The Lawrence school district’s data within PowerSchool was not accessed in a recent breach, according to an email sent to school families Friday.
PowerSchool is the company that provides the district’s student info management system. Its hosted environment was breached on Dec. 28, and personally identifiable information about employees, students and/or families nationwide and internationally may have been affected.
“Following PowerSchool’s instructions, our technology data team performed an initial audit of our server logs to determine if our local data had been compromised,” Lawrence Interim Superintendent Jeanice Swift wrote to families. “This audit indicated that our local data was not accessed or exported as a result of the breach. A member of our team described it this way, ‘an unauthorized account knocked on our door, but could not get in.’”
Swift said the district is reassured by the strength of its network and ability to protect its own data, but “we continue to work with PowerSchool to verify our findings, learn more about this incident, and to demand assurances from PowerSchool that the company has implemented the necessary security measures to prevent anything like this in the future. We expect and rely on this platform to safeguard our data and this incident does not hold to our high level of expectations.”
Swift said the district will communicate any updates and additional details to school communities. She also shared a link to an EdWeek article with details about the breach; read that at this link.
Numerous districts in the state use PowerSchool for their data. Baldwin City schools might not have been as fortunate as USD 497.
“Our internal investigation following this notice indicates that some USD 348 student and staff data may have been accessed,” Mark Dodge, Baldwin superintendent, wrote in a message to families. “Our district is working with PowerSchool, KASB, and our cybersecurity insurance to investigate this further.”
“… Rest assured, we are doing everything we can to learn more and will notify you directly if/when we receive information about how this breach affects you/your family, your data, or your next steps,” Dodge’s message continued.
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