Did you get an email recently about getting money from a lawsuit against PowerSchool? If so, you’re likely entitled to a payment from a recent suit involving Naviance.
A person who is anonymously referred to as Q.J. filed a suit against PowerSchool, along with Hobsons, Heap (now known as Contentsquare) and the Board of Education of the City of Chicago. They accused the companies involved of allegedly collecting students data through Naviance without their consent, which would be in violation of the Fourth Amendment, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which protects wire, oral and electronic communications from being accessed without consent, the California Invasion of Privacy Act, which requires the consent of all parties to agree to recording sensitive information, the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, the Stored Communications Act, which is a Fourth Amendment-like protection for electronic communications and the Illinois School Student Records Act, which is an Illinois law on the collection and management of student records and data.
Though the defendants have continued to deny any wrongdoing, they agreed to pay out $17.25 Million to all students who used Naviance from Aug. 18, 2021 through Jan. 23, 2026, divided equally among all who apply. Along with that, PowerSchool agreed to create an internal Web Governance Committee, which will “assess the implementation and use of analytics and advertising technologies within the Naviance Platform to evaluate whether such use is consistent with applicable law.” PowerSchool will also not work with the companies of Heap, Google, Microsoft, Hotjar and Gainsight unless the committee approves of it and determines it follows the law for the next two years. Heap must delete all primary data within 10 days of Final Judgment, and all backup data within 30 days.
To preserve the right to sue separately, a person must actively opt-out. Filing a claim — or doing nothing — both result in giving up that right. Doing nothing means they’re in the class and release their rights, but also don’t automatically get paid.
If a person would like to receive a payment or opt-out, they would have to do so on powerschoolnaviancesettlement.com by July 13, 2026 to exclude or July 27, 2026 to apply for claims. Note that one must be 18 years or older to apply, so anyone that was affected that is under 18 will have to do so through a parent or guardian. Payment can be received via check, PayPal, Venmo or Zelle.
