San Diego Unified sexual abuse claimsConfidential. No fee unless we recover.

The record at San Diego Unified

This is a compliance record, not a verdict or a settlement. The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights reviewed 253 student sexual harassment complaints and reports that San Diego Unified received over three school years, 2017 to 2020. It found the district violated Title IX "more often than not." The district failed to evaluate reports it knew about. It deferred to local police instead of running its own investigations; in 21 of the 253 incidents, police rather than school staff interviewed the students. Training and recordkeeping fell short, and OCR flagged the response to harassment involving students with disabilities. A district of more than 100,000 students and 175 schools had one Title IX coordinator during the period. The district said the findings "do not reflect the District's current policies and practices" and signed a voluntary resolution agreement, reported August 14, 2024.

Meaning of a Title IX finding

A Title IX finding is about process, not about any one student's case. OCR did not decide whether abuse happened to a particular child, did not award anyone money, and did not find any employee liable. It recorded, in a federal review, how the district handled reports for three years: what it knew, what it did, and what it left to police. For a family, that matters in two ways. A civil claim against the district is separate from the federal review and does not depend on it. And a district's own handling of reports is evidence. Under C.A. v. William S. Hart and Doe v. Lawndale, the question is whether school personnel used reasonable measures to protect a student from foreseeable harm. A documented pattern of deferring reports to police may bear on that question. The resolution agreement commits the district to changes, not to compensation.

Filing deadlines

Two tracks apply to abuse at a San Diego Unified school. 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. The wider county record is on our San Diego County page; the law for every district is on our California school sexual abuse lawyer page.

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

• K-12 Dive, August 14, 2024: the Office for Civil Rights review of 253 reports at San Diego Unified and the resolution agreement
• Code of Civil Procedure section 340.1 and CSBA on AB 452
• FCMAT, January 31, 2025, on the AB 218 filing window
• 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