PowerSchool has published a Public Statement and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Cleveland City Schools’ student information system provider, PowerSchool, notified the district that an unauthorized party gained access to their system. School systems across the state, nation and world were impacted, including CCS. Information about CCS students and staff was accessed during this incident.
The incident is under investigation by PowerSchool and federal law enforcement. PowerSchool reported that steps were taken to prevent the data from further misuse and the company believes the data has been deleted. According to PowerSchool, the incident is contained and they do not anticipate the data being shared or made public. Law enforcement officials are monitoring to ensure the information has not been spread or shared.
CCS is working closely with PowerSchool to identify what information was accessed and to determine what steps will be taken by PowerSchool to support any individual whose data has been obtained. PowerSchool has confirmed that there was no action CCS or other affected school districts could have taken to prevent this incident, which happened at the company level.
PowerSchool is one of the web-based platforms that school systems are required by the Tennessee Department of Education to use in maintaining and reporting student and staff data. Protecting student and staff information is critically important, and CCS takes this issue seriously. We will keep families and staff informed as we receive more information from PowerSchool.
Thank you for your patience as we and our school district colleagues across the world work through this situation.