CA bill meant to help childhood sexual abuse victims is punishing schools | Opinion

When former Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher championed AB 218 before it was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019, she thought the landmark bill would expand the rights of childhood victims of sexual assault who are now adults by providing them a chance to file civil lawsuits that were barred by statutes of limitation.

“The idea that someone who is assaulted as a child can actually run out of time to report that abuse is outrageous,” Gonzalez Fletcher, now president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, said at the time. “We shouldn’t be telling victims their time is up when in reality we need them to come forward to protect the community from future abuse.”

Six years later, the reality of that legislation is hitting school districts with an unintended downside: School districts with no sexual abuse claims are paying the price because sex abuse settlements have skyrocketed.

This is an unintended consequence that must be corrected. No school should go broke paying for acts committed decades ago, though at the same time, victims deserve just compensation. Finding the right balance is a job the Legislature must undertake.

School districts typically pay into an insurance risk pool, which means the cost to every member of the pool increases when there are unusuallly large payouts.

In January, the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team reported to the state Legislature that school districts could be on the hook for up to $3 billion in settlement costs, while the tab for other local entities like counties could be another $3 billion because of AB 218.

Fresno County’s 1,400-student Yosemite School District in Oakhurst has had no sexual abuse claims filed against it. Yet, it saw its risk assessment jump from $10,000 in 2020 to almost $116,000 this year.

“This assessment is basically one school teacher,” Charlotte Wilson, the district’s chief financial officer, told The Fresno Bee Editorial Board last month.

Gonzalez Fletcher’s legislation expanded the statute of limitations given to childhood sexual assault victims to age 40, or within five years of the date the victim discovers – or reasonably should have discovered – that psychological injury or illness occurred as a result of the sexual assault, whichever is later. The original cutoff age was 26.

The bill also provides a three-year window for revival of past claims that might have expired due to the statute of limitations, and allows a victim of sexual assault who proves it was the result of a cover-up to get up to treble damages.

The impact is being felt throughout California since AB 218 went into effect in 2020:

▪ In April, Los Angeles County reached a $4 billion tentative agreement to settle more than 6,800 sexual abuse claims dating back to 1959.

▪ Santa Barbara County’s Carpinteria Unified is facing financial insolvency after it was slapped with four lawsuits alleging abuse by a principal in the 1970s and early 1980s. The principal has since died, and the school he oversaw no longer exists, but the school district will have to pay any settlements in those cases.

▪ Clovis Unified is being sued by five women alleging they were sexually abused by a former teacher at Fancher Creek Elementary who was sentenced to 38 years in prison in 2014 for producing child sexual abuse material.

▪ Los Angeles Unified trustees will issue $500 million in bonds to settle lawsuits that have surfaced under AB 218. Since 2020, the district has received about 370 child abuse claims, some of them going back to the 1940s.

▪ Fast-growing Manteca Unified School District expects a $1.2 million risk assessment bill for the 2025-26 school year, said Victoria Brunn, the district’s chief business and information officer. That bill was $125,000 in 2021.

Educators who are looking for relief make it clear they are not against compensating sexual abuse victims, but are trying to assure that school dollars go to the classrooms.

“While the concept and the ideal of protecting victims of sexual abuse is a good one, no doubt about it,” Yosemite Superintendent Brian Beck told The Bee Editorial Board, “the way it’s being done and the way that it’s hurting today’s students in our schools is the issue that we have. We’d like to see a more balanced approach to protect victims without hurting the students of today.”

The Yosemite school district, said Beck, had to deal with a $116,000 risk assessment for the upcoming school year. “We actually had to make some cuts to some teaching staff and some of our classified support staff,” he said.

Windfall for trial attorneys

Education leaders say AB 218 has become a windfall for trial attorneys who can take 40% of a settlement. But, Jason Amala, the lead attorney in the Fancher Creek lawsuit against Clovis Unified, told Fresno Bee news reporter Nick Fenley that the law is vital for childhood sexual assault victims.

“Most kids don’t tell, and they especially don’t tell when they’re abused by someone in a position of authority. So, these laws are important because we know that kids don’t tell, we know that kids aren’t going to come forward and pursue a lawsuit if they’re not telling anyone that it happened,” said Amala. “They’re going to try to go through life pretending they’re OK. And they’re not OK. So, what do we do?”

The economic impact should not be a factor, said Amala. “If it’s having an economic impact, you figure out how to deal with the economics of it and make sure people get fair compensation.”

State senator offers a solution

Even Gonzalez Fletcher, the author of AB 218, realizes there is a problem. “When I authored AB 218 my priority was to protect kids from sex abuse & ensure victims could have some justice,” she posted on X in April. “Now, some unscrupulous attorneys are treating it like (a) feeding frenzy. I support reforms to cap attorneys fees or other measures to reel the costs in for public entities.”

That feeding frenzy needs to stop before it cripples the financial ability to schools to teach our children. A not-so-perfect proposal by state Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, could be the start.

Laird’s SB 577, which has passed the Senate and is now in the state Assembly. His legislation would allow public entities to issue bonds to help fund settlements instead of paying a lump sum, and allow the state controller to garnish a school district’s state revenue to incrementally pay off a settlement.

He also wants to reduce the statute of limitations for childhood claims of sexual abuse that happened before 2024 to the later of 40 years old or three years instead of five after the discovery of a related injury. The legislation would also make it more difficult for a public entity to be found liable in a case where a person older than 40 alleges historic childhood sex abuse.

Victims who meet the age threshold and file a claim after April 15, 2025, would have to prove the public entity was guilty of gross negligence, which is a higher standard than proving a public entity committed a wrongful or negligent act.

We have concerns with a bill that will make it more difficult for victims of sexual abuse to win a claim, but the Laird bill is the only legislative solution offered thus far. Another approach would be to cap damages, though it is hard to put a maximum price on the suffering of sex-abuse victims.

If no other solutions emerge, the Assembly should vote for Laird’s bill and put it on the governor’s desk for his signature.

This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 11:54 AM.