LOS ANGELES — Tuesday, Los Angeles County officials agreed to pay $4 billion to settle almost 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in youth facilities since 1959.

A settlement with the Boy Scouts of America in 2022 for $2.6 billion was the largest settlement for sexual abuse in U.S. history at the time. The agreement made on April 4 is much bigger.

The deal that settles lawsuits from thousands of people who said they were mistreated and sexually abused in foster care and youth detention facilities was approved by the county Board of Supervisors with a unanimous vote.

These people were able to sue because of a California law that went into effect in 2020 and gave victims of childhood sex abuse an extra three years to file a lawsuit.

“This agreement recognises the profound harm inflicted on thousands of children over the course of decades,” Adam Slater, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said in a statement Tuesday. “No amount of money can erase the horrors that they endured.”

The MacLaren Children’s Centre, which closed in 2003, was at the centre of many of the claims. The building opened in 1961 as a safe place for kids while they waited to be put in foster homes. It was run by probation officers until 1976, when it was taken over by the county’s Department of Children and Family Services.

Two men who worked at the centre said they were sexually abused by doctors when they were 8 years old. One man said he was raped by a male worker in a bathroom when he was 5. According to court documents made by plaintiffs, children were often locked up alone, given drugs, and held down in chairs at the facility.

Fesia Davenport, the CEO of the county, said in April, “On behalf of the County, I apologise wholeheartedly to everyone who was hurt by these reprehensible acts.”

Los Angeles County’s huge payout came at a time when the nation’s largest county, with about 10 million people living in it, is having more and more financial problems with its $49 billion annual budget.