Sexual abuse in group homes

Legal accuracy check

Chris Schroeder, Esq.

Florida Bar #520381 · D.C. Bar

First published October 5, 2026 · Last checked October 5, 2026

How pages are checked

How claims about group homes work

This page covers group homes and other shared residences for children placed by child welfare or juvenile agencies, and community homes for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In both, someone other than the resident chose the placement, and that choice is part of the claim. Treatment centers and psychiatric facilities are covered on our page about residential treatment, and family foster homes on our foster care page. The institutions hub lists every type we cover.

Claims against the operator

The company or nonprofit that runs the home is sued for negligence under state law: negligent hiring, supervision and retention of staff, inadequate staffing, and failure to act on warning signs or complaints. These are state common-law claims. An operator may answer that an employee who abused a resident was acting outside the scope of employment, which is why claims against operators usually focus on what the operator itself knew and did.

Claims against the placing agency

When a county or state agency takes custody of a child and chooses where the child lives, that choice can itself be the basis of a claim. New York’s highest court held on February 18, 2025, in Weisbrod-Moore v. Cayuga County, that a county owes a child in its custody a duty to guard against “foreseeable risks of harm” arising from its choice of placement. That case involved a foster home; the same question arises when the agency chooses a group home it contracts with.

Federal civil rights claims are possible against the government side. Under 42 U.S.C. 1983, a person acting under state authority who causes the deprivation of a constitutional right is liable. In DeShaney v. Winnebago County (February 22, 1989), the Supreme Court explained that a duty to protect arises “when the State takes a person into its custody and holds him there against his will.” For adults with disabilities held in state institutions, Youngberg v. Romeo (June 18, 1982) recognized a due process right to “reasonably safe conditions of confinement.” A State itself cannot be sued for damages under Section 1983, and a county is liable only for its own policy or custom, so these claims name local bodies or individual officials.

Adults with disabilities

Homes for adults with intellectual disabilities are often paid for by Medicaid. An intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities must ensure that staff “not use physical, verbal, sexual or psychological abuse,” report every allegation “immediately,” protect the resident while it investigates, and report results within five working days (42 CFR 483.420(d)). Smaller community homes are often funded through a state Medicaid waiver; in Maryland, for example, the waiver is run by the Developmental Disabilities Administration and providers are surveyed by the Office of Health Care Quality, according to Maryland Matters. Some states also give adults with disabilities their own abuse statute. California’s elder and dependent adult law covers adults aged 18 to 64 with “physical or developmental disabilities” (Welf. & Inst. Code 15610.23) and adds attorney’s fees where reckless or malicious abuse, including sexual assault, is proven by clear and convincing evidence (15657). Our nursing homes page explains that statute in more detail.

Federal oversight

The Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act (Public Law 118-194, signed December 23, 2024) names “a group home serving children and youth placed by any placing authority” and intermediate care facilities among the youth residential programs a National Academies study must examine, with a first report due within three years. It creates no right to sue.

Who can be held responsible

The operator and its owner. The licensee that ran the home, and in some cases a parent nonprofit or company that controlled staffing and policy.

The placing agency. A county child welfare department, a juvenile probation department or a state disability agency. In the Pennsylvania Summit Academy litigation, the Philadelphia County Juvenile Probation Department is named alongside the school; in a 2026 Maryland suit described below, state officials are named alongside the provider.

Licensing and oversight bodies. Whether a state can be sued for failing to inspect or license a home properly depends on its immunity law.

The person who committed the abuse. A staff member, house parent or other resident can be sued directly. A criminal case is separate; see civil and criminal cases.

Our guides to child sexual abuse, grooming and sex trafficking describe patterns that appear in group home records. Survivors and families can often sue under initials; see filing anonymously.

Deadline issues for group home claims

Notice to a public agency. A claim against a county or state agency often has to be presented in writing first, sometimes within months. California requires a personal-injury claim against a public entity within six months (Gov. Code 911.2) but exempts childhood sexual assault claims (Gov. Code 905(m)). New York’s 90-day notice rule does not apply to claims for sexual offenses against a child under 18 (General Municipal Law 50-e(8)(b)). Both exemptions are written for childhood abuse. An adult’s claim against a public agency should be treated as running on the ordinary notice clock until a lawyer says otherwise.

Abuse in childhood. California has no time limit for childhood sexual assault that occurred on or after January 1, 2024 (Code Civ. Proc. 340.1). New York allows these claims until age 55 (CPLR 208(b)).

Adults who lack capacity. An adult’s claim follows adult deadlines, such as California’s 10 years from the assault or three from discovery (Code Civ. Proc. 340.16). California stops the clock while a person is “lacking the legal capacity to make decisions,” but that pause does not apply to claims against a public entity that require a government claim (Code Civ. Proc. 352). A family that suspects abuse of a relative who cannot speak for themselves should not assume the clock is paused.

Shared fault. Where several defendants are responsible, a jury may divide the fault among them, which can limit what each pays. The New Hampshire verdict below is an example. The general state rules are in our statute of limitations reference.

Active litigation involving group homes

Each matter below is an allegation unless it says a jury or court has ruled. Facts come from the news reports named, dated below.

New Hampshire

A woman placed at 16 by the state at Saddleback Mountain Retreat, a contracted group home in Deerfield, sued over sexual abuse there between 1992 and 1993. On June 30, 2026, a Merrimack County jury awarded $16 million and found the Department of Health and Human Services 25 percent at fault, making the state responsible for $4 million, according to the Concord Monitor; most of the remaining fault went to the home’s two directors, both since deceased. Her claim against the state was negligent placement and oversight of the home, NHPR reported. The Attorney General’s office said “the jury recognized that the individual who committed the criminal acts bears most of the liability.” Her side said it would appeal the division of fault.

Missouri

Three former residents of Show-Me Christian Youth Home in La Monte, a faith-based residential facility that is not licensed by the state, filed suits in June 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri alleging forced labor and sexual abuse by a house father between 2007 and 2012, according to the Missouri Independent (September 2, 2026). The home denies the allegations. In August 24, 2026 filings it argued that any harm was caused by employees acting “outside the course and scope of their employment” and that the suits would require the court to entangle itself in religious doctrine. Missouri first required unlicensed facilities of this kind to give the state limited information and run staff background checks in 2021, the same report says.

Maryland

In April 2026, the parents of a young woman with significant cognitive disabilities sued in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, alleging she was raped and became pregnant in April 2024 while in the care of Dominion Resource Center, a nonprofit Medicaid-waiver provider, and that the pregnancy went undocumented for seven months, according to Maryland Matters (May 6, 2026). The suit names state officials, the provider and related companies, and staff. The person who committed the assault has not been identified. A Dominion official told the Washington Post that six staff members had been cleared; the Maryland Department of Health said it could not comment on ongoing litigation.

Claims involving Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services are covered on our LA County foster care page. The case tracker lists every matter we follow. A home missing from this page is not a sign that no claim exists.

Where to go next

Parents and relatives can start with our guide for families, and reporting abuse explains how to report a child or a vulnerable adult at risk now. How to file a claim walks through what a lawsuit involves. If you want a lawyer to look at your own dates, a free, confidential case review costs nothing and commits you to nothing, and you will not be asked to describe what happened in detail.

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