Friday 14 November 2014

Thousands of Students Affected By Seattle Data Breach

SEATTLE -- Seattle Public Schools released a statement apologizing to students and their families after it says its law firm released their sensitive and personal records. buy cheap dissertation writing service.

The law firm apparently sent thousands and thousands of pages of documents to a man named Sam Morley, who is involved in a dispute with the district.

Thousands of students affected by Seattle data breach
The district is apologizing to almost 8,000 students and their families after its law firm released their sensitive records. Dan Cassuto reports. KING
Morley is the legal guardian of his younger sister, a 17-year-old student at Roosevelt High School.

"I'm just trying to get services, that's it," he said. "I was trying to get some information about my sibling's education."

Morley says he requested records about his sister's special education plan when the school district's law firm responded with thousands of unrelated records.

Morley showed us some of the documents at his office in Tacoma.

They include a database of 7,403 names, presumably every special education student in Seattle.

Documents also seem to reveal specific disciplinary actions, disabilities, home addresses, schedules, bus routes, race, age, birth dates, and more.

Morley claims he contacted Seattle Public Schools the day after receiving the documents. He says the district's law firm asked him to destroy the records.

The following is an email from Seattle Public Schools along with its letter to parents:

Below is some background and updated information regarding the student information that was inadvertently released. There is also a copy of the letter we are using to respond to parents who have reached out to the district, inquiring whether their families were affected. UK Dissertation Services. We will not be doing interviews at this time, but will update you as soon as we have any additional information.

  • The district responded quickly to notify parents of the improper release of student information by an outside, contracted law firm.
  • We have no reason to believe the student information has been released to any others beyond the family member who initiated the student information request.
  • The district is working to assure the information is returned or destroyed. We will we follow up with family members of the effected students.
  • Seattle Public Schools is committed to communicating directly with those students and families directly impacted by this error.
  • We are also planning a follow-up communication to inform all district families of the resolution of this student information issue.
  • We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this incident may have caused for our students and families. While an outside law firm released the information, we recognize that the district is ultimately responsible to safeguard student information.

Seattle Public Schools letter to parents:

November 14, 2014

Thank you for your email regarding the unauthorized release of student information by an outside law firm contracted by the district. We fully appreciate and acknowledge the concern this has created for you and your family.

We realize our initial communications with families may not contain sufficient information to help alleviate your concerns and that is because we are currently in the process of confirming which students and families are impacted, what type of information was shared, and working to retrieve and destroy these information files. However, we did feel it was important to inform parents of the situation as soon as possible and for them to hear directly from us regarding this important matter.

We do want to confirm a few important facts for you:

  1. The student information that was shared by the law firm was given to a family member who is representing the student. At this time, we believe no other individuals have access to this information. We immediately requested that files be returned or destroyed.
  2. A large majority of the student information released involves special education student files.
  3. We have removed the responsible law firm from this case and have been in contact with the appropriate state and federal agencies to confirm the appropriate course of action.
Families should know that the district takes this incident very seriously and are working quickly to confirm more details in order to communicate directly with our parents and families. Families of impacted students will receive a subsequent communication, and all families will get an update on the districts response to this issue.

We appreciate your support and patience as we carefully investigate and respond to the critically important need to protect student information.

Sincerely,

Dr. Larry Nyland
Superintendent

Post Credit: King5

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