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Further to the letter you received on January 9, 2025, the Provincial and Demonstration Schools Branch (PDSB) is sharing additional information with our broader community regarding the recent cyber incident experienced by PowerSchool. PowerSchool is the application used by the PDSB and many school boards across North America to store a range of student information and a limited amount of school-based staff information. 

On Tuesday, January 7, 2025, PowerSchool notified PDSB and other school boards in Ontario and across North America that they had experienced a data breach between December 22 and 28, 2024. PowerSchool became aware of the incident on December 28, 2024. Upon learning of the incident, their cyber security team promptly activated their response plan, taking immediate steps to ensure that critical systems remain operational. PowerSchool confirmed that the incident is contained, and there is no evidence of malware or continued unauthorized activity in the PowerSchool environment.  PowerSchool continues to monitor its environment and has contracted with experts to monitor the dark web as well.

PDSB is working with PowerSchool to thoroughly investigate the incident and determine its full scope. While the Investigation is still ongoing, we are aware of the following information being involved:

Student Information:

• Students full name
• Date of birth
• Ontario Education Number (OEN)
• Grade 
• Parent Names and Contact information

NOTE: For a select number of students, information related to medical alerts, such as allergies, may have been accessed.

Teacher Information:

• First name, last name
• Title/Role
• PDSB e-mail address 

While PowerSchool has confirmed that the data accessed by an unauthorized user has been deleted and no copies of this data were posted online, we are continuing to assess the specific information that may have been accessed or exported from the application. 

This incident has been reported to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC).  While the IPC is already investigating this matter, you are entitled to make a complaint directly with the IPC using the online form or printable form located on the IPC website.

PowerSchool has posted Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on their website to share information, which includes steps they have taken to address this incident and protect student, family and educator information moving forward. Visit: https://www.powerschool.com/security/sis-incident/.  

PowerSchool is also offering identity protection and credit monitoring services to all students and staff who were involved in this cyber incident, regardless of the type of information involved.  PowerSchool has provided instructions for signing up for these services here. 

We will continue to update staff and the PDSB community as more information becomes available.