$14.1M TAL Education Securities Settlement (TAL)

Current Status

Claims are open. A mailed paper claim must be postmarked by September 29, 2026; the electronic claim form on the settlement website accepts claims until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on October 8, 2026. The final approval hearing is set for October 29, 2026 at 10:00 a.m., no final approval order exists yet, and no payment date has been announced. Anyone who qualifies and has not filed should file now, with brokerage records ready.

What Changed Recently?

TAL Education Group agreed to pay $14,100,000, plus interest as it accrues, to resolve Lewandowski v. TAL Education Group, No. 2:23-cv-01769 (JRA), in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The parties signed the stipulation of settlement on February 13, 2026, and the court-authorized notice to investors is dated April 28, 2026. The claim window has been open since then.

The lawsuit alleges that TAL made false and misleading statements to investors about whether its tutoring programs complied with the Double Reduction — Chinese government rules that, among other things, barred for-profit companies from offering after-school tutoring in academic subjects. Plaintiffs allege the ADS price was artificially inflated during the class period and fell when the truth allegedly came out. TAL and the individual defendants who were dismissed earlier in the case deny all allegations of wrongdoing, fault, liability or damage, and the Court did not decide the case in either side's favor.

Who Qualifies?

The settlement class covers everyone who purchased or otherwise acquired publicly traded TAL American Depositary Shares from January 14, 2022 through March 14, 2023, both dates inclusive, and held those ADSs until at least March 14, 2023. That holding requirement is the part most likely to rule someone out: an investor who bought during the class period but sold everything on or before March 13, 2023 is not covered.

Excluded are the defendants; the officers and directors of TAL and its subsidiaries; the family members, heirs, assigns and legal representatives of any of them; entities they control; U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz and U.S. Magistrate Judge José R. Almonte, their current or former chambers staff and their family members; and anyone who submits a valid, timely request for exclusion.

A Chinese-language version of the notice and claim form is posted on the settlement website.

How Much Can You Get?

The notice estimates the settlement at about $0.09 per damaged ADS, based on the plaintiffs' estimate of 156.3 million damaged ADSs. After the attorneys' fees, expenses and plaintiff reimbursements described below — estimated at no more than about $0.031 per ADS combined — the average falls to roughly $0.059 per damaged ADS. Both figures are averages, not a per-claimant promise: each authorized claimant receives a pro rata share of the net fund based on their own Recognized Loss compared with the total Recognized Losses of everyone who files a valid claim.

Lead Counsel will ask the Court for attorneys' fees of up to one-third of the fund ($4,700,000) plus interest, litigation expenses of no more than $180,000, and reimbursement of the plaintiffs' costs tied to representing the class of no more than $8,000 in total. Notice and administration costs and any taxes on interest also come out of the fund. The Court may award less and has not ruled.

Recognized Loss for an ADS bought during the class period is calculated this way, and every branch is capped at $0.82 per ADS:

• Sold on or before March 13, 2023 — $0.00
• Sold on March 14, 2023 — the lesser of $0.82 or the purchase price minus the sale price
• Sold March 15 through June 12, 2023 — the lesser of $0.82 or the purchase price minus the running average closing price on the sale date, which the notice lists day by day
• Still held at the close of trading on June 12, 2023 — the lesser of $0.82 or the purchase price minus $6.00