School of the Osage officials warn of data breach

A private company’s data breach might have led to the release of some School of the Osage student information, administrators warned parents and patrons on the district website this week.

Pearson AIMSweb, a contractor used by schools “to provide support and educational services to individual students,” told school leaders that some data stored on its servers might have been disclosed, including student names and birth dates, according to a post on the School of the Osage website. In its message the district said Pearson assured School of the Osage officials that no student grade or assessment information was affected.

“To date, we do not have any evidence that this information has been misused but we felt it important to make you aware of the situation,” the district wrote in the message posted Monday. “Pearson has been actively working with law enforcement to determine the source of the incident and to take all steps necessary to protect the student information it maintains as part of its services.”

Pearson is offering free credit monitoring through Experian for anyone affected by the breach, the district wrote.

Deputy Superintendent Laura Nelson said Pearson notified the school several weeks ago about the breach and the district sent the information to its lawyer and checked its in-house security systems.

Classes at School of the Osage began Tuesday. Nelson said the message was posted Monday because school officials knew traffic on the site would be higher than usual with school starting the next day.

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