California child sex abuse law brings justice for survivors, growing financial strain for schools

CBS News California Investigates California school sex abuse lawsuits raise question: Should today's students pay the price for past failures? .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-cbs-news-california-investigates.jpg'); } By Julie Watts Julie Watts CBS California Investigative Correspondent Julie Watts is a national-award-winning investigative correspondent for CBS News, covering California. Her investigations, Capitol accountability reports, and solutions-oriented journalism air weekly on CBS stations across California. Read Full Bio Julie Watts May 13, 2026 / 6:51 PM EDT / CBS News California Add CBS News on Google A California law designed to help survivors of childhood sexual abuse seek justice is now creating difficult financial and legal challenges for school districts across the state.Survivors say the law has exposed abuse that institutions ignored for decades and finally given victims a path to accountability.But school leaders warn the growing costs tied to those lawsuits are increasingly affecting today's students through rising insurance premiums, staffing pressures and cuts to programs and services.CBS News California Investigates found the costs are no longer limited to the districts where abuse allegedly occurred.Because many school districts share insurance coverage through large risk pools, settlements tied to decades-old abuse claims can increase costs for schools across the state, including districts with no abuse claims of their own.That means today's students can lose teachers, programs and classroom resources because of crimes committed years before they were born, sometimes at schools they have never heard of.Survivor says law helped expose abuse hidden for decades For Joelle Casteix, the law is personal and represents long-overdue accountability.  Casteix says she was sexually abused by a choir teacher at Mater Dei High School in Orange County in the 1980s. She says school officials knew a...