January 10, 2025

DPSCD Families (Students) and Staff,

Please be advised that PowerSchool, our student information system provider, experienced a cybersecurity attack and breach over Winter Break. This breach has affected school districts across the country and Canada, was not unique to our District, and could not have been prevented by the District. Fortunately, social security numbers are not stored in PowerSchool so that critical information was not compromised.

However, through our initial internal review with PowerSchool, we have confirmed that student records dating back to 2009, and staff records assigned to classes dating back to 2018 were accessed, which are typically teachers and administrators. For staff, the exposed information was limited to names, work email addresses, and employee ID numbers. Student records included basic demographic information, contact details, and certain medical alert notes where schools had entered them.

In the upcoming weeks, the District and PowerSchool will notify you directly if the data named below was compromised. PowerSchool has contained the incident and is working with cybersecurity experts and law enforcement. We will also provide everyone with a FAQ and work with PowerSchool to provide additional support to any impacted student or staff member.

Nikolai P. Vitti, EdD

Superintendent

Detroit Public Schools Community District