Alexandria City Public Schools accidentally shares private student information in newsletter

Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) accidentally shared private student information in a George Washington Middle School newsletter, though an ACPS administrator said fortunately only one person outside of ACPS clicked the link before it was corrected.

In an email to ACPS parents, ACPS Chief of Accountability and Research Clinton Page said the newsletter had information originally intended just for a limited number of staff. Specifically, the newsletter provided access to:

• student names
• student identification numbers
• English learner status and special education status
• current year attendance
• measures of academic progress

Page said home addresses and social security numbers were not included in the document.

“It is my understanding that this link was active for approximately 19 hours, and that this information was accessed by only one person outside of ACPS,” Page said. “We have been in contact with this person and they have agreed to delete the link and disregard the information.”

Page said as soon as ACPS was aware of the issue the link was immediately deactivated.

“We are taking steps to ensure that such links can only be accessed by the appropriate staff members through data security improvements and additional staff training,” Page said.

Page said there’s no reason to believe the incident poses a risk to students.

“While some of your student’s information may have been viewed, we have no reason to believe that this incident poses any risk to your student and do not believe you need to take any action,” Page said.