SCCPSS Alerted to PowerSchool Cybersecurity Incident

UPDATE:

On January 29, 2025, PowerSchool notified customers that Experian (on behalf of PowerSchool) will also be distributing direct email notifications to involved individuals for whom sufficient contact information is available. This email notice will include further information and details about the resources PowerSchool is offering. Additionally, PowerSchool has coordinated with Experian to set up a call center for families and staff in case they have questions about these offerings.  

 If your personal information was involved in this incident and you are interested in enrolling in credit monitoring or identity protection, please click the link below to learn how to enroll. 

 POWER SCHOOL IDENTITY PROTECTION SERVICES

 SCCPSS will continue to keep you updated as we learn more information. We thank you for your patience as we and our school district colleagues across the globe work through this situation.

ORIGINAL STORY:

We want to inform you about a recent cybersecurity incident involving PowerSchool. PowerSchool is a cloud-based software platform that provides student information systems (SIS) and other products for K-12 schools. SCCPSS and many other school districts across the country contract with PowerSchool to host our Student Information Systems (SIS).

On January 8, 2025, PowerSchool informed us of their response to a cybersecurity incident involving their main systems. It was discovered that an unauthorized party gained access to certain PowerSchool customer data belonging to students and teachers in various K-12 school districts across the nation. This data included social security numbers and addresses of both current and former students and employees going back to 2008. 

PowerSchool has stated that this incident is contained and does not anticipate that the data will be shared or made public and that there is no evidence of malware or continued unauthorized activity.

We are actively working with PowerSchool to understand the full impact on our staff, students, and parents to ensure the safety of our information. In the meantime, we recommend that you remain vigilant and monitor all personal accounts for any signs of suspicious activity. 

PowerSchool will be offering two years of complimentary identity protection services for all students and educators whose information was involved and will also be offering two years of complimentary credit monitoring services for all adult students and educators whose information was involved. 

PowerSchool has engaged Experian, a trusted credit reporting agency, to provide these services. Starting in the next few weeks, PowerSchool will coordinate with Experian to provide notice on behalf to students (or their parents/guardians if the student is under 18) and educators whose information was downloaded from the PowerSchool Student Information System.  Additional information will be provided by PowerSchool as the investigation continues.

SCCPSS will continue to keep you updated as we learn more about this incident. We thank you for your patience as we and our school district colleagues across the nation work through this situation.

Find more information from PowerSchool here.