The Carruth Settlement Has $300,000 for About 38,374 Seattle and Federal Way School Employees — By Our Math, Enough After Requested Fees to Pay the Full $599 to About 308 People at Most. Claims Are Due December 2, 2026.

If you work or worked for Seattle Public Schools or Federal Way Public Schools, the mailed notice about the Carruth settlement is most likely meant for you. In December 2024 someone broke into the systems of Carruth Compliance Consulting, the company both districts used to run their employees’ 403(b) retirement savings plans. Three employees sued the districts in King County, and the case has now settled: the two districts will pay $300,000 in total, $150,000 each, into a fund for a class that the Settlement Agreement puts at “approximately 38,374 individuals.”

What you can ask for: reimbursement of documented out-of-pocket losses up to $5,000, and a share of what is left in the fund, capped at $599. You can ask for both. Nothing comes automatically — the notice says “The only way to receive benefits from this Settlement is by submitting a valid and timely Claim Form.” The claim deadline is December 2, 2026. Nothing is paid before the court grants final approval; the final fairness hearing is set for December 18, 2026, and payments follow only after that approval and any appeal period. The districts deny all wrongdoing, and the court has not decided who was right.

Expect a modest cash payment. The $599 figure is a ceiling. The same fund pays the lawyers (they will ask for up to $100,000), up to $15,000 in service awards to the three named plaintiffs, the administrator’s costs, and every approved out-of-pocket claim first. By our arithmetic, at most $185,000 is left before administration costs and out-of-pocket claims — enough to pay the full $599 to about 308 people. If one in ten class members filed (about 3,837 people), each cash payment would be roughly $48 before those remaining costs come out. The real number of claims will not be known until the administrator reports it to the court.

Judge Tenaya Scheinman’s August 4 order defines the class as “All individuals whose personal information was provided by Defendants to Carruth Compliance Consulting, Inc. (‘Carruth’) and was compromised in the data breach disclosed by Carruth in January 2025.” In practice that means current and former staff of the two districts. Federal Way told its employees the breach “potentially impacts all employees who have been employed by Federal Way Public Schools dating back to the late 1990's, regardless of whether they had a 403(b) account.” The complaint alleges that Seattle Public Schools has used Carruth since 2008. Directors and officers of either district, government entities, and the judge and court staff are excluded.

Carruth’s own notice of January 2025, quoted in the complaint, said the information involved “includes their name and a combination of information, including: Social Security number and financial account information. In more limited circumstances, the information could include individuals' driver's license number, W-2 information, medical billing information (but not medical records), and tax filings.” Federal Way’s page lists name, Social Security number, date of birth, home address, payroll data and 403(b) plan information. According to that notice, Carruth spotted suspicious activity on December 21, 2024, and files were accessed without authorization between December 19 and December 26, 2024.

Carruth did not work only for these two districts. Federal Way describes it as “the third-party administrator that handles 403(b) retirement savings plan for many school districts across Washington and Oregon,” and says the intrusion was “potentially compromising personal information for all current and former employees in school districts across these two states.” This settlement covers only people whose data came to Carruth from Seattle or Federal Way. Employees of other districts are not in this class, and we have not been able to confirm whether any of them have a case of their own.

The Settlement Agreement sets the order. Out-of-pocket losses come first, up to $5,000 per person. They must be backed by third-party records — receipts, bank or card statements, phone bills; the notice says handwritten or other “self-prepared” documents are, “by themselves, insufficient.” Costs must have been incurred on or after December 19, 2024 and be “fairly traceable to the Data Security Incident”: bank fees, card-replacement fees, postage, mileage, per-minute phone charges, accountant and attorneys’ fees, unreimbursed fraud losses, and credit reports or credit monitoring you paid for yourself. For monitoring, the claim form wants either a receipt for a one-year subscription or at least three consecutive monthly receipts plus a statement that you intend to keep paying.

The pro rata cash payment comes from whatever is left. The agreement says it will “evenly distribute the net amount of the Settlement Fund, after payment of all approved claims for Out-of-Pocket Losses, Notice and Administration Expenses, any Attorney’s Fee and Expenses Award, and Class Representative Service Awards,” up to $599 per person. If out-of-pocket claims and costs alone exceed the fund, “all Class Member payments will be reduced on a pro rata basis” — so even a documented $5,000 loss is not guaranteed in full. The claim form has no separate payment for lost time.

There is no credit-monitoring benefit in this settlement; the notice lists only the two cash benefits. Carruth offered free monitoring and identity restoration through IDX in early 2025 — Federal Way’s page gives the enrollment line as (877) 720-7895 — but that was Carruth’s offer, not part of this deal, and we have not checked whether enrollment is still open. Class counsel, Emery Reddy, PC of Seattle, will ask for fees of no more than $100,000, one third of the fund, plus expenses, and for $5,000 for each of the three class representatives. Money left over after all payments goes neither back to the districts — the fund is non-reversionary — nor anywhere fixed yet: the parties are to confer on its use, “including the possibility for using residual funds to be paid to the Legal Foundation of Washington.”

Claim. File online at CarruthSettlement.com, or mail the claim form to Fitch, et al. v. Seattle Public Schools, et al., c/o Settlement Administrator, 1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210, Philadelphia, PA 19103, postmarked by December 2, 2026. To show you are in the class, the form asks for either the unique identifier printed on the notice you received by mail, or your name and the physical address the January 2025 breach letter was sent to. The cash payment has its own box — tick “Yes, I elect to receive the Pro Rata Cash Payment” if you want it.

Opt out. Send a signed letter with the case name and number, your name, address, phone and email, and the words “Request for Exclusion,” to Fitch, et al. v. Seattle Public Schools, et al., ATTN: Exclusion Request, P.O. Box 58220, Philadelphia, PA 19102, postmarked by November 2, 2026. The notice is explicit: “You cannot opt out by telephone or by email.” Opting out keeps your right to sue the districts yourself and means no payment.

Object. Mail a written objection with the details the notice lists to the administrator (ATTN: Objections, same P.O. box), to class counsel at Emery Reddy, PC, and to both districts’ lawyers (Shook, Hardy & Bacon for Seattle, Baker & Hostetler for Federal Way), postmarked by November 2, 2026. You can object and still file a claim. The final fairness hearing is on December 18, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. Pacific time at the King County Courthouse, 516 3rd Ave, Seattle; the notice warns it may move without further notice.

Payment. Under the agreement, checks and electronic payments go out within 30 days after the settlement becomes final or after your claim is approved, whichever is later. Final means approval plus the end of any appeal period, so by our reading of the schedule early 2027 is the earliest realistic window. Checks are void 90 days after issue; a void check can be reissued if you ask within four months after the settlement becomes final.

Yes, if it points to CarruthSettlement.com. The site calls itself “the official Settlement Website for the Fitch, et al. v. Seattle Public Schools, et al., authorized by the Superior Court of the State of Washington, King County,” and the court’s August 4 order appoints Angeion Group, LLC as claims administrator. The notice and the site give the same contact points: toll-free 1-844-938-4308, info@CarruthSettlement.com, and the Philadelphia address above. The Settlement Agreement required a short notice by U.S. mail to every class member, starting within 30 days of preliminary approval.

Three checks help against copycats. The paper claim form asks for your name, address, phone, email and the notice’s unique identifier — it has no field for a Social Security number. The court does not answer questions about the deal: the notice says “DO NOT CONTACT THE COURT OR CLERK OF COURT REGARDING QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS SETTLEMENT.” And if a message about this case asks for passwords or a fee, do not answer it; type the settlement address into your browser yourself. The older (877) 720-7895 number is Carruth’s 2025 IDX support line, not the settlement administrator.

The first complaint was filed on February 10, 2025 in King County against Seattle Public Schools and Carruth; an amended complaint of March 20, 2025 added Federal Way Public Schools and a third plaintiff. On March 31, 2025 Carruth filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon (In re Carruth Compliance Consulting, Inc., Case No. 25-31060-dwh11). The school case was moved into bankruptcy court in Seattle on June 26, 2025; on July 28, 2025 the plaintiffs dropped their claims against Carruth and went forward against the two districts alone, alleging negligence, unjust enrichment and breach of implied contract. On December 9, 2025 U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Alston sent the case back to King County, finding that the bankruptcy court lacked jurisdiction and that “no federal bankruptcy purpose is served by retaining jurisdiction.”

The parties agreed on the terms on April 9, 2026, and Judge Scheinman granted preliminary approval on August 4. That history is the background to the size: the company whose systems were breached is in bankruptcy and not a party, and the money comes from two public school districts, $150,000 each. Spread across the class, $300,000 is under $8 per person — our arithmetic — which is why the cash payment will depend almost entirely on how many people file. If you are weighing an opt-out, read the agreement’s definition of the parties being released before November 2: besides the districts it lists their “employees, contractors, agents” and “providers,” among others.