School sexual abuse claims in San Diego CountyConfidential. No fee unless we recover.

San Diego County claim volume

The Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team's January 31, 2025 report to the Legislature summarizes 2023 claim data from 14 public entity risk pools and school agencies. Claims came from 48 of California's 58 counties, but the epicenter is five Southern California counties: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino. Those five hold 65 percent of the 2,079 claims reported and 14 of the state's 25 largest districts. Children aged 13 to 17 are most at risk. Offenses occur most often in classrooms. Teachers are the most common perpetrators, at 38 percent. The highest-value claims come from middle schools. Source: FCMAT, January 31, 2025. San Diego County's public record looks different from the Inland Empire's: fewer reported verdicts, and instead a federal compliance finding and a budget that shows claims arriving. The law that applies in every district is on our California school sexual abuse lawyer page.

San Diego Unified

The record at San Diego Unified is a compliance finding, not a verdict. The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights reviewed 253 student sexual harassment complaints and reports the district received from 2017 to 2020. It found the district violated Title IX "more often than not." The district failed to evaluate reports it knew about and deferred to local police instead of investigating. In 21 of the 253 incidents, police rather than school staff interviewed the students. Training and recordkeeping fell short. The district, which had one Title IX coordinator for more than 100,000 students, said the findings "do not reflect the District's current policies and practices" and signed a voluntary resolution agreement, reported August 14, 2024. Source: K-12 Dive, August 14, 2024. What that finding means for a family is on our San Diego Unified page.

Poway Unified

Poway Unified has no verdict or settlement in the sources on this page. Its budget shows the claims. CalMatters reported on August 24, 2026 that Poway has cut $10 million a year for three years, mostly from programs, staff and maintenance. It has also put $7.5 million over four years toward premiums and self-insurance contributions, because it must set aside funds for underinsured or uninsured child sexual abuse claims. A district that budgets this way is carrying claims. Associate superintendent Eric Dill told CalMatters that students "are suffering from a lack of services that could otherwise be provided if we could use those general fund dollars to put back into the classroom." Source: CalMatters, August 24, 2026.

Filing deadlines

Two tracks apply in every San Diego County district. For conduct on or after January 1, 2024, there is no time limit; AB 452 wrote that into Code of Civil Procedure section 340.1(p). For earlier conduct, the AB 218 rules apply. A survivor may file until age 40, or within five years of discovering that an adult psychological injury was caused by the abuse, whichever is later. Survivors 40 and older must file certificates of merit from an attorney and a licensed mental health practitioner. No government claim is required. Government Code section 905(m) exempts childhood sexual assault claims, so the six-month claim deadline for other injury cases against a district does not apply. SB 577 passed the Legislature at the end of August 2026 and awaited the Governor as of September 23, 2026. It may change the rules for older claims. Our statute of limitations page tracks it.

District responsibility

A district answers for its employees. Government Code section 815.2(a) makes a public entity liable for an employee's act or omission within the scope of employment. In C.A. v. William S. Hart Union High School District (2012) 53 Cal.4th 861, the California Supreme Court held that a district can be liable for administrators who negligently hired, kept or supervised an abusive employee. School personnel must use reasonable measures to protect students from foreseeable injury. In Doe v. Lawndale Elementary School District (2021), the Court of Appeal held that this duty does not depend on proof that the district knew of prior misconduct. Whether administrators responded reasonably to warning signs is a jury question. Section 340.1 allows up to treble damages for a proved cover-up, but in Los Angeles Unified School District v. Superior Court (2023) the California Supreme Court held that public districts do not pay them.

A confidential first step

A Jane Doe or John Doe filing is common in these cases. Courts commonly allow it, and we will ask whether you want one. You do not have to face the abuser to bring a claim. Nothing you tell us is shared without your say. No fee unless we recover. If there is no recovery, you owe no fee and no case costs. Spanish-speaking staff answer the phone.

Records to gather

You do not need documents to make a first call, but they help. For a parent: write down what your child said, in their words, with the date; keep messages and devices; ask the school for its written policy and its Title IX coordinator's name. Keep every email or letter from the school about your report. Our after your child tells you checklist covers each step. For an adult survivor: the school, the years, and the adult's role; yearbooks, report cards, photos or messages that place you there; the names of friends who knew. Do not contact the abuser or the district, and do not post details online. Our before you call checklist walks through it.

Sources cited

• FCMAT, January 31, 2025: Childhood Sexual Assault, Fiscal Implications for California Public Agencies
• K-12 Dive, August 14, 2024: the Office for Civil Rights review of San Diego Unified
• CalMatters, August 24, 2026: Poway Unified's budget cuts and self-insurance contributions
• Code of Civil Procedure section 340.1 and CSBA on AB 452
• Government Code section 905(m) and section 815.2
• Los Angeles Unified School District v. Superior Court (2023), C.A. v. William S. Hart (2012) and Doe v. Lawndale (2021)
• CalMatters, August 30, 2026: SB 577 sent to the Governor and SB 577 bill status