Dolores parents and staff,
You may have received an email from PowerSchool with the subject: “PowerSchool Cybersecurity Incident.” Though it may appear suspicious, this is a legitimate email from PowerSchool. PowerSchool is the student database software that the Dolores School District used until May of 2024. There was a data breach on the PowerSchool servers in December of 2024. Our district was not identified in the initial round of notifications, but it now looks like some Dolores School District data was involved.
Per the PowerSchool Email: “The types of information involved in this incident included one or more of the following, which varied by person: name, contact information, date of birth, Social Security Number, limited medical alert information, and other related information. At this time, we do not have evidence that the named individual’s Social Security Number was involved. At this time, we do not have evidence that limited medical alert information for the named individual was involved.”
While we did stop using PowerSchool in May of 2024 for day to day operations, our student data is still in their system through August of 2025. As for the type of information reported in the breach, we do not currently have (and never have had) Social Security numbers in PowerSchool. The personal data that could have been involved are name, date of birth, addresses, and possibly limited medical alert information. Medical information in PowerSchool was limited to general health alerts (like allergies and inhalers) and did not include any detailed health data.
Everyone needs to gauge for themselves the degree of concern they have about this data breach. If you do have concerns you are able to sign up for two years of complimentary credit monitoring services, provided by PowerSchool (please follow the instructions in the email PowerSchool sent you). While it can be a shock to receive these emails from PowerSchool about a breach it is important to keep in mind that PowerSchool is being very cautious with their response.
Only those who have received the PowerSchool email have any cause for concern.If you deem this data breach to be serious you can sign up for the two years of free credit monitoring provided by PowerSchool. PowerSchool will continue to monitor and update you should recommendations change.
Please note that this was a security issue with a software vendor (PowerSchool) and that the Dolores School District had no direct part in this data breach, and all mitigation responsibilities are with PowerSchool.