Arizona’s $233 Million Meta Settlement Creates Major Opportunity — and a Need for Thoughtful, Data-Driven Investment in Youth Safety

Tucson evaluation firm points to lessons from opioid settlement funding: assess community needs, examine the evidence, and invest strategically

TUCSON, Ariz. — August 26, 2026 — A landmark multistate settlement with Meta could bring $233 million to Arizona while requiring significant new protections for children and teenagers using Facebook and Instagram. As states begin considering how settlement resources can best address harms to young people, LeCroy & Milligan Associates, a Tucson-based research and evaluation firm, says the experience of allocating opioid settlement dollars offers an important lesson: moving funding quickly matters, but so does taking the time to determine where those resources can have the greatest impact.

The settlement resolves claims that Meta designed its social-media platforms with addictive features, exposed young users to serious mental-health harms, and misled the public about the safety of its platforms. According to reporting by AZFamily, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said Arizona will receive $233 million through the settlement. Nationally, Meta has agreed to payments totaling $17 billion, along with substantial changes to Facebook and Instagram intended to protect young users.

The agreement includes measures such as daily time limits for young users, nighttime restrictions, limits on notifications during school hours, stronger age-assurance measures, enhanced parental controls, and safeguards addressing potentially harmful content and social-comparison features.

The financial resources accompanying those reforms create another important opportunity: helping states and communities determine which investments can most effectively prevent and address harms associated with young people’s social-media use.

“Arizona has an opportunity not simply to spend these dollars, but to invest them in a way that produces measurable benefits for children and families,” said Darcy McNaughton, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of LeCroy & Milligan Associates. “We learned an important lesson as opioid settlement dollars began flowing to states and communities: the strongest approach is to first understand where the needs are, listen directly to communities, examine what the research tells us about effective programs and strategies, and then use that evidence to guide investment. We should bring that same discipline to these new resources. The goal should absolutely be to move the funding forward — but to do it thoughtfully, strategically and based on data.”

LeCroy & Milligan Associates recommends that states consider a structured planning process before making large-scale funding decisions. That process could combine analysis of existing state and local data with community-based assessments involving youth, parents, educators, behavioral-health professionals, schools and community organizations. It should also include a systematic review of existing evidence-based and evidence-informed curricula, prevention programs, mental-health interventions and other approaches that may be eligible within the settlement’s allowable uses.

Such an assessment can help answer several fundamental questions: Which populations and communities are experiencing the greatest needs? What services and prevention resources already exist? Where are the most significant gaps? Which approaches have credible evidence of effectiveness? And where could settlement investments complement — rather than duplicate — programs already operating in communities?

The approach mirrors lessons emerging from the allocation of opioid settlement funding. In Arizona, the One Arizona Agreement governing opioid settlement resources recognizes evidence-based and evidence-informed strategies as well as needs identification, planning, coordination and data infrastructure among appropriate uses of settlement resources. Jurisdictions that invest in understanding local needs and available resources are better positioned to develop focused strategies rather than simply funding disconnected activities.

“Large settlements create understandable pressure to get money into communities quickly,” McNaughton said. “But speed and rigor do not have to be competing goals. A well-designed assessment can be conducted efficiently and give policymakers a defensible framework for making decisions. When hundreds of millions of dollars are involved, a relatively modest investment in understanding the problem, identifying gaps and reviewing the evidence can help ensure that the much larger investment that follows is targeted where it can do the most good.”

LeCroy & Milligan Associates has conducted community needs assessments, program evaluations, strategic planning efforts and research studies for state and local governments and community organizations throughout Arizona. Its work has included behavioral health, substance-use prevention and treatment, education, child welfare, early childhood, youth development and other health and human-service issues.

The firm’s assessment methodology combines quantitative data with the perspectives of people directly affected by an issue. Depending on the purpose of an assessment, that can include analysis of administrative and population data, surveys, interviews, focus groups, community forums, stakeholder consultation, reviews of existing programs and services, and systematic examination of research and evidence-based practices.

That combination is particularly important for an emerging issue such as youth online safety, where policymakers must consider both a rapidly developing evidence base and the lived experiences of young people, families, schools and communities.

“The settlement represents an extraordinary opportunity,” McNaughton said. “If states pair these resources with good data, meaningful community engagement and careful examination of the evidence, they can build something much more valuable than a collection of individual programs. They can develop a coordinated strategy for improving the well-being and online safety of young people for years to come.”

About LeCroy & Milligan Associates

Founded in 1991, LeCroy & Milligan Associates, Inc. is a Tucson-based consulting firm specializing in program evaluation, community needs assessment, research, strategic planning, technical assistance and training. The firm works with government agencies, nonprofit organizations and community partners at the local, state and national levels. Its work emphasizes research-driven, practical information that helps organizations document outcomes, strengthen programs and make informed decisions.

Source

AZFamily, “Meta reaches $17B settlement with Arizona, 46 states in teen social media addiction trial,” August 26, 2026.

Media Contact

Darcy McNaughton, CEO

LeCroy & Milligan Associates, Inc.

520-664-5414