Ending the Statute • State Map

Where every state stands.

Statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse, in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Five separate deadlines decide whether a survivor can be heard. Most states have fixed one of them. Below, we explain what that means in plain words, why it matters to every family, and what we can change together.

Current as of September 27, 2026
45/51
have ended the criminal deadline for the most serious child sex crimes
18/51
have ended the civil deadline against the person who did it
10/51
have ended it against the institution that enabled it too
26/51
have never once opened a window for survivors whose time already ran out
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What this map is really about

A statute of limitations is a deadline. It decides how long someone has to bring a crime to court, or to sue the person or organization responsible. When the deadline passes, the courthouse door closes, no matter what the evidence shows.

For child sexual abuse, that deadline comes far too early. The abuse happens to children, most often at the hands of someone they know, love, or trust. It can take decades to understand what happened and to find the words for it. Many survivors do not tell anyone until their fifties. By then, in most states, the law has already decided their time is up.

When the clock runs out, the harm does not end. The person who did it can keep working around children. The school, church, team, or camp that looked away never has to answer for it. And the next child pays the price.

You do not have to be a survivor to care about this

Chances are you already love a survivor, whether or not they have told you. And every one of us has a child in our life we want to keep safe. Ending the statute is one of the most direct ways to protect them.

ParentsGrandparentsAunts and unclesBrothers and sistersFriendsTeachers and coachesNeighborsSurvivors

When survivors can be heard at any age, people who harm children are identified sooner. Schools, churches, and youth programs start taking reports seriously, because they know they can be held responsible. Safer policies get written. The children in our lives today grow up in a world that listens.

What we are asking for, in every state

  1. Charges at any timeLet prosecutors bring charges for child sexual abuse no matter how many years have passed.
  2. Justice from the abuser, at any ageLet survivors sue the person who abused them whenever they are ready.
  3. The same rules for institutionsHold the schools, churches, and organizations that enabled or hid abuse to the same deadline as the abuser.
  4. A clock that starts at understandingWherever a deadline remains, start it when a survivor understands the harm, not when the abuse happened.
  5. A second chance for those already shut outOpen the door again for survivors whose time ran out before the law changed.

Every one of these laws can change

These deadlines are written by state lawmakers, one state at a time. They change when enough people in a state make clear that they expect them to. Maryland, Louisiana, and Vermont reached the top of this map because survivors and the people who love them kept showing up.

That is what the pledge is for. Ten million names tells every lawmaker, in every state, that protecting children is not a partisan issue and not a small one. Find your state below. Ask the people who represent you, and everyone who asks for your vote, where they stand. Then vote for leaders who put children ahead of institutions, and hold every official accountable, whatever their party.

Sign the pledge
All 51

The national picture

Each state is graded on the four deadlines that can be scored: criminal, civil against the perpetrator, civil against the institution, and revival. The scale and its weights are explained at the bottom of this page. Select any state to open its record.

How to read the gradesAn A means survivors can be heard at almost any point in their lives. An F means most survivors are shut out long before they are ready to speak. Select a state to see, in plain words, exactly what its law allows and why it earned its grade.
The five deadlines

There is no such thing as "the" statute of limitations

When people say a state ended its statute of limitations, they almost always mean one of these five. A state can make national headlines on one and rank among the worst in the country on another. Every number on this page is broken out along these lines.

Deadline 1

Criminal

How long the state has to prosecute. This is the one that gets ended first and celebrated loudest.

It costs the state nothing and creates no liability for any institution. That is why it passes.

Deadline 2

Civil, against the perpetrator

How long the survivor has to sue the person who abused them. Usually an age cap or a set number of years past 18.

Often symbolic on its own. Many perpetrators are dead, in prison, or have nothing to recover.

Deadline 3

Civil, against the institution

The deadline to sue the school, church, camp, team or agency that hired, moved, or covered for the abuser.

This is the fight. It is where the money is, where the records are, and where reform gets watered down.

Deadline 4

The discovery rule

Whether the clock starts when the abuse happened or when the survivor understood what it did to them.

Survivors disclose at a median age in their fifties. A clock that starts at 18 is a clock that runs out first.

Deadline 5

Revival, or the lookback window

Whether a survivor whose deadline already passed gets a second chance to file at all.

Every reform that is prospective only leaves every existing survivor exactly where they were.

The finding

Progress is real, and it stops at the institution

Ending the criminal deadline is now close to consensus. Ending the civil deadline against the perpetrator has real momentum. Ending it against the institution that enabled the abuse has barely moved. That is the gap Ending the Statute exists to close.

Jurisdictions that have fully ended each deadline

Out of 51. Partial elimination, meaning the deadline is gone for some child sex offenses but not others, is counted in the first criminal figure and excluded from the civil figures.

013263851
In plain wordsAlmost every state now lets a prosecutor charge an abuser for the most serious crimes at any time. Far fewer let a survivor hold the school, church, or organization that enabled the abuse accountable. That is where abuse gets hidden, and that is where the fight is.

Twenty-two states give survivors less time against the institution

In these states, the deadline to sue a school, church or youth organization is shorter, or carries a higher burden of proof, than the deadline to sue the abuser. Read each row as the years of a survivor's life when the courthouse door is open. Purple is the perpetrator. Red is the institution.

Age at which the civil deadline runs out

Effective outer age, assuming abuse in childhood and no separate discovery trigger. A dot at the far right means no deadline at all. Split dots share the same clock, but the survivor carries a heavier burden against the institution.

Deadline against the perpetrator Deadline against the institution Same deadline, heavier burden on the survivor
18304050None
In plain wordsEach row is one state. Read it left to right as a survivor's age. The purple dot marks how long they have to take the abuser to court. The red dot marks how long they have to take the institution to court. Wherever the red dot sits to the left, the organization that let it happen is protected longer than the person who did it. That is exactly backwards.

The window almost nobody has open

A survivor whose deadline expired before the law changed gains nothing from the new law unless the state revives their claim. Six jurisdictions have permanent revival. Six have a window open right now, and four of those six are so narrow they reach only Boy Scouts bankruptcy claimants or a single city.

Revival status, all 51 jurisdictions

Windows that have closed are counted separately from states that never opened one, because a state that has done it once can be asked to do it again.

07132026
In plain wordsWhen a state extends its deadline, the change usually helps only future survivors. Anyone whose time already ran out stays shut out, unless the state opens a window to let them file. Half the states in the country never have.

Only two broad windows are open in the country

Louisiana closes June 14, 2027. Rhode Island closes June 30, 2028, and is the only one that reaches institutions and supervisors who concealed abuse. Every survivor in those two states is on a clock right now.

Courts have struck down five revival laws

Colorado, Utah, Missouri, Maine and Kentucky all passed revival, and all had it undone or gutted by their own supreme courts. Arkansas is next; its case is pending. Passing the bill is not the finish line.

Two second chances taken back in 2025

Maine's highest court struck down its revival law in January 2025. In October 2025, New Hampshire's ruled that its law does not reach claims that had already expired. Some older summaries online still list both states as open. The state cards below show where things stand today.

State by state

Every state and DC, in alphabetical order. Each card shows the grade and what the law means in plain words. Select a card to open the full breakdown: the governing statute, the most recent reform, and what is pending.

Ten million names

Every state on this map can change.

You do not have to be a survivor to sign. If there is a child in your life you want to keep safe, this pledge is yours too. Statutes of limitation are written one state at a time, and they change when enough people in that state say so. Jan signed first. Add your name beside hers.

Sign the pledge

If reading this brought something up for you, you are not alone. The Survivor Circle is a free, private community of survivors who understand.

How the grade is calculated

Each jurisdiction is scored out of 100 across four weighted parts: the criminal deadline (20 points, full credit only where it is gone for all child sex offenses), the civil deadline against the perpetrator (30 points, scaled by the age at which it expires), the civil deadline against the institution (30 points, on the same scale, less 5 points where a heightened burden of proof applies), and revival (20 points, with permanent revival scoring full and a closed past window scoring partial). A is 80 and above, B is 65, C is 50, D is 35, and F is below 35. The weights are the Jan Broberg Foundation's, not a legal standard. They deliberately treat institutional accountability as equal in weight to accountability for the individual.

Sources and limits

Compiled from CHILD USA's 2026 SOL Tracker and its per-state pages, state statutes and session laws, state legislature bill records, and reported appellate decisions, current to September 27, 2026. Where a national tracker conflicts with a more recent court ruling or enacted bill, the primary source governs and the conflict is noted on the state's record.

Statutes of limitations are technical, fact-specific, and change often. This is a research and advocacy tool, not legal advice, and no survivor should decide whether to come forward based on a chart. Anyone considering a claim should speak with a lawyer licensed in their state.

Jan Broberg Foundation • Ending the Statute • Justice Through Advocacy