Some school districts stand to benefit from the recent state and local settlements in lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors—but actually getting those funds will take considerable time and effort.
Many district leaders and experts contend that major companies like Purdue Pharma and McKinsey, as well as retail pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens, are among the parties responsible for the opioid crisis, which has forced schools to ramp up costly special education services and overdose-prevention initiatives. Dozens of districts have signed on to class-action lawsuits against these companies and made the case for billions of dollars in compensation.
But schools face a steep uphill climb to extract substantial funds from lawsuit settlements around the devastating effects of the opioid crisis, said Sara Whaley, a research associate for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health who tracks opioid settlement funds and advocates for maximizing their impact.