A California mother has been jailed for 180 days after her two children missed more than 10 per cent of last year's school year, setting an example as one of the firsts by a new state law.

Lorraine Cuevas, 34, was arrested after school officials said her second and third grader at Monroe Elementary School in Hanford together missed 116 days of school.

The school board says the mother had plenty of warning of the new state law combating chronic truancy with a number of phone calls and letters sent to her home that they said went ignored.