Parents, i-Ready Is Facing a Lawsuit — Here’s Why

If your child is enrolled in a K-8 public or charter school, there’s a good chance i-Ready is part of their everyday learning. The comprehensive online program is used by schools across the country to help improve kids’ reading and math skills, while also using diagnostic assessments to help identify student needs and make them more proficient in each.

In fact, i-Ready has become so widely used that some educators even include participation in the program as a grade.

But it appears the i-Ready program isn’t as great as it’s made out to be, at least according to one parent who has filed a lawsuit against Curriculum Associates, the company behind i-Ready. Here’s why she’s taking the company to court.

A lawsuit has been brought against Curriculum Associates, the company behind i-Ready, by Nicki Petrossi, host of the podcast Scrolling 2 Death. With the help of Andy Liddell, an attorney with the EdTech Law Center, the company is now facing a class action lawsuit that other parents can join if they believe the allegations are valid. So, why is Petrossi suing i-Ready? She shared a few concerning reasons.

In a podcast episode released on April 6, 2026, Petrossi shared details about the lawsuit, including that it “alleges that the core business model of this company is to harvest as much information as is technologically possible on our children and then monetize that data.” She continued, “We are alleging that this monetization involves sharing our kids’ personal information with dozens of other companies for a host of commercial purposes.”

The lawsuit also claims Curriculum Associates “uses student information to build highly invasive psychological profiles on children that purport to predict future student behavior and performance but are often to the students’ detriment.” While that alone is concerning, Petrossi says her biggest issue is that she did not give consent. Because of that, she argues that “Curriculum Associates’ conduct around this violates both state and federal laws.”

In a nutshell, Liddell said during the episode, “This is a privacy lawsuit,” adding, “This is a lawsuit about unjust enrichment.” That’s because he and Petrossi believe the company “is taking student information and sharing it without parent consent.”

But it goes deeper than just basic data. Liddell explained that the program can gather behavioral data based on a student’s interaction with it, like whether they rushed through assignments, and use that to make inferences and predict outcomes, such as a student’s potential growth.

While that data can be used to identify areas of weakness and help with instruction planning, Liddell also pointed to reports of some charter schools using it to identify low-performing students and push them out.

There’s also concern about data security, including the risk of breaches that could expose sensitive student information. He added that he’s even heard reports of teacher bonuses being tied to student i-Ready performance. Another issue, he noted, is that students are often required to spend a set amount of time on the program, and the more time they spend, the more data that is collected and analyzed.

Petrossi said that parents who want to join the class action lawsuit can visit edtech.law and fill out the contact form to get in touch with a legal representative. The case against Curriculum Associates is currently listed on the site as an active case and lists Dec. 22, 2025, as the date the lawsuit was first filed.