South Park Families and Staff:
We are writing today to inform you that we have learned that one of our vendors, PowerSchool, experienced a recent security breach involving PowerSchool's Student Information System (SIS). On December 28, 2024, PowerSchool identified unauthorized access to certain customer data via their PowerSource support portal. This breach occurred within PowerSchool's systems, not ours, and the district was informed of this incident on January 7. This incident impacted numerous school districts, both locally and nationwide, including South Park School District.
PowerSchool has stated their breach involved compromised credentials and was quickly contained. They assured us no other products were affected and have implemented measures to secure their systems, including password resets and enhanced access controls.
As outlined in the initial correspondence from PowerSchool, they could not immediately provide district-specific information or details on the incident. PowerSchool was still identifying and processing information regarding the incident and how many individuals within each school district may have been impacted. PowerSchool does not expect the data to be shared publicly and is preparing suggested communications, including outreach emails, FAQs, and talking points. PowerSchool has also confirmed there is no evidence of malware or ongoing unauthorized activity, and services remain operational.
The safety and security of our staff and students’ personal information is of the utmost importance. We are committed to ensuring that PowerSchool takes all appropriate measures to address this incident. PowerSchool also committed to providing credit monitoring to affected adults and identity protection services to affected minors, as required by legal, regulatory, and contractual agreements, if any individual’s personally identifiable information was inappropriately accessed from within the student information system. They have indicated it may take several weeks to identify and inform those individuals. We are monitoring the situation closely and will share updates as more information becomes available.