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Mustang district notifies staff and families after PowerSchool vendor reports data copy; officials say no social security numbers were exposed
Summary
Superintendent Bradley told the board that PowerSchool informed the district of a breach affecting student/staff records (DOBs, phone numbers, grade levels, ethnicity, student alerts and district IDs); district will send a letter and PowerSchool says copied data was deleted and did not reach the dark web.
The Mustang School District notified staff and families after its student information system vendor, PowerSchool, reported a breach that copied district records from a third-party vendor, Superintendent Bradley said. The district will send a letter to parents and staff with details the vendor provided.
Bradley said PowerSchool notified the district last week after discovering a global incident; PowerSchool told the district the incident was discovered around Dec. 26'28, though the vendor only provided more details later. Bradley said the district does not collect student or staff Social Security numbers, and PowerSchool told the district no Social Security numbers were part of the copied data.
The district was told the copied fields included date of birth, grade levels, phone numbers, ethnicity, student alerts and district student ID numbers; Bradley said district student ID numbers are internal identifiers, not universal IDs. PowerSchool provided assurances that the copied data had been deleted and was not found on the dark web, according to Bradley. "I'm just regurgitating what they told us," Bradley said, noting the district is relaying vendor information while it waits for more detail.
Bradley said a letter with specific guidance and a PowerSchool information link would go to staff and parents that evening. He said other metro-area districts have issued similar notices, but each district is receiving the vendor's information on its own timeline. The district has not presented independent evidence that data reached public illicit sites; it reported the vendor's assertion that copied data was deleted.
District officials said they will share any additional information provided by PowerSchool and flagged the vendor-maintained site for families seeking more detail.
