District 203 families could see their schools join a nationwide legal fight to recoup the money Naperville has spent on counselors, social workers and behavioral support staff because of social media's alleged toll on students.

The District 203 Board of Education voted 6-0 on Monday, Oct. 19, to approve a resolution authorizing Superintendent Dan Bridges to discuss potential legal representation with Kansas City-based trial firm Wagstaff & Cartmell, LLP, the Central Times reported.

Board member Melissa Kelley Black abstained.

If the district moves forward, students at Naperville North High School, Naperville Central High School and the district's junior high and elementary schools would all fall under the litigation.

District 203 would join multidistrict litigation (MDL 3047) targeting tech companies including Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. The suits allege that addictive platform designs have fueled a youth mental health crisis and forced schools to spend heavily on intervention services.

About 1,900 school districts nationwide and more than 100 in Illinois are already participating, Bridges told the board.

The resolution carries no upfront cost to the district, Bridges said. Any final engagement agreement with Wagstaff & Cartmell must come back to the board for review before litigation is formally filed. The board needed to authorize the discussions because the firm is not the district's regular legal counsel.

Kelley Black, the lone abstention, raised concerns about student privacy. She questioned how the district would prove damages without exposing student mental health information.

"So that means revealing information about the mental health of our students, and I'm not sure we don't have a guarantee they could subpoena medical records of our students," Kelley Black said, according to the Central Times.

Board member Amanda McMillen argued the district already has evidence of real costs. She pointed to American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds the district used to hire extra counselors, social workers and behavior support aides.

Those federal pandemic relief dollars are now gone, McMillen said, but the mental health needs remain.

Board Vice President Kristine Gericke said the district's interest extends beyond recovering costs. She described the litigation as a way to maintain the student supports the district has built, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The board's resolution cited the U.S. Surgeon General's 2023 Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health, which found that up to 95% of youth ages 13 to 17 use social media and nearly 40% of children ages 8 to 12 do the same.

Wagstaff & Cartmell represents more than 2,000 school districts across the country in the national litigation, according to the Central Times.

The engagement agreement will return to the board at a future meeting, though no specific date has been announced.