Two Massachusetts families filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging “deceptive and fraudulent marketing” of literacy curricula by several companies in Massachusetts State Court.

“Today, three Massachusetts students and their parents will be filing a class action lawsuit that seeks to remedy an unbelievable national tragedy that is hurting kids every single day,” said Ben Elga, Executive Director of Justice Catalyst Law, representing the families. “Massachusetts, like so many other states in the country, is facing a crisis in literacy.”

The lawsuit, filed by Justice Catalyst Law and Kaplan & Grady and seeking class action status, alleges literacy curriculum companies peddled products that deceptively and harmfully excluded “meaningful phonics instruction, the one thing essential to literacy success.”

The suit seeks “substantial relief” for students harmed by the literacy curriculum, a court order requiring the companies to warn schools and families of the defects in their products and more.

Elga cited data showing less than half of all third graders in Massachusetts met expectations for the MCAS English language arts exam in 2023, saying “its time for a change.”

Phonics, the method of teaching kids to read by sounding words out, has been strongly supported by research going back to the 1960s, Elga said.

“For decades, the defendant’s curricula diminished or outright excluded this basic building block for effectively teaching kids to read,” said Elga. “Even as it’s been reported that the defendants’ literacy programs have fundamentally failed, the defendants dragged their feet to acknowledge their shortcomings.”

School districts have been charged to for updates in the curricula, even as the companies made millions, Elga said, calling the system “outrageous.”

Companies named in the suit include Lucy Calkins, the Reading and Writing Project at Mossflower; Irene Fountas; Gay Su Pinnell; Fountas and Pinnell, LLC; the Board of Trustees of Teachers College, Columbia University; Heinemann Publishing; and HMH (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) Education Co.

“I trusted that when I was sending my children off to school, they were getting the instruction that had been tested and proven effective,” said Foxborough parent Karrie Conley, one of the parties behind the lawsuit. … “The last few years have not been an easy time for my family. There have been too many tears and too many restless nights, but I am proud to be here today to do something about it.”

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Conley said the lawsuit seeks to fix the system by targeting the “people who broke the system in the first place,” rather than having taxpayers and schools foot the bill.

The case is novel, Elga said, compared to other literacy lawsuits targeting school districts.

The action may expand, he added, noting that Massachusetts is one of 10 states that have not taken legislative action on literacy curriculum.

“That leaves a lot of children behind,” said Elga.

Attorneys behind the lawsuit invited more families to share their stories and participate in the lawsuit, providing a link on the Justice Catalyst Law website to do so.