PowerSchool announced in January that personal data of students and staff were stolen in a cybersecurity breach. Last week, the company stated it began notifying individuals involved and about resources available to them.
At least five school districts in the Magic Valley were affected. Twin Falls, Jerome, Wendell, Filer and Kimberly school districts issued statements on the breach in January. PowerSchool serves more than 60 million students.
Jerome School District informed parents that data from all current and former students and staff was accessed in the breach, including names, dates of birth, email addresses and phone numbers.
PowerSchool, in collaboration with credit monitoring agency Experian, will notify affected students and teachers and provide information on the identity protection and credit monitoring services it is offering, according to an email to parents in Twin Falls School District on Jan. 21 from Public Relations Director Eva Craner.
Luke Schroeder, superintendent for Kimberly School District, said student phone numbers and email addresses were stolen and PowerSchool will provide two years of free credit checks for anyone who lost data.
SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENTS MEET
Kimberly School Superintendent Luke Schroeder tells a brief story about a student becoming a teacher Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, at the College of Southern Idaho's Taylor Building in Twin Falls.
"Pretty much anybody that ever had data in PowerSchool more than likely was impacted," Schroeder told the Times-News on Monday.
Although the breach occurred at PowerSchool, Schroeder said the district is constantly trying to implement practices to increase security, like multi-factor authorization.
"Everything we can think of to stay on top of these things so we're not allowing hackers into our system," Schroeder said. "But it really was on their end of why people were able to access PowerSchool data."
Schools can use PowerSchool to track attendance, grading, scheduling and progress monitoring.
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