PowerSchool Naviance Settlement: Approved, Not Yet Paid

At a glance

Status

Approved, awaiting payment

Defendant

PowerSchool Holdings LLC / Hobsons, Inc. / Heap Inc. / Chicago Board of Education

Settlement fund

$17,250,000

Claim deadline

July 27, 2026

No-proof cash option

No

Estimated payout

Pro rata share of the $17.25M fund

Administrator

Kroll Settlement Administration LLC

Official site

powerschoolnaviancesettlement.com

Court

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

Case number

1:23-cv-05689

Last verified September 9, 2026

Key dates

Milestone	Date	What it means
Claim deadline	July 27, 2026(passed)	Last day to file for a payment
Opt-out (exclusion) deadline	July 13, 2026(passed)	Last day to leave the settlement and keep the right to sue
Objection deadline	July 13, 2026(passed)	Last day to object to the terms
Final approval hearing	August 19, 2026(passed)	When the judge decides whether to approve the settlement
Expected payout	Not yet scheduled	Payments are not sent until after final approval and any appeals

Where to file

PowerSchool Naviance Student Privacy Settlement is administered by Kroll Settlement Administration LLC. The only place to file is the official settlement website:

Verify on the official site

powerschoolnaviancesettlement.com

Filing is free. No legitimate settlement charges a fee to file a claim.

You cannot file on RecordingLaw.com. We are an independent publisher, not the settlement administrator, and we are not affiliated with any court, agency, or defendant.

PowerSchool Holdings, the education-technology company behind the widely used Naviance college-and-career-planning platform, has agreed to pay $17.25 million to settle a lawsuit over how that platform tracked students. The claim window closed on July 27, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Central time, and the court granted final approval on August 19, 2026.

If you are searching for a "PowerSchool settlement," read this first. There are two separate PowerSchool legal matters right now, and this page covers only one of them.

What happened with Naviance

Naviance is the online platform widely used by U.S. high school students, often at their school's direction, to research colleges, track applications, and plan careers. It was originally built by Hobsons, Inc., which PowerSchool later acquired.

A lawsuit filed in 2023, Q.J. v. PowerSchool Holdings LLC, alleged that PowerSchool, Hobsons, and a third-party analytics company called Heap, Inc. embedded tracking code on Naviance that captured students' activity without adequate consent. The official settlement administrator describes the claims as the "non-consensual interception of students' confidential and sensitive communications," in plain terms, secretly monitoring how students used a school-assigned tool, the kind of claim RecordingLaw.com covers under wiretapping and eavesdropping law. The Chicago Board of Education is also named as a defendant, reflecting Naviance use in Chicago Public Schools.

The proposed class covers a broad window: anyone who, while a student, logged into Naviance at least once between August 18, 2021, and January 23, 2026. PowerSchool and the other defendants deny wrongdoing but agreed to settle to avoid the cost and uncertainty of continued litigation.

This is not the 2024 PowerSchool data breach

This is the part most searchers miss. In December 2024, PowerSchool separately suffered a cybersecurity breach of its student information system, exposing student and educator personal information nationwide. Those lawsuits were consolidated into multidistrict litigation now before a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. As of mid-2026, that case remains in active litigation, with only partial rulings on motions to dismiss in March 2026, and there is no settlement or claim form for it.

The Naviance settlement here is a different, earlier case, filed in 2023, about how the platform tracked student activity, not the 2024 hack. If a site or email asks you to "claim" money for the 2024 breach, that claims process does not exist yet. As of September 9, 2026, there is no open PowerSchool-related claim form at all: the Naviance claim window closed on July 27, 2026, and the 2024 breach litigation described above has no claims process.

Where the case stands right now

As of September 9, 2026, the Naviance settlement has final court approval. The deadline to exclude yourself from the class or object to its terms was July 13, 2026, and that date has passed.

The claim deadline, July 27, 2026, has passed, and the administrator can no longer accept claim forms. The final approval hearing was held on August 19, 2026, in Chicago, and the docket records a minute order granting final approval along with fees and a service award. No payout date has been set. Payments in a case like this usually follow only after any appeal period runs, so anyone who filed on time should expect a wait; the official Kroll site is where to check your claim's status.

Who is in the settlement class

You are potentially a class member if this describes you: you were a student, at any grade level, and you logged into Naviance, offered first by Hobsons and later by PowerSchool, at least once between August 18, 2021, and January 23, 2026. That is the entire test in the class definition; it does not matter which state or school district you were in.

That window means many now-adults qualify. If you researched colleges on Naviance as a high schooler in 2022, you are potentially a class member even if you are now out of school. Parents and guardians of a current student should check the official settlement site for how to file on that student's behalf, since many class members here are minors.

How much you can realistically expect

Do not expect a specific dollar figure from this page, because none exists yet, by design. Every valid claimant receives a pro rata share of the $17.25 million fund, meaning the fund is divided among everyone who files, so your payment depends on how many other people file, not on a fixed price list.

That is a real structural difference from many breach settlements. There is no flat no-proof cash amount and no separate documented-loss tier here. There is one path: file a valid claim, and your share is calculated once the window closes and the total number of valid claims is known. More claims filed means a smaller individual payment; fewer claims means a larger one. Nobody can tell you your exact payment before that math is done.

What you need to file a claim

Filing happened at the official settlement website, run by Kroll Settlement Administration LLC, either online or by a paper claim form postmarked by the July 27, 2026 deadline. That deadline has passed and filing is closed; the same site is where to check the status of a claim already submitted. Filing cost nothing.

Unlike settlements built around receipts or proof of loss, this one centered on a single Claim Form confirming you were a class member who logged into Naviance during the covered window. The official FAQ page is still the place to check what happens to a form that was submitted on time.

Protecting a child's information beyond this settlement

This case is about tracking, not a hack that exposed Social Security numbers, so it does not call for the same identity-theft response as a financial-data breach. Still, if your child used Naviance, a few basic, free steps are worth taking.

A credit freeze blocks anyone from opening new credit in your child's name. By federal law, parents and guardians of children under 16 can request one for free at all three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, typically by showing proof like a birth certificate. It is one of the few identity-theft protections built specifically for minors, whose Social Security numbers are attractive to fraudsters precisely because nobody checks a child's credit for years. See our guide to freezing your credit after a data breach for the bureau-by-bureau steps.

If you ever suspect actual misuse of your or your child's information, whether tied to this case or something else, IdentityTheft.gov is the federal government's free recovery site and a safe place to start, not a paid monitoring service.

We are tracking this case

If a payout date is set, if an appeal disturbs the August 19, 2026 final approval, or if the separate 2024 PowerSchool breach litigation produces its own settlement, we will update this page and our data breach settlement tracker. As of September 9, 2026, the Naviance claim window is closed, final approval has been granted, and no payment date has been announced.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the PowerSchool Naviance Student Privacy Settlement?

It is a $17.25 million settlement resolving a lawsuit, Q.J. v. PowerSchool Holdings LLC, that alleged PowerSchool, Hobsons, Heap Inc., and the Chicago Board of Education tracked and intercepted students' activity on the Naviance college-and-career-planning platform without adequate consent. The defendants deny wrongdoing but agreed to settle. The claim deadline was July 27, 2026, and the court granted final approval on August 19, 2026.

Is this the same as the 2024 PowerSchool data breach?

No. This Naviance settlement comes from a case filed in 2023 about tracking on the Naviance platform. The separate December 2024 PowerSchool student information system breach, which exposed records for tens of millions of students and educators, is still in litigation as of mid-2026 and has no settlement or claim form of its own.

Am I eligible to file a claim in the PowerSchool Naviance settlement?

You may be eligible if, while a student, you logged into the Naviance platform at least once between August 18, 2021, and January 23, 2026. That is the entire test in the class definition, regardless of your state or school district.

How much money will I actually get from the PowerSchool Naviance settlement?

There is no fixed amount. Every valid claimant receives a pro rata share of the $17.25 million fund, meaning the fund is divided among everyone who files, so your payment depends on how many other people filed a valid claim by the July 27, 2026 deadline, which has now passed.

What proof do I need to file a claim?

The official Claim Form itself, confirming you were a class member who logged into Naviance during the covered window, is the core requirement; the settlement does not publicly describe separate documentation tiers the way some breach settlements do. Check the official FAQ page for current form requirements.

What is the deadline, and should I wait for the August 19 hearing to file?

Both dates have passed. The claim deadline was July 27, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Central time, and the court granted final approval at the August 19, 2026 hearing. No new claims can be filed, and no payout date has been announced.

I used Naviance years ago in high school and I am an adult now. Can I still claim?

You were in the class if you logged into Naviance as a student at least once between August 18, 2021, and January 23, 2026; your current age or school status did not disqualify you. New claims can no longer be filed, though, because that window closed on July 27, 2026.

What should I do to protect my child's information beyond filing a claim?

As of September 9, 2026, a free credit freeze at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion is available to parents and guardians of children under 16 and is one of the strongest protections against a minor's identity being misused. If you suspect actual misuse, IdentityTheft.gov is the federal government's free recovery resource.