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Tennessee state lawmakers next year will have access to an unprecedented pot of money earmarked for child mental health support, but it’s not yet clear where the funds will go and whether school programs will directly benefit.
Lawmakers in January will get to decide when and where to spend tens of millions of dollars from a landmark settlement with Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, after Tennessee and 46 other states sued over psychological damage caused to kids by social media addiction.
In August, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced a nearly $752 million payout from the lawsuit that will go to the Children’s Digital Protection Fund, set up by lawmakers this year to handle potential settlement funds.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” said Tennessee Rep. Gary Hicks, who sponsored the legislation to launch the protection fund. Hicks is also the director of technology at Rogersville City Schools, where he says he sees the daily impact of student mental health concerns.
The amount of money that will actually flow to the protection fund will be less than $752 million, though.
Tennessee is guaranteed a payout of nearly $517 million, slated to be spread over 10 years in annual installments of $51.7 million. The first installment payment is expected this fall.
The state is eligible for an additional $222.7 million under a contingency agreement in the settlement, in which Meta will pay more if tech competitors like Snapchat and TikTok also settle and agree to new industry-wide social media guardrails like daily usage limits and nighttime blocks for teenagers. But that money is not guaranteed.
The attorney general’s office can use some of the settlement to fund its legal costs, so Skrmetti ultimately gets to decide how much actually goes into the Children’s Digital Protection Fund. Skrmetti’s office has not responded to questions about how much that will be. Tennessee is also getting an additional $12.5 million settlement that Skrmetti will have direct control over.
Lawmakers have guardrails on how the money must be spent. But the limits are broad, spanning mental health supports and treatments for minors to law enforcement resources, in addition to social media education and research.
Hicks said some money could go to school-based programs like advanced filtering technology for schools or threat assessment programs.
“I want us to be intentional in what we’re doing. I don’t want to measure success and get caught up in how quickly we spend it,” Hicks said. “I want to be able to measure that in 10 years we’ve made a difference in how kids are harmed by technology.”
The often chaotic budget process in the Tennessee General Assembly could lead to competing priorities for the settlement money.
J.C. Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, said “every dollar should be transparent, measurable, and connected to students” in things like mental health supports, responsible technology use education, and safe after-school opportunities.
“Tennessee’s Meta settlement should not become a legislative Christmas tree filled with unrelated projects,” Bowman said. “This money exists because children were allegedly harmed. It should follow those children into their schools and communities.”
Lawmakers may also look back at a similarly focused fund as a cautionary tale for spending the Meta money. In 2021, Gov. Bill Lee earmarked $225 million for a new trust fund aimed at supporting K-12 mental health initiatives. Critics of the fund said tying the money up in investments was a mistake instead of using the money to quickly hire more counselors, social workers, psychologists, and nurses at schools.
And the state has been slow to spend the proceeds from the investment, waiting until fiscal year 2024 to begin spending $6 million annually on a school-based mental health liaison program. The state increased spending to $10 million this year, and lawmakers could choose to direct some Meta settlement money to the K-12 trust fund.
“One thing we’ve learned – I hope we’ve learned – is just creating an endowment fund is not enough,” Hicks said. “It has to have structure to how we get the money out to the schools, and out to the kiddos.”
Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.
