A survivor of childhood sexual abuse at a California public school may be able to sue both the person who committed the abuse and the school district. For abuse in childhood, a government claim generally does not have to be filed with a local district first, and the deadline is usually age 40 or five years from discovery, whichever is later.
Why Public School Claims Work Differently Than Private School Claims
A public school district is a government body. That single fact changes the procedure. Under California's Government Claims Act (Gov. Code § 810 et seq.), public entities, including public schools and school districts, are subject to special rules that do not apply to a private school, a private employer or an individual.
One more distinction matters. Most California school districts are local public entities. Some public education defendants may instead be part of the State. The rules differ between the two, so establishing whether a defendant is a local entity or the State is the first step in any public school claim. Our broader guide to school sexual abuse claims covers private schools as well.
The Government Claims Act: What It Requires Before You Can Sue
Gov. Code § 905 states the general rule: claims "for money or damages against local public entities" must be presented to the entity before suit, except for listed categories. The process for a typical claim works like this.
Where it goes. The claim is presented to the district's governing board or its designated claims agent.
What it contains. A government claim typically includes the claimant's name and address, the date and place of the incident, a description of the circumstances, the injury or harm alleged, and the amount claimed if known.
The deadline. Under Gov. Code § 911.2, a claim "relating to a cause of action for death or for injury to person" must generally be presented "not later than six months after the accrual of the cause of action." Accrual means the date the law treats the claim as having arisen.
The response. Under Gov. Code § 912.4, the board "shall act on a claim ... within 45 days after the claim has been presented." If it does not act, the claim is deemed rejected on the last day of that period. The deadline can be extended by written agreement.
If the deadline passed. Missing a required presentation deadline can bar a lawsuit. The law does provide a route back in some cases. After an application for leave to present a late claim is denied, Gov. Code § 946.6 allows a petition to the superior court. A court may grant relief in listed situations, including where the person was a minor during the claim period, or where the failure was due to "mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect" and the entity would not be prejudiced. Whether relief is available depends on the facts.
AB 218 and the Statute of Limitations for Childhood Sexual Abuse in California Public Schools
A statute of limitations is the legal deadline for filing a lawsuit. For childhood sexual abuse in California, that deadline lives in Code of Civil Procedure § 340.1. AB 218 (Chapter 861, Statutes of 2019) rewrote it in three important ways.
The deadline for abuse on or before December 31, 2023. A survivor generally has until age 40, or five years from the date they discovered or reasonably should have discovered that a psychological injury was caused by the abuse, whichever is later. That five-year piece is the discovery rule: the clock counts from when the survivor connects the harm to the abuse, not from when the abuse happened. For many people, that connection comes decades later.
Abuse on or after January 1, 2024. A later amendment provides that, for abuse occurring on and after January 1, 2024, there is no time limit. The statute now reads: "There is no time limit for the commencement of any of the following actions." That rule does not reach back. Abuse on or before December 31, 2023 is governed by the law as it stood on that date, which is the age-40 or five-year rule above.
The revival window, now closed. AB 218 also opened a three-year window, January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022, for claims that had already expired. That window has closed. It is mentioned here only so the history makes sense.
The government claim requirement. AB 218 changed this as well. Gov. Code § 905(m) exempts "Claims made pursuant to Section 340.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure for the recovery of damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual assault" from the presentation requirement for local public entities, and § 905(p) makes that change retroactive. Section 340.1 itself states that such a claim does not need to be presented to a government entity before suit, and a local entity cannot substitute a claim procedure of its own. There is no date-of-abuse condition on the local-entity exemption.
The State is different. Claims against the State follow a separate statute that contains no such exemption, and for a State defendant the exemption in § 340.1 reaches conduct on or after January 1, 2024 only. This is why identifying the defendant matters so much.
Two other features of § 340.1 are worth knowing. A survivor who proves a "cover up," defined as "a concerted effort to hide evidence relating to childhood sexual assault," may recover up to treble damages against a defendant found to have covered it up, unless another law prohibits it. And a plaintiff who is 40 or older when filing must file certificates of merit, signed by the attorney and by a licensed mental health practitioner who has not treated the plaintiff.
Abuse that happened in adulthood is governed by different rules. California courts continue to interpret these statutes, so a specific deadline is best assessed in a confidential consultation. Our page on the California sexual abuse statute of limitations covers the deadlines in more depth.