UPDATE: On January 29, 2025, PowerSchool initiated the process of notifying individuals whose information was determined to be involved. PowerSchool has engaged Experian, a trusted credit reporting agency, to provide complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services to current and former students and educators whose information was exfiltrated from PowerSchool SIS. See more information on the PowerSchool website about these complimentary services.
Dear Parent(s)/Guardian(s),
On January 7, 2025, School District 45 was notified by PowerSchool that an unauthorized third party gained access to certain PowerSchool Student Information System data. According to PowerSchool, this incident affected PowerSchool users worldwide and occurred around December 22, 2024.
PowerSchool informed us that the data taken primarily includes parent and student contact information, as well as data elements such as name and address information. Across their customer base, they have determined that for a portion of individuals, some personally identifiable information (PII), such as social security numbers (SSN) and medical information, was impacted. They are urgently working to complete their investigation and determine whether PII belonging to our students was included.
PowerSchool informed the District that they took immediate steps to address the issue, including activation of their cybersecurity response protocols and mobilization of a cross-functional response team, including PowerSchool senior leadership and third-party cybersecurity experts. PowerSchool has also informed law enforcement about the unauthorized access and taken steps to prevent the data involved from further unauthorized access or misuse. Importantly, PowerSchool informed us that they do not anticipate the data being shared or made public and that they believe it has been deleted without any further replication or dissemination.
The district remains committed to assessing any potential ramifications to its students and/or families who may be affected by the PowerSchool security incident. While the district is presently unaware of any identity theft or fraud as a result of this breach, as an additional precaution, you may also obtain information from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and consumer reporting agencies about fraud alerts and security freezes. Additional information regarding these agencies is included with this notice.
We are including information below from the FTC’s website, identitytheft.gov/databreach, about steps you can take to help protect yourself from identity theft. The steps are based on the types of information exposed in this breach. If you have any questions, please contact our District 45 IT Department at [email protected]. The district will share any significant further developments by email.
Sincerely,
Dr. Brian Graber, Superintendent
School District 45
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommends that you place a free fraud alert on your credit file. A fraud alert tells creditors to contact you before they open any new accounts or change your existing accounts. Contact any one of the three major credit bureaus. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts. The initial fraud alert stays on your credit report for one year. You can renew it after one year.
Equifax: equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services or 1-800-685-1111
Experian: experian.com/help or 1-888-397-3742
TransUnion: transunion.com/credit-help or 1-888-909-8872
Ask each credit bureau to send you a free credit report after it places a fraud alert on your file. Review your credit reports for accounts and inquiries you don’t recognize. These can be signs of identity theft. If your personal information has been misused, visit the FTC’s site at IdentityTheft.gov to report the identity theft and get recovery steps. Even if you do not find any suspicious activity on your initial credit reports, the FTC recommends that you check your credit reports periodically so you can spot problems and address them quickly.
You may also want to consider placing a free credit freeze. A credit freeze means potential creditors cannot get your credit report. That makes it less likely that an identity thief can open new accounts in your name. To place a freeze, contact each of the major credit bureaus at the links or phone numbers above. A freeze remains in place until you ask the credit bureau to lift it or remove it temporarily.