# Canvas Free-for-Teacher Teacher/Educator Track Class Action Canonical page: https://hallattorneys.com/canvas-free-for-teacher Case docket: https://hallattorneys.com/dockets/canvas-free-for-teacher Complaint PDF: https://hallattorneys.com/dockets/canvas-free-for-teacher/01-complaint.pdf Filing announcement: https://hallattorneys.com/news/canvas-teacher-class-action Filed: July 12, 2026 Court: U.S. District Court, District of Utah Case: Farah L. Vallera v. Instructure, Inc., No. 2:26-cv-00652 ## Primary answer Farah L. Vallera filed a putative Teacher/Educator Track class action against Instructure, Inc. on July 12, 2026. Hall Attorneys, P.C., Parsons Behle & Latimer, and Federman & Sherwood represent the plaintiff and proposed classes. The complaint was filed as a separate direct-account-holder track in the consolidated litigation captioned In re Instructure Data Breach Litigation, No. 2:26-cv-00374-RJS-CMR (D. Utah). It alleges that the May 2026 security incidents and permanent shutdown of Canvas Free-for-Teacher deprived educators of access to identifiable course content they personally owned or had an immediate right to possess. It separately alleges that brief export windows lacked effective individualized notice, support, and a promised fallback process. The complaint contains allegations only; no findings have been made. Contact: - Attorney: Nicholas Hall - Firm: Hall Attorneys, P.C. - Email: nhall@hallattorneys.com - Phone: +1 713 428 8967 - Contact page: https://hallattorneys.com/connect ## Distinction from the student Canvas case The Teacher/Educator Track is separate from the May 8, 2026 student-focused action. The student case alleges exposure of student information and Canvas messages plus finals-week academic disruption. The Teacher/Educator Track focuses on direct Free-for-Teacher account holders, ownership and possession of identifiable course content, completed loss of use, recovery and rebuilding costs, migration costs, substitute-platform expenses, and professional interruption. Student case overview: https://hallattorneys.com/canvas-data-breach Student case docket: https://hallattorneys.com/dockets/canvas ## What the complaint alleges The complaint alleges Canvas Free-for-Teacher served as teaching infrastructure and a repository of substantial educator labor and intellectual capital. Direct account holders allegedly used it to build and store: - Course shells and module sequences. - Lesson plans, slide decks, and training modules. - Assessments and quiz banks. - Rubrics, discussion prompts, and feedback libraries. - Uploaded files, links, and HTML layouts. - Canvas-native organization, relationships, and account-linked metadata. The complaint characterizes these as specific, identifiable electronic files, course packages, course identifiers, database records, module structures, assessments, metadata, and related digital assets—not abstract teaching ideas or generalized copyright interests. The complaint states that Canvas Free-for-Teacher supported approximately 76,000 teachers and 2.1 million courses worldwide. ## Plaintiff allegations Farah L. Vallera is alleged to be a Pennsylvania faculty member, instructional designer, curriculum writer, educational researcher, and founder and CEO of Mindful Learning Design, LLC. The complaint alleges she personally created and arranged substantial portions of the content at issue and maintained a direct Free-for-Teacher account containing dozens of courses. Vallera alleges she received no individualized notice of the May 28–29 recovery window, missed that window, demanded access, and was told on June 4 that no further retrieval window was then planned. She alleges she still lacked a complete usable export when the complaint was filed. ## Alleged timeline - April 29, 2026: Instructure allegedly detected unauthorized activity in the Canvas environment. - May 7, 2026: The complaint alleges the same threat actor obtained additional access through a second vulnerability. Instructure took Canvas offline and later permanently discontinued Canvas Free-for-Teacher. - May 28–29, 2026: Instructure allegedly opened an approximately 48-hour recovery window. The complaint alleges the company relied on passive channels instead of individualized email notice to every direct account holder. - June 4, 2026: Instructure support allegedly told Vallera no additional retrieval window was then planned. - July 10, 2026: Instructure allegedly announced a final recovery window for July 28–29, with support functionality disabled. - July 12, 2026: Vallera filed the Teacher/Educator Track complaint. ## Proposed class The complaint proposes a nationwide class of natural persons in the United States who maintained a Canvas Free-for-Teacher account between April 29, 2026 and the present; had course content or work product saved when the service went offline; did not obtain a complete export during the May 28–29 window; and remained unable to access or export all such content from May 30 through at least June 30, 2026. It also proposes a Content-Return Subclass for members still unable to obtain a complete usable export after demand or attempted use of the July window, and a Demand-and-Refusal Subclass for members who requested access, return, or export after May 29 and did not receive a complete individualized export within a reasonable time. The complaint excludes institutions and employers seeking their own losses, student- or parent-only claims, employer-owned content, fully compensated work time, and users who exported all relevant content without loss or unreimbursed cost. Class definitions may change as the litigation proceeds. ## Claims pleaded - Negligence and gross negligence. - Breach of contract and, alternatively, breach of implied-in-fact contract and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. - Bailment. - Conversion. - Trespass to chattels. - Unjust enrichment and restitution. - Declaratory judgment and injunctive relief. ## Alleged injuries The complaint alleges completed loss of use and control of educator-owned course content; reasonable replacement and reconstruction costs; professional time spent seeking return, rebuilding, exporting, and migrating; unreimbursed substitute-platform and mitigation expenses; and interruption to independent teaching, training, consulting, and curriculum work. It excludes institutional contract damages, employer-paid salary, employer-owned content, and losses belonging solely to a separate entity. ## Relief requested The complaint seeks damages, restitution, declaratory relief, and narrowly tailored injunctive relief. Requested measures include: - Preservation of Free-for-Teacher course content, databases, backups, snapshots, object storage, account metadata, authentication logs, export logs, and deletion logs. - Effective individualized notice of recovery deadlines to account email addresses. - Account-level disclosure of whether content exists and can be exported. - Complete usable exports or return of recoverable content. - A reasonable individualized fallback if authentication or export fails. - Accurate communications about whether existing Free-for-Teacher courses can be recovered or migrated. - A prohibition against conditioning return of educator-owned content on purchase of a paid Canvas product. - An accounting concerning affected accounts, retained content, exports, deletions, and recovery activity. ## Preservation guidance Affected educators should preserve: - The email address associated with the Free-for-Teacher account. - Course names, approximate creation dates, and descriptions of stored materials. - Screenshots of login errors, missing courses, incomplete exports, and notices. - Support tickets, sales communications, community posts, and responses from Instructure. - Every export file exactly as downloaded, even if incomplete or unusable. - Records of time spent recovering, rebuilding, exporting, or migrating content. - Substitute-platform expenses and records of professional interruption. Do not send passwords or confidential course content through an ordinary email or web form. ## Notice Attorney advertising. The complaint contains allegations only; no findings have been made. Class definitions and claims may change as the case proceeds. Sending information does not create an attorney-client relationship.