Milberg Files Claim on Behalf of Illinois School District Following Landmark $27M Settlement
Milberg Files Claim on Behalf of Illinois School District Following Landmark $27M Settlement
PR Newswire
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2026
Peoria Public Schools District 150 Among More Than 2,500 Districts Nationwide Pursuing Claims Against Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- National plaintiffs' law firm Milberg PLLC is actively litigating social media addiction claims on behalf of Peoria Public Schools District 150, of Peoria, Illinois, as part of the Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 3047)—the same federal case in which all four major social media platforms last month agreed to pay a landmark $27 million to resolve claims brought by a Kentucky school district, the first such case to reach the eve of trial.
Meta Platforms ($9M), Snap Inc. ($8M), TikTok ($8M), and YouTube ($2M) collectively settled with Breathitt County School District in rural Kentucky to cover mental health costs and fund a 15-year abatement program. The settlement, reached just weeks before a June trial date, served as the first major test of school districts' claims against social media platforms.
"Every one of these companies chose to write a check rather than face a jury," said Melissa Sims, Partner at Milberg. "That tells you everything you need to know about where this litigation is heading. School districts across the country that have been quietly absorbing the costs of the social media mental health crisis now have a clear path to recovery, and we are urging them not to wait."
The Breathitt County settlement is part of a broader wave of accountability facing these platforms. In August 2026, Meta agreed to pay approximately $17 billion to settle a separate lawsuit brought by 29 state attorneys general in federal court in Oakland, resolving claims that the company violated child privacy laws and designed its platforms to be addictive to minors. That same month, the U.S. Department of Justice secured a $400 million settlement from TikTok and parent company ByteDance over violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)—one of the largest recoveries ever obtained under that law—reflecting an escalating reckoning for these platforms on the issue of harm to minors.
The MDL now includes more than 2,500 pending cases in federal court and an additional 3,300 in California state court. The cases allege that Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube knowingly engineered their platforms to maximize engagement among minors, despite knowing that certain design features caused anxiety, depression, self-harm, and disrupted learning, and left school districts to bear the financial and human consequences. The next federal bellwether trial for school district claims is scheduled for February 2027.
School districts in the litigation seek recovery for documented institutional costs, including mental health counseling, monitoring software, and the broader administrative burden of addressing a youth mental health crisis that school communities say these platforms deliberately created.
Milberg represents Peoria Public Schools District 150 and additional school districts in this litigation. Districts that have not yet filed may still have time to join the MDL.
About Milberg's Social Media Addiction Practice
Milberg PLLC represents school districts, municipalities, and individual plaintiffs in the Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 3047) in the Northern District of California. The firm has recovered more than $50 billion for clients over its 50-year history.
School districts seeking information about eligibility or representation may contact Melissa K. Sims at msims@milberg.com or (888) 727-8136 or Tristan Duarte at tduarte@milberg.com or (516) 554-5633.
SOURCE Milberg
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