Case Caption: In re PowerSchool Holdings, Inc. and PowerSchool Group, LLC Customer Security Breach Litigation.
Court: United States Southern District of California
Case Number: 3:25-md-03149
Judge: Honorable Roger Benitez
Plaintiff: Brooklyn Laboratory Charter Schools, The Academy Charter School, The Academy Charter School 2, Gateway Academy Charter School, BRICK Buffalo Academy Charter School, Our World Neighborhood Charter Schools, and Irvington Public Schools
Defendant: Bain Capital, L.P., PowerSchool Holdings, Inc., and PowerSchool Group LLC
This class action seeks relief on behalf of thousands of School Districts across the United States in connection with PowerSchool’s material uniform breach of its contracts. Specifically, when the School Districts contracted to utilize PowerSchool’s Student Information System (“SIS”)—a database which houses highly sensitive data relating to students, school teachers, and administrative matters—PowerSchool committed to securing that data with industry standard cybersecurity protocols, including multi-factor authentication and password rotation for its contractors, endpoint protection for suspicious network activity, and encryption of identifiable data in motion or use.
However, as alleged, PowerSchool failed to honor these critical and essential data protection elements of its contracts. As a result, on December 19, 2024, hackers gained access to the SIS and exfiltrated unencrypted data belonging to the School Districts. The data concerned highly sensitive personally identifiable information and protected health information, including confidential records containing full names, addresses, Social Security Numbers, medical information, disability status, criminal records, and other highly sensitive information.
Following the data breach, individuals and school districts began filing cases in judicial districts across the country. In April 2025, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered that all cases should be transferred to the Southern District of California. On May 22, 2025, the Court appointed KTMC partner Tyler Graden to serve on the Plaintiffs Steering Committee for the school district class action track.
On August 12, 2025, Plaintiffs filed their Amended Class Action Complaint, asserting claims for breach of express contract, intentional tortious interference with contract, negligence, unjust enrichment, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, violation of California’s Comprehensive Data Access and Fraud Act, and violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law seeking monetary, declarative and injunctive relief.