Social Media Settlement Funding

Social media settlement talking points: These focus on how programs support youth mental health and well-being and why funds should support afterschool and summer. For broader messaging see fundIRL.org and the IRL partner folder of decks and sample materials. For more on strategies and asks, see other sections on this page. 

National Fact Sheets

Fund IRL Research Brief: Helping Young People Thrive In Real Life and Online; Evidence-Based Investments States Can Make Now (Sept 2026)

Afterschool Alliance Fact Sheet: Afterschool Supports Children's Well-Being and Healthy Development (2023)

State network materials

Use these to inform materials for your state; if you need help tailoring content or design, email us. 

MICHIGAN: Mental Health & Wellness Grant: This one pager proposes a dedicated Youth Mental Health & Wellness Grant using funding from the Meta settlement, including staff training, prevention programming, behavioral health partnerships, and family referral through the state's existing OST network. It frames the opportunity as "a youth mental health investment delivered through OST, not an OST funding initiative." 

NEBRASKA: Put Social Media Settlement Dollars to Work for Nebraska's Young People: This one pager offers a vision for how social media settlement funds could support real-life alternatives for young people across the state, highlighting the benefits of youth development. It also draws attention to the Fund IRL Coalition's Guiding Principles on the use of funds.

NORTH CAROLINA: Meta Settlement Policy Brief: This policy brief describes NC's framework for investing Meta settlement funds in afterschool and accessible youth mental health supports. It includes YRBS data and summarizes key strategies afterschool programs leverage to protect youth mental health, and discusses what youth in mental health crises want from their communities.

TEXAS: OST CARES: This one-pager provides details about the statewide initiative led by TXPOST to promote positive youth mental health and build an out-of-school time intermediary infrastructure. It describes the initiative's funding approach and how funds are used, identifies key mental health partners, and highlights data about how youth benefit. 

ALASKA: Children’s Well-Being: This fact sheet includes different strategies afterschool and summer programs use to protect young people’s mental health, from the basics of a safe space with caring adults to the more intensive supports of dedicated staff to address students’ mental health. It also includes data about reducing screen time and building relationships and recommendations for decisionmakers.

VERMONT: Addressing Youth Mental Health: This fact sheet presents afterschool as a statewide infrastructure with experience collaborating across sectors. Presenting data and strategies for leveraging OST programs to support youth mental health, it also provides resources for programs to collaborate with schools, mental health agencies, and pediatricians. 

OKLAHOMA: Promoting Healthy Futures:  This one-pager highlights facts about Oklahoma’s youth mental health crisis and describes OST as a fundamental setting for promoting kids’ mental and physical health. It also describes afterschool as an intervention that provides developmental supports and includes a call to action.

WISCONSIN: Supporting Youth Mental Well-Being: This fact sheet makes the case that afterschool programs help address the youth mental health crisis through caring mentors, safe spaces, and peer connection, including strong parent support and a real-world example of mental health coaching embedded directly in programs.

The Meta Settlement State Funding Tracker lists the entities with funding control by state, amounts of funding, and potential strategies. The funding control and language pulled from Exhibit C are a good place to start your strategizing; but be sure to learn what you can from the Attorney General and legislature, as actual plans could differ. 

The allocation of settlement funds will differ by state, with some states enacting legislation directing use of funds and other states utilizing Governor input or Attorney General directives. The FundIRL Guidance on the Use of Funds and graphic provide a framework for how these funds can support young people and address the harms of social media platforms, and can be used in discussions with state leaders. Below are tips and resources related to different scenarios and key influencers. 

State legislators and legislation 

Legislators may pass a bill laying out how funds will be spent. Sample language:  

• Sample legislation language for the Youth Well-Being and Digital Accountability Act Fund can be adapted by states to establish legislation that dedicates and distributes resources received from social media and related judgments to benefit youth mental health and support positive youth development.

• MARYLAND HB 1278: Maryland Positive Youth Development Commission and Fund introduced in February 2026.

• KENTUCKY HB 686: Kentucky Positive Youth Development Commission introduced in February 2026. See also the working draft of the proposed legislation.

Existing State Programs/Initiatives

Networks in states with strong existing state funding for afterschool/summer programs may encourage use of this vehicle as a cost-effective and proven means of supporting quality programs and meeting significant unmet demand. 

• Examples of existing state funding streams including spotlights 

Attorney General Discretion 

The Attorney General can make suggestions and may influence how funds are directed. 

• Lights On Afterschool Template Letter to Attorney General - Use this template letter to reach out to your state Attorney General, raise their awareness around the value of afterschool programs in supporting youth mental health and well-being, and invite them to attend a Lights On Afterschool event. 

• Talking point ideas for meetings with Attorney General 

• Example of Mississippi Attorney General plan for Meta Settlement funds including directing $6 million to the Mississippi Department of Education for “afterschool and school break learning opportunities and programming across the State of Mississippi, in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Human Services.” This plan is likely subject to legislative approval.

• Sample sign-on letter to attorney general - A template letter states can use to make the case for in-person, community-based programs and services to their attorney general. Example: School’s Out Washington Attorney General sign-on letter

• Illinois framing of ask prepared for meeting with Attorney General - Investing Social Settlement Funds in Youth Mental Health and Positive Youth Development: A Framework for Illinois

Governors' Influence 

Governors may take actions to influence or direct the use of funding.

• Michigan's governor issued a supplemental budget request calling for settlement funds to be used for  "grants to high-quality out-of-school time programs to provide opportunities for students to spend time learning, connecting, and being away from devices," called Beyond the Screen. (See pages 5-6 of the request for Beyond the Screen language.) The state legislature would need to advance the request.

The Meta case provides a timely window to place an opinion piece, and can be a good hook for a Lights On Afterschool piece (template to come). See template from Fund IRL. 

Opinion pieces and news coverage by or featuring networks: 

Alabama: ‘It is addictive’: New TikTok regulations for Alabama minors applauded by youth advocacy group, WSFA12, 9/29/2026, featuring interview with Tracye Strichik

Idaho: Helping young people thrive in real life and online: Evidence-based investments Idaho can make now, Idaho Ed News, 9/17/2026, by Anna Almerico

Georgia: Georgia's Meta settlement should go to nurturing, healing children. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/22/2026 

New Hampshire: New Hampshire has a chance to build something better for kids, New Hampshire Bulletin, 9/29/26

South Dakota: Meta settlement money should be used to build something better for kids. South Dakota Searchlight, 9/8/2026, by Billy Mawhiney.

Virginia: Use social media settlement dollars to help Virginia kids touch grass. Richmond Times Dispatch, 9/21/2026, by Denna Reed and Blaire Denson

Partner with youth/youth organizations on education campaign

• Example: Kentucky is partnering with youth organizations and programs to educate leaders and the public about social media harms and the solutions to support well-being. Efforts will include listening sessions with legislators and youth and will culiminate in joint recommendations to the state legislature. Campaign fact sheet

• Example: In Maryand, the MOST Network has created the new Maryland Fund IRL Youth Ambassadors program which will give young people the opportunity to, over seven months, build real advocacy and leadership skills and use them to lead a statewide campaign telling policymakers how settlement dollars should support youth well-being and in-real-life connection.

Organize focus groups or conduct surveys with youth and caregivers 

Focus groups and surveys can help gather data about the places and spaces that offer youth safe opportunities to engage with peers and mentors, barriers they face in their communities, and parent perceptions. 

• Example: Belonging in a Digital Age: Teens, Tech & Third Places reviews findings from a CA youth survey on social connection, loneliness, barriers to in-person interaction, and AI chatbot use as well as focus groups with parents and caregivers exploring family dynamics, safety perceptions, and the role of technology in teens’ social lives.

• Example: Student Survey: Share Your Voice on Social Media and Youth Well-Being, a survey created by the Illinois Afterschool Network to collect feedback on how social media has impacted young people's mental health, well-being, and daily experiences.

Connect young people with AGs/Legislators

Tennessee, Connecticut, New Jersey and other states have organized town halls and listening sessions bringing youth to state leaders.

Engage youth in writing postcards for policymakers

Example to come

Collect signatures with a petition

Example to come

Fund IRL Research Brief 

The September 2026 Fund IRL Coalition Research Brief Helping Young People Thrive In Real Life and Online; Evidence-Based Investments States Can Make Now looks at young people’s well-being and the need for meaningful in-person social experiences, relationships, physical activity, play and/or learning; calls on policymakers to use research evidence to guide policies and investments.

Released in partnership with Society for Research in Child Development, this brief translates the research into practical areas for policy and investment, including opportunities to strengthen supportive relationships, social connection, physical activity, play and learning.

Digital Ecosystems, Youth, and Adolescents

American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2026 Policy Statement on “Digital Ecosystems, Youth, and Adolescents” that crowding out digital media begins when we “crowd in other important activities” via extracurriculars and safe, prosocial third spaces. Ultimately, kids have no reason to leave their screens if the alternatives are underfunded.

What resources do young people use to cope with mental health crises?

To redress the harm that chronic social media use has on our young people, we must confront the reality that our youth don’t just need less screen time; they need more healthy social alternatives and places to go. In an analysis of over 87,600 anonymous crisis text line conversations, Common Good Labs found that opportunities for social connection, engagement in art, exercise, and access to outdoor spaces and nature were among the top resources young people use to cope with mental health crises.

Afterschool supports children’s wellbeing and healthy development

Afterschool Alliance's "Afterschool Supports Children’s Well-Being and Healthy Development" national factsheet presents youth mental health statistics, examples of state-level investments in afterschool and mental health, and the range of supports afterschool provides for young people’s mental wellbeing.