Social Media School Districts Lawsuit

School districts are suing social media companies for damages incurred as a result of the increasing mental and emotional needs of students. Districts allege that the platforms encourage excessive use. They claim that the platforms’ harmful features lead to social media overuse and other mental health harms in children.

The youth social media mental health crisis has caused schools to change the way they support students. For example, schools need to enhance mental health counseling resources. They also must rapidly adjust how they teach students to combat the effects of social media use. All of this costs money and time.

Which social media companies are school districts suing?

School districts and local governments are suing the following social media companies:

• ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok
• Google, the parent company of YouTube
• Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram
• Snap, Inc., the parent company of Snapchat

What legal claims are school districts making?

School districts have asserted two major legal claims against social media companies. The specific allegations vary by case, but most of the lawsuits include negligence and public nuisance claims.

• The negligence claims generally focus on whether social media companies acted reasonably when designing, operating and marketing their platforms.
• The public nuisance claims allege that harm from the platforms created widespread problems that affected public resources. As a result, schools had to devote more time and money to student support services.

Over 1,600 school districts and local governments have filed cases against the makers of social media apps. Many of these suits have been consolidated into a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL).

An MDL is not the same as a class action lawsuit. It is an action federal courts may use when many parties allege similar harms against a similar collection of defendants. The MDL allows the court system to establish common facts and speed up the proceedings for all parties. Cases in an MDL are tried individually and are resolved on the specific facts of that case alone.

The MDL is captioned In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation (MDL 3047). These consolidated actions are being litigated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. School district claims have been consolidated with individual personal injury social media lawsuits.

Social media has harmed schools through the mental health impacts on students. Harm to schools includes the expense of combatting the youth mental health crisis. School districts and local governments allege in their lawsuits that the design of these platforms fosters problematic use and leads to a wide range of mental health harms.

Costs incurred by schools to handle social media harms

School districts and local governments allege that they are spending a lot of money to help their students with mental health issues. These costs come from providing mental health support and buying more resources to help children learn.

Schools are one of the main providers of mental health resources for millions of pre-teens and teens. The number of students seeking mental health assistance at school has increased in more than two-thirds of public schools since early 2020. This period also saw a spike in social media use among young people.

Teachers and staff are also forced to contend with behavioral issues that may be linked to compulsive social media use. These issues include:

• Classroom disruptions
• Damage to property that may come from following social media challenges
• Skipping classes
• Tardiness
• Threats and fights between students
• Using cell phones and other electronics during class

School districts wishing to file a lawsuit against social media companies must be able to show that they have been harmed and that social media caused the harm.

Districts may qualify if they endured:

• Disruption to the classroom: Online behavior has directly disrupted the school day, resulting in measurable spikes in chronic absenteeism, severe classroom distractions, disciplinary issues or property damage.
• Financial strain (diverted resources): The district has been forced to spend unbudgeted taxpayer money on additional resources to deal with the impacts of social media on students.
• Public entity standing: The district is a public K-12 educational authority.

School district bellwether cases are moving forward

In the early stages of the social media school district litigation, the court selected six school district lawsuits to serve as bellwether cases. Bellwether cases are test cases intended to help the parties evaluate evidence, legal arguments and potential outcomes before additional cases move forward.

The school district bellwether cases selected by the court involve school systems from all over the country. The districts represent different types of communities and school systems. The districts chosen for bellwethers are:

• Board of Education of Harford County in Maryland
• Breathitt County Board of Education in Kentucky
• Charleston County School District in South Carolina
• DeKalb County School District in Georgia
• Irvington Public Schools in New Jersey
• Tucson Unified School District in Arizona

First case reaches settlement before trial

In May 2026, the Breathitt County Board of Education in Kentucky reached settlement agreements with all named social media defendants. The settlement agreements were reached shortly before the first scheduled school district bellwether trial.

What happens next?

Additional bellwether proceedings are expected to continue. Tucson Unified School District v. Meta Platforms, Inc., et al. and Charleston County School District v. Meta Platforms, Inc., et al. are currently being prepared and are expected to begin in February 2027.

Motley Rice holds leadership positions in the federal social media multidistrict litigation (which includes school district, AG and individual cases), the California state consolidation (JCCP) and the AG of New Mexico’s state trial. Our social media harm attorneys have experience working with state and local governments to address wrongdoing impacting their constituents.

Read more about our social media harm litigation here.