Track

Status

Governing provision

The whole rule, in one sentence — § 556.037.1: “Notwithstanding the provisions of section 556.036, prosecutions for unlawful sexual offenses involving a person eighteen years of age or under may be commenced at any time.” 

And what that covers — § 556.037.2: “For purposes of this section, ‘sexual offenses’ include, but are not limited to, all offenses for which registration is required under sections 589.400 to 589.425.” The words “include, but are not limited to” matter: this is not a closed list of section numbers, which is what leaves Minnesota, Maine, Nebraska and Michigan with gaps in this review. 

The general section it overrides — § 556.036.1: prosecution for murder, rape in the first degree, forcible rape, attempted rape in the first degree, attempted forcible rape, sodomy in the first degree, forcible sodomy, attempted sodomy in the first degree, attempted forcible sodomy, or any class A felony may be commenced at any time. § 556.036.2: otherwise, three years for any felony (five for certain property offenses under §§ 569.040, 569.050, 569.055), one year for any misdemeanor, six months for any infraction. 

Two discovery extensions in the general section, neither relevant here — § 556.036.3(1): fraud or breach of fiduciary obligation, one year after discovery, capped at three additional years. § 556.036.3(2): misconduct in office, while in office or within two years after, capped at three additional years. 

Missouri is one of the cleanest “no deadline” entries in the dataset, and the drafting is why. Section 556.037 does not enumerate offenses; it removes the limitation for any unlawful sexual offense involving a person eighteen or under and defines the class open-endedly by reference to the sex offender registration provisions. Compare Minnesota, where a single section number omitted from a range left fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct on a three-year clock, or Michigan, where only first-degree criminal sexual conduct is unlimited. Missouri has no such seam.

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 556.037 — Missouri Revisor of Statutes, official text

The period — § 537.046.2: “Any action to recover damages from injury or illness caused by childhood sexual abuse in an action brought pursuant to this section shall be commenced within ten years of the plaintiff attaining the age of twenty-one or within three years of the date the plaintiff discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, that the injury or illness was caused by childhood sexual abuse, whichever later occurs.” The floor is the survivor’s thirty-first birthday, with a three-year discovery limb able to carry it further. 

What counts — § 537.046.1(1): “childhood sexual abuse” means any act committed against the plaintiff when the plaintiff was under eighteen which would have been a violation of any of a long list of sections in chapters 566, 568 and 573. § 537.046.1(2): “injury” or “illness” means either a physical or a psychological injury or illness, and “[a] psychological injury or illness need not be accompanied by physical injury or illness.” 

NEW IN 2025, and unusual — § 537.046.4: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a nondisclosure agreement by any party to a childhood sexual abuse action shall not be judicially enforceable in a dispute involving childhood sexual abuse allegations or claims and shall be void.” No other state in this review legislates on non-disclosure agreements inside its limitation statute. 

It is prospective — § 537.046.3: “This section shall apply to any action arising on or after August 28, 2025.” The Revisor records two versions of the section: the current one effective 28 August 2025, and its predecessor effective 28 August 2004 to 28 August 2025. An action arising before that date runs on the earlier version. 

The thirty-one floor is respectable, but the section has a limitation that matters more than its period — see the open questions below. Missouri’s own courts have held that § 537.046 creates a cause of action only against the person who committed the abuse. Against a school, church or employer, the survivor is not in this section at all.

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.046 — Missouri Revisor of Statutes, official text

The applicability clause — § 537.046.3: “This section shall apply to any action arising on or after August 28, 2025.” That is the opposite of a revival provision: it confines the current rule to future accruals rather than reaching back to expired claims. 

Nor did the earlier versions reach back — the section as it stood from 28 August 2004 governs actions arising before 28 August 2025, and the Revisor’s version history shows no intervening provision purporting to revive anything. 

Missouri also has no case in the national bill-and-case tracker on the vested-rights question either way, so nothing is known here about whether a Missouri window would survive. 

Missouri belongs with Florida, Illinois, Idaho and Mississippi in this review: states that have legislated on the civil side without ever reaching backwards. It is worth distinguishing that group in the tracker from the states whose revival was struck down — Colorado, Kentucky, Maine, Utah — because the policy question facing an advocate is completely different.

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.046 — Missouri Revisor of Statutes, official text

no Missouri row.