LAUSD Borrows Another $250 Million for Sex Abuse Settlements — On Top of $500 Million Last Year

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) — the second-largest school district in the nation — is quietly borrowing yet another $250 million in special “judgment obligation bonds” to pay off a mounting pile of sexual misconduct claims, just months after authorizing $500 million for the same purpose. 

The latest authorization, approved unanimously by the LAUSD board this week with virtually no public discussion, brings the total bond authority to $750 million. District estimates show the combined cost to taxpayers — including interest and financing fees — will exceed $1 billion, repaid from the general fund over at least the next decade. 

As independent commentator Kevin Dalton noted in a widely shared X post that has garnered hundreds of thousands of views: “The Los Angeles Unified School District is borrowing $250 million to settle sexual misconduct claims. If you are wondering if this is in addition to the $500 million that the Los Angeles Unified School District borrowed less than a year ago… the answer is yes… Experts say this will end up costing taxpayers more than $1 billion.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District is borrowing $250 million to settle sexual misconduct claims.

If you are wondering if this is in addition to the $500 million that the Los Angeles Unified School District borrowed less than a year ago to settle sexual misconduct claims,… pic.twitter.com/tzJNCzKfQw

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) February 24, 2026

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho admitted the district is “exhausting funds available to us to satisfy sex and molestation cases… reflecting cases that go back decades, that the district is not willing — not able — to successfully defend.” 

Without the bonds, the payouts would drain cash directly from classrooms, salaries, and services. 

This latest borrowing comes as LAUSD already faces a severe budget crisis. As California Globe reported just last week, student attendance has plummeted by as much as 40% in recent years while spending continues to soar on bureaucracy, lavish projects, and personnel costs that consume 90% of the roughly $18.8 billion budget. 

The new bonds are driven in large part by AB 218, the 2019 law that dramatically extended the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims, opening a three-year lookback window and allowing suits into adulthood.

Between 2020 and mid-2025, roughly 370 claims were filed against LAUSD alone, many involving alleged abuse dating back to the 1940s–1980s. 

Even before AB 218, LAUSD had paid out more than $372 million in sexual misconduct judgments and settlements between 2012 and 2024. 

Additional News Coverage on Sex Offenders Employed by LAUSD

While LAUSD maintains policies that certain sex offenses are grounds for immediate termination, repeated high-profile cases reveal serious failures in screening, oversight, and removal of predators from campuses.

• In 2023, LAUSD agreed to a $19.9 million settlement with families of multiple victims abused by former teacher’s aide Lino Cabrera at a North Hollywood elementary school. Cabrera pleaded no contest to continuous sexual abuse and lewd acts on children under 14; he was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for life. He has been released from prison. Attorneys alleged the district knew or should have known of the danger. 
• Former LAUSD middle school teacher Robert Pinedo, a repeat sex offender, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in 2021 for attempting to entice a minor. He had resigned from the district following earlier allegations. 
• Former fourth-grade teacher Robert Pimentel was sentenced to 12 years in state prison in 2014 after abusing young girls over a decade; he was ordered to register as a sex offender for life. “It needs to stop,” the victims’ attorney John Manly said. “The secrets need to go away and LAUSD needs to come the 21st Century and stop hiding this and admit they have a problem.”
• In another documented pattern, former Bell High School teacher Jeffrey Scott Jones faced multiple lawsuits alleging he repeatedly raped and married underage students in the 1980s while employed by LAUSD. 

If child predators turn 50 while serving time in prison, or if they are “elderly” after serving 20 years, they will be eligible for parole thanks to California Democrats.

As reported by The Globe:

California allows “elderly prisoners” out if they are 50, and have served at least 20 years of their sentence to be considered for parole, and considered no longer a threat. This “law” was a gut-and-amend bill passed in 2020 entirely on party lines without a hearing or notice to the public.

Perhaps ironically, today there are 2,790 registered sex offender pedophiles living very near the State Capitol in downtown Sacramento according to MegansLaw.ca.gov. In 2022, there were 201 registered sex offender pedophiles living very near the State Capitol. Newsom’s sex-offender early release program has let out thousands of convicted pedophiles.

The sheer volume of multimillion-dollar settlements and criminal convictions of employees demonstrates a systemic vulnerability that continues to cost taxpayers dearly and, more importantly, endanger children. As Attorney John Manly said, LAUSD needs to admit they have a problem.

Law professor David Levine summed up the broader crisis: “There is only so much money available to LAUSD. If it has to pay upwards of $1 billion… to settle old, but worthy, claims there will be that many fewer dollars to educate our children now and in the future. A fix needs to come from the Legislature.”