Unauthorized data access affects Pelham student information

Unauthorized+data+access+affects+Pelham+student+information
  • Editor’s note: This press release was provided by the Pelham School District.

Dear Parents,

The Pelham Public Schools, along with other school districts in our area, was alerted this week to unauthorized access of personally identifiable information from the AIMSweb 1.0 system provided by Pearson Clinical Assessment. AIMSweb 1.0 was an on-line system used to benchmark student data in grades K-8. The District discontinued use of this particular system three years ago. According to data provided to us by Pearson, the unauthorized access pertains to students who were in grades 3-12 during the 2018-19 school year.

The student data that was potentially affected was limited to:

First Name, Last Name, and Date of Birth

Representatives from the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center (LHRIC), through which we contract for the AIMSweb system, said that this unauthorized access occurred at Pearson, not the Pelham Public School District itself. The incident is believed to have occurred around November 2018.

As a District, we are fully committed to protecting and securing the personal and educational data of our students. Our technology team has a variety of safeguards in place and undergoes routine training to ensure that student data remains secure at the local level. We will continue to work with LHRIC and any outside vendors to ensure that the proper safeguards are in place with regard to student privacy.

Pearson has stated that they have taken the necessary steps to mitigate the incident and are enhancing protections to guard against similar events. Further, Pearson has said there is no evidence that the information described above has been misused.

Affected individuals are being offered complimentary credit monitoring by Pearson for 1-year as a precautionary measure via Experian. If you are interested in learning more about this option, please call Experian at 866-883-3309 or email [email protected]. You will need to provide Experian with the following case number: 4GCYX5C69.

Please contact John Sebalos, Director of Technology, at [email protected] with any questions you may have regarding this incident and our response.

Sincerely,

Cheryl H. Champ, Ed. D.
Superintendent of Schools