By Deb Risden
During the week of Jan. 6, El Paso County School District 49 was notified about a data breach involving PowerSchool’s cybersecurity system. PowerSchool is a global provider of a variety of education cloud-based software systems.
According to PowerSchool, their student information system is their only product impacted by the breach. It is used for scheduling, attendance, grading, calendaring, reporting, and allows access to information identifying students, parents and school staff. Colorado Springs School District 11 and Manitou Springs School District 14 were also impacted by the breach.
The breach was discovered on Dec. 28, 2024, according to a statement on PowerSchool’s website. “We became aware of a potential cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to certain PowerSchool SIS information through one of our community focused customer portals, PowerSource.”
“This is profoundly troubling news for D 49, as we place the utmost importance on protecting student data,” said David Nancarrow, D 49 director of communications. “We are diligent in ensuring that student information is handled with care and security, and we are working closely with PowerSchool to monitor and address the situation.”
In a letter sent to D 49 families, Peter Hilts, D 49 superintendent, said the breach affected student information, including name, address, lunch status, date of birth, medical information, ethnicity, gender, grade level, cumulative GPA and parent information such as email, phone number and emergency contact information.
PowerSchool has identified that Social Security numbers were accessed; however, Hilts said, “We want to reassure you that D 49 does not record or store student SSN (Social Security numbers) in our system, so there is no possibility that SSN (Social Security numbers) from our stakeholders were accessed.”
In a Jan. 13 statement from Power School, the company is working with experts on investigating the breach and providing resources to those affected by the breach, such as credit monitoring or identity protection services, if applicable.
Nancarrow said D 49 is continuing to work with PowerSchool. “District 49 is collaborating with our cybersecurity specialists and with PowerSchool to constrain the current breach and prevent future breaches while we ensure that PowerSchool provides appropriate protections and monitoring services to those affected by this event,” he said.
