Local high school sends mass email containing private student information
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SHELLEY — A number of parents in Shelley School District 60 are concerned after a mass email was sent out that included students’ personal information.
On Tuesday, Shelley High School emailed all the parents of students who have three to five absences. The district does this every quarter so parents know if their child is missing school. But this time, the email also included personal information about all of the students on the list.
The email included directory information such as name, phone number and address, but also had each student’s class schedule and attendance record. That information is private and is supposed to be protected, Superintendent Bryan Jolley told EastIdahoNews.com.
“It does concern me because we try to protect that information as much as we can,” Jolley told EastIdahoNews.com. “The directory information — name, address, telephone number — that’s all directory information. That’s not protected unless the parents specifically requested that you not release that of their students. Anything besides that – that’s part of their educational records (and) shouldn’t go out.”
Officials believe the error originated in a software program called PowerSchool that keeps track of students. One of the program’s functions is to send an email to parents of a student who has three to five absences within the trimester. It’s unclear how many parents received the email.
Shelley High School Principal Eric Lords said leaders don’t know if it was a problem with the software or due to a human error.
“We send them out two to three times a quarter so, you know, 12 times a year typically,” Lords said. “It’s never done it before on us, so we’re not sure what happened.”
Lords said school officials tried to send an apology email shortly after the original was sent requesting parents delete the email. The follow-up message didn’t go through. They tried to send another email Wednesday morning, but that one also failed.
“We’ve been on the phone most of the day with our tech people,” he said.
Once the apology email is sent and the school figures out what happened, a correct attendance email will be sent to parents.