within a reasonable time.¹ "The teacher of the class from which a pupil is absent shall determine which tests and assignments shall be reasonably equivalent to, but not necessarily identical to, the tests and assignments that the pupil missed during the absence."¹
It does not make the day disappear. The statute says excused absences under the section "are deemed to be absences in computing average daily attendance."¹ Excused days still count in the district's own attendance thresholds for letters home and for chronic-absence flags; what they do not do is trigger the truancy process, which counts only absences "without a valid excuse."⁴
The doctor's-note question
Section 48205 does not require a physician's verification for an illness absence. The State Board's regulation on verifying illness says a school or public health nurse, an attendance supervisor, a physician, a principal, a teacher, or another qualified district employee assigned to the task may verify one, "in accordance with any reasonable method which establishes the fact that the pupil was actually ill or under quarantine" that the district's governing board has approved by resolution.³ In practice that means a parent's note or call for the ordinary case, with districts free to ask for more after a run of absences. Ask the school office for the district's written verification policy if you are told a note from a clinician is required for a single day; it may be, but only if the board adopted that rule.
When one day becomes many
A mental-health day is a pressure valve, not a treatment. If your child is missing school most weeks, the question is no longer attendance law. Three routes exist and can run at once:
- School-based support. Most districts have a counselling pathway, and a growing number have school-based mental-health teams. Therapy at school in California →
- A 504 plan or IEP. Anxiety, depression and ADHD that interfere with attendance can qualify for accommodations — a late start, a check-in adult, a quiet room — or for special-education eligibility under "emotional disturbance" or "other health impairment." School mental health, 504 and IEP →
- Care outside school. A teen of 12 or older whom the clinician finds mature enough to take part may consent to outpatient therapy on their own in California. Therapy at 12 → · Can my teen see a therapist? →
School refusal — the child who cannot get through the door morning after morning — is its own clinical picture, usually anxiety-driven, and responds best to early, structured help rather than to more days at home. A pediatrician or therapist is the right next call after the second or third consecutive week.
Worked examples
A single day, after a panic attack the night before. Excused, on the illness ground; the parent reports it the way the district's policy requires; make-up work with full credit.
A standing Tuesday 2 p.m. therapy appointment. Excused each week as a medical service; no illness claim needed.¹
Three weeks at home, refusing to go. Still excused day by day if the parent verifies each one, but the school is entitled to ask for more after a pattern, and the family should be asking for a 504 meeting or an assessment, not just excusals. Request a school assessment →
Q&A
Q: Does my child have to say what is wrong? A: No. The ground is "the benefit of the pupil's mental or behavioral health"; the statute asks for no diagnosis.¹ Verification follows the district's approved method for illness generally.³
Q: Is there a limit on mental health days? A: The statute sets none.¹ ² Districts may still apply their ordinary attendance policies to a pattern of absences.
Q: Does this apply to charter and private schools? A: Section 48205 governs public school districts. Charter schools are exempt from most of the Education Code and set their own attendance policies; private schools are not bound by it.
Q: Can the school count it against a grade? A: The make-up right is explicit: missed work that can reasonably be provided must be allowed, and full credit given on satisfactory completion within a reasonable period.¹
Our therapist directory: See its current status →
A suspension, not an absence? For a child with an IEP, a removal that changes placement — more than ten consecutive days, or a pattern — triggers a manifestation determination. My child with an IEP was suspended →
Sources
Cal. Education Code §48205 — subdivision (a)(1), "due to the pupil's illness, including an absence for the benefit of the pupil's mental or behavioral health"; (a)(3), medical, dental, optometrical or chiropractic services; (a)(4), funeral or grieving, five days per incident; subdivision (b), the make-up right with "full credit" and the teacher's duty to set reasonably equivalent work; the average-daily-attendance sentence — california.public.law.
SB 14 (Portantino), Chapter 672, Statutes of 2021, approved 8 October 2021 as an urgency statute taking immediate effect — the bill that added the mental-or-behavioral-health language to §48205(a)(1) and directed the State Board to update its illness-verification regulations accordingly — legiscan.com.
5 Cal. Code Regs. §421 — who may verify an illness absence, including "any other qualified employee" assigned to it, and verification "in accordance with any reasonable method which establishes the fact that the pupil was actually ill or under quarantine" approved by resolution of the governing board — law.cornell.edu.
Cal. Education Code §48260(a) — a pupil is a truant when "absent from school without a valid excuse three full days in one school year or tardy or absent for more than a 30-minute period during the schoolday without a valid excuse on three occasions in one school year, or any combination thereof" — california.public.law.
Paid for by participating therapists. Inclusion is computed from availability data — never purchased. No ads, no data sold.