San Diego Unified School District Settlement Class Action Over Data Breach

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) has agreed to a class action settlement to resolve a lawsuit over an October 2022 data breach that potentially compromised the personal information of approximately 45,307 people.  

Don’t miss out on class action settlement news like this. Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter.

The SDUSD class action settlement received preliminary approval from the court on September 19, 2025. The deal covers all California residents to whom SDUSD mailed notification that their personal information may have been compromised by unauthorized third parties during the data breach discovered by the school district on or about October 25, 2022.

The court-approved San Diego Unified School District settlement website can be found at SDUSDDataSettlement.com.

To submit an SDUSD claim form online, class members can go to this page and enter the unique ID and PIN found on their copy of the settlement notice. Class members who prefer to submit a paper copy can download a PDF copy of the claim form to print, fill out and mail to the settlement administrator listed on the website.

San Diego Unified School District settlement claim forms must be submitted online or by mail by January 13, 2026.

Per settlement documents, class members who submit a timely, valid claim form with supporting documentation are eligible to receive a cash payment of up to $500 for out-of-pocket expenses incurred because of the data breach. Reimbursable expenses include, but are not limited to, unreimbursed bank fees, costs associated with credit monitoring services, and miscellaneous expenses such as postage or gas.

Settlement class members who submit a timely, valid claim form are also eligible to receive compensation for up to four hours of lost time spent responding to the data breach, at a rate of $20 per hour for a total of $80. Claims for lost time must be filed with a brief description of the class member’s activities. Compensation for lost time will count toward the $500 cap on documented ordinary losses, the settlement website specifies.

Additionally, settlement class members are eligible to receive up to $2,000 in reimbursement for documented extraordinary losses resulting from the data breach. Settlement class members must submit a timely, valid claim form and supporting documentation showing that:

• The loss is an actual, documented and unreimbursed monetary loss;
• The loss was more likely than not caused by the data breach;
• The loss occurred between October 25, 2022 and the claim deadline;
• The loss is not already covered by one or more of the normal reimbursement categories; and
• The claimant made reasonable efforts to avoid the loss or to seek reimbursement for the loss, including, but not limited to, exhausting all available credit monitoring and identity theft insurance.

Further, any settlement class member under the age of 18 is eligible to receive an alternative one-time cash payout of $40 upon submission of a claim form by their parent or legal guardian. To redeem this benefit, the parent or guardian of a minor settlement class member must submit a claim form and verify that their dependents were minors and that they did not file a claim for reimbursement of ordinary losses, time spent, extraordinary losses, or credit monitoring/identity protection.

Finally, settlement class members are eligible to receive one year of credit monitoring or identity theft protection services upon submission of a valid, timely claim form. In addition to one-bureau credit monitoring, this option provides up to $1,000,000 in identity theft insurance.

Per court documents, the final approval hearing for the San Diego Unified School District class action settlement will be held on February 6, 2026. Compensation will begin to be distributed to class members only after final approval is granted and any appeals are resolved.

The SDUSD class action lawsuit claimed that, on or about October 25, 2022, an unauthorized third party installed ransomware in certain files on the district’s network. According to the original complaint, the files that were compromised included considerable amounts of personal information belonging to district employees and students.

Did you know that some class action settlements require no proof to submit a claim? Check out the latest open class action settlements.