2026 Praesidium Report: Executive Summary

Highlights from the 2026 Praesidium Report

Abuse prevention is entering a new era.

Across industries, organizations have made meaningful progress. Policies are stronger. Awareness is higher. More leaders recognize abuse prevention as a core safety responsibility, not a standalone initiative or compliance exercise. But expectations have changed. Today, the question is no longer whether an organization has policies in place. The question is whether those policies are understood, consistently practiced, measured, and proven effective.

That shift is central to the 2026 Praesidium Report. This year’s report explores what it means to move from intention to impact by aligning policy, practice, and proof. Drawing from Praesidium’s case analysis, Helpline data, Culture of Safety survey findings, Accreditation insights, and field observations from our expert consultants across multiple sectors, the report highlights both progress and persistent gaps in how organizations manage abuse risk.

The scale of the issue remains significant. Praesidium analyzed 2,239 organizational cases involving sexual abuse or misconduct, including 891 with reported payout data. Across those cases, the average payout reached $20.9 million, while the median payout was $1.96 million, reinforcing both the severity of this exposure and the wide variability in outcomes. The report also includes analysis of 994 incidents, boundary violations, and program concerns reported through the Praesidium Helpline between 2016 and 2025, offering a more immediate view into how risks surface before they become litigation, headlines, or long-tail claims.

The findings confirm what operators must intrinsically understand: prevention does not happen on paper. It happens in ordinary moments like how staff are supervised, how boundaries are modeled, how concerns are reported, how leaders respond, and whether expectations are reinforced consistently across programs and departments. A written policy may create the promise of prevention, but daily practice determines whether that promise to the community is kept.

The report also shows that even while we are encouraged that prevention efforts work, risk constantly evolves. Praesidium’s analysis points to progress in historically high-risk areas, for example a meaningful decrease in the proportion of reported incidents occurring in common “hot spots” like bathrooms and locker rooms. But as organizations strengthen controls in known risk areas, risk can move into less expected environments, including classrooms, shared public spaces, and become more concentrated in settings like lodging and residential programs, transportation, electronic communication, and out-of-program contact. This is not a reason for discouragement. It is a reminder that prevention must be dynamic, data-informed, and continuously updated.

Digital and non-contact abuse also continue to expand how organizations must think about access, supervision, communication, and reporting. Reported non-contact abuse, including digital exploitation, has more than doubled since 2015. If prevention frameworks focus only on in-person environments, organizations risk underestimating how harm now occurs and where safeguards must be strengthened.

The report also highlights a persistent policy-practice gap. Data from more than 800 abuse prevention self-assessments using the Praesidium Assessment Tool shows that most organizations report having key policies in place, but far fewer believe those policies are consistently followed in daily operations. This gap appears in areas such as youth-to-youth sexual behavior, physical boundaries, and electronic communication. The takeaway is straightforward: a policy that is not operationalized does not reduce risk. It can create a false sense of security.

Industry-specific insights support these trends. Across social services, healthcare, youth-serving organizations, K–12 schools, higher education, and faith-based organizations, the specific risk patterns differ, but the broader themes are consistent:

• Operational pressure can weaken supervision
• Reporting pathways only matter if concerns are acted on
• Leadership intent does not always translate into role-level accountability
• Trust-based cultures can create blind spots
• Decentralized systems can diffuse responsibility
• Low reporting should never be mistaken for low risk.

Among these sectors, the most important trends are not simply about where incidents occur or who is involved. They are about how organizations recognize risk, respond to early warning signs, and test whether prevention systems are working. Many incidents are predictable in hindsight. The challenge is building systems that help organizations see and act on those patterns earlier.

At the same time, the report highlights encouraging signs of progress. Praesidium’s Culture of Safety analysis shows that Praesidium Accreditation is associated with measurable, statistically significant improvements in key indicators of safety culture, and those gains are sustained over time. Staff report stronger understanding of policies, greater confidence in reporting, more consistent enforcement, and continued visibility of leadership expectations. These findings reinforce what Praesidium sees in practice: safety culture can be strengthened, sustained, and passed on when prevention systems are implemented with rigor.

External pressures are also reshaping the landscape. Insurers, regulators, accrediting bodies, families, and communities are asking organizations to provide clearer evidence that prevention systems are working. In a constrained insurance market, the ability to demonstrate operational risk control practices is becoming more important. Proof is no longer a bonus. It is becoming part of the standard of care.

The path forward is demanding, but achievable. Most organizations are not starting from zero. Many already have strong foundations in place. The opportunity now is to close the gap between policy and practice, strengthen supervision and reporting systems, respond earlier to warning signs, and use data to verify whether prevention efforts are working.

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