🛝 Schools Are Suing Big Tech. And They Might Win.

Welcome to Playground Post, a bi-weekly newsletter that keeps education innovators ahead of what's next.

This week's reality check: Six school districts are likely headed to trial against TikTok, YouTube, Meta, and Snap over addictive features that drained school resources. Immigration enforcement is pushing districts into emergency virtual learning that hurts the very students it's meant to protect. And as private school choice programs expand, families of students with disabilities are losing legal rights they don't even know they have.

💎 Data Gem

First-generation college applicants increased by 9% year-over-year at this point in the admissions cycle, according to Common App data.

Schools Are Likely Headed to Trial Against Social Media Companies

A federal judge signaled Monday that a massive case against social media companies over their impact on schools will be heard by a jury.

"Somebody is going to trial, the question is who," said U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, referring to which of the six plaintiff school districts across Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, and South Carolina will be tried first.

The districts are suing YouTube, TikTok, Meta, and Snap over claims that their platforms' addictive features have harmed students and drained school resources. 

The core argument is about resources. 

The districts claim their limited budgets were diverted because teachers and staff had to spend time stopping social media use during school hours and handling the fallout: bullying, distraction, and absenteeism.

"The mechanisms of addiction used by these platforms are largely behind a veil," said plaintiffs' attorney Previn Warren. "That's why we have a failure to warn. The platforms know that their products are addictive."

The social media companies argued that much of the evidence is content-based and protected under Section 230, which shields tech companies from liability for third-party content. 

The judge wasn't persuaded, noting that protected and unprotected content may both be part of the evidence.

The case is part of a sprawling 2023 multidistrict litigation that consolidated hundreds of lawsuits from school districts, local governments, and state attorneys general. 

Schools are beginning to quantify the cost of social media in staff hours and diverted resources. If districts win damages for "lost time," it establishes a framework for measuring how external technology disruptions consume school budgets. 

Products that help schools document, track, and mitigate the resource drain from student social media use could find demand regardless of the trial's outcome.

Immigration Enforcement Is Pushing Schools Into Emergency Virtual Learning

Multiple Minneapolis-area school districts are temporarily letting students learn virtually as immigration enforcement has sparked widespread fear.

Districts nationwide are increasingly weighing the same option as families express concern about the growing presence of federal immigration agents in communities and near schools. 

The administration rescinded a policy last year that had designated schools as protected areas from enforcement. But experts caution that virtual learning creates its own problems, especially for the students most affected.

"It is something that could be temporary, but definitely not permanent," said Kimberly Valle of ImmSchools, a national nonprofit that works with K-12 schools to support undocumented students and their families.

English learners from immigrant households are disproportionately affected by enforcement fears. But COVID-era research showed that these same students missed out on critical language support and services during remote learning. 

"English learners have linguistic accommodations that should be part of instruction. How do you guarantee those if you're doing a Band-Aid virtual learning experience in the midst of a crisis?" said Esmeralda Alday, senior director of programs at ImmSchools.

Some districts are pursuing alternatives. 

Safe passages programs organize parent volunteers to walk or drive students to school. Some districts station trusted adults at bus stops. Others have staggered dropoff and pickup times to help families avoid peak traffic near schools.

For innovators, the operational challenge is real and immediate. Districts need emergency virtual learning systems that can maintain quality for English learners and students with disabilities, not the improvised remote setups from 2020.

Private School Choice Is Leaving Students With Disabilities Behind

As private school choice programs have expanded over the last decade, they have enrolled proportionately fewer students with disabilities and students from low-income families.

That's according to a new report from the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, which warns that the growth of these programs could "undermine" the gains students with disabilities have made in public schools over the past 50 years.

Nine states offered 12 different private school choice programs specifically for students with disabilities in the 2024-25 school year, serving 135,025 participants. In eight of those states, just 2% of eligible students participate on average. 

Florida is the outlier at 29%.

Here's the gap many families don't know about: when students transfer from a public school to a private school through a choice program, they are no longer guaranteed the legal rights and services available under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 

Many families were not informed of this, the report found.

In public schools, about 2 in 3 students with disabilities spend at least 80% of the school day in a general education classroom alongside their peers. Some evidence shows that students in choice programs may have less access to general education settings and are attending more specialized, segregated schools.

The report recommends that states clearly inform parents about any rights that may be lost when choosing a private option. It also calls on participating private schools to share student outcome data, including results for students with disabilities.

For innovators, the information gap is the most actionable finding. Parents are making enrollment decisions without understanding what rights they're giving up. Tools that help families compare what services, protections, and outcomes they can expect across public and private options could address a real blind spot, especially as the 2027 federal program launch approaches.

⚡️More Quick Hits

This week in education:

• Ransomware attacks plateau in education sector — Attack numbers have leveled off, but third-party vendor risks continue to grow

• Senators spar over school vouchers — Debate over whether federal school choice helps or harms public schools heats up on Capitol Hill

• Encryptionless extortion on the rise — Ransomware groups shifting tactics to steal data without encrypting it first

• Teachers say new duties keep piling on — Poll reveals the scope of non-teaching responsibilities being added to educators' workloads

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