California Law and the State's Responsibility for Foster Children
CDSS licenses foster homes, which creates an ongoing regulatory relationship between the State and each home. County child welfare agencies choose and supervise placements and are expected to respond to known risks.
Because of that structure, more than one party may be legally responsible. The foster parent may be responsible for their own conduct. A county agency may be responsible if it failed in its own duties, for example by placing a child with a caregiver it had reason to know was unsafe, or by not acting on warnings. This is the same logic that applies to institutional sexual abuse generally.
"Deliberate indifference," a demanding standard used mainly in federal civil rights claims, means an official knew of a serious risk to a child and consciously disregarded it. California negligence claims ask whether the agency owed a duty of care and failed to meet it.
Suits against public bodies are governed by the Government Claims Act, which begins at Government Code § 810. For many claims, the Act requires a "government tort claim" (a formal written claim presented to the public entity, on a short deadline, before any lawsuit) first.
What a Civil Claim for Foster Care Abuse Can Involve
A "statute of limitations" is the deadline for filing a lawsuit. In foster care cases there is no single deadline.
Childhood sexual abuse
Childhood sexual abuse claims fall under Code of Civil Procedure § 340.1. Its current text begins: "There is no time limit for the commencement of any of the following actions for recovery of damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual assault." That applies to the person who committed the abuse and to any person or entity whose wrongful or negligent act was a legal cause of it.
The no-time-limit rule covers abuse occurring on or after January 1, 2024. Abuse on or before December 31, 2023 is governed by the law as it read on that date, the rule set by AB 218 in 2019: a survivor may file until age 40, or within five years of discovering that the abuse caused their harm, whichever is later. AB 218 also opened a three-year window, from 2020 through 2022, for claims that had already expired. That window closed on December 31, 2022.
Section 340.1 also allows up to treble (triple) damages against a defendant found to have covered up the sexual assault of a minor. A survivor who is 40 or older when filing must have the attorney and a licensed mental health practitioner file "certificates of merit" (sworn statements that the case has a reasonable basis).
For a county or other local public entity, a childhood sexual abuse claim under § 340.1 generally does not have to be presented as a government tort claim first, and that exemption has no condition tied to the date of the abuse. Claims against the State, such as CDSS, follow a different rule: for a state defendant, the requirement is removed only for conduct on or after January 1, 2024.
Physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect
Non-sexual abuse generally falls under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1, which allows two years for an action "for assault, battery, or injury to... an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another." Section 352 provides "tolling" (pausing the clock) while the person was a minor, so the two years generally begin at age 18.
Section 352 has an important exception: tolling does not apply to a claim against a public entity or employee where a government tort claim is required. For non-sexual abuse claims against a county or the State, that requirement generally does apply, and its deadlines are short and strict.
Who can be named, and what harm the law recognizes
Depending on the facts, a civil claim may name the foster parent, the county child welfare agency, a private foster family agency, and in some circumstances the State. Courts recognize physical injury, psychological harm, lost educational opportunity and disruption of a child's development. Survivors can often proceed under a pseudonym; see confidentiality in abuse claims and the overview of a California sexual abuse lawsuit.
Resources for Foster Youth and Survivors in California
- Office of the Foster Care Ombudsman: fosteryouthhelp.ca.gov, 1-877-846-1602. Free, and separate from the courts.
- California Department of Social Services: cdss.ca.gov. Foster home licensing and complaints.
- Alliance for Children's Rights: allianceforchildrensrights.org. Free legal services for foster youth in Los Angeles.
- Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453.
- California Courts Self-Help Guide: courts.ca.gov/selfhelp. Plain-language information about court processes.
If You Have Questions, Privately
If you were harmed in a California foster home, or someone in your family was, you may have the right to pursue a civil claim against the foster parent and, depending on the facts, the agency responsible for the placement. A survivor may be able to seek compensation for emotional harm, therapy and medical costs, lost income, and other damages the law allows, along with the measure of justice a civil case can provide. California has extended and changed its deadlines more than once, so options may exist even when the abuse happened many years ago.
This article is not asking you to decide anything. A confidential case review covers which deadline applies, whether a county, a private agency or the State may be involved, and whether a claim may be open. It is free and carries no obligation. Nothing needs to be organized first, and no one has to describe what happened in order to ask.
To ask a private attorney what this means for your situation, call Justice for Survivors at (866) 694-1630 for a confidential case review, or reach out by whichever channel feels safest. More general background is in the overview of working with a California sexual abuse lawyer.
