MONROE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Union County Public Schools was among the districts whose student and teacher data was compromised by a data breach last month.
Officials with the PowerSchool software company say on Dec. 28, 2024, they became aware of a potential cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to certain personal information through its PowerSource platform.
UCPS says PowerSchool notified them and state officials of the incident Tuesday afternoon. The information is reportedly contained, and district officials “are taking this situation very seriously.” In addition, the company confirmed that no other PowerSchool products were affected as a result of this incident.
Most North Carolina school districts use PowerSchool, including Union County, Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Gaston County.
The records stored by the system did not include social security numbers or other financial information, UCPS said. PowerSchool holds information on grades, disciplinary actions, test scores, contact information, attendance, demographic information and more.
“PowerSchool is not experiencing, nor expects to experience, any operational disruption and continues to provide services as normal to our customers,” a company spokesperson said. “As soon as we learned of the incident, we immediately engaged our cybersecurity response protocols and mobilized a cross-functional response team, including senior leadership and third-party cybersecurity experts.”
Schools districts in South Carolina also experienced compromised data.
“PowerSchool is committed to providing affected customers, families, and educators with the resources and support they may need as we work through this together,” the company said.
