On January 7th, 2025, North Adams Public Schools was notified by PowerSchool that their support portal was internationally breached and school districts’ data had been compromised. The breach took place between December 19th and December 28th, 2024, at which time it was detected by PowerSchool, and all accounts were locked down. PowerSchool is actively working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and a third-party cybersecurity firm to address the data breach. On January 8th, PowerSchool hosted a webinar alongside their investigative team to provide school districts with further details about the situation.
After an extensive internal investigation which included a review of all exported reports, North Adams Public Schools at this time has no reason to believe that our data was compromised as part of this event. We are certain that Individual Education Plan (IEP) information, student photos, and passwords were not accessed. Additionally, North Adams Public Schools does not store Social Security Numbers in PowerSchool.
North Adams Public Schools is continually monitoring this ongoing investigation. PowerSchool has informed us that they will reach out to districts individually if it is found that their data was compromised. If this happens, NAPS will notify families. PowerSchool will also continue to provide general updates as the investigation continues and will release a final report at the conclusion.
Questions about this matter can be directed to familysupports@napsk12.org.