Thomas says district remains on “high alert” for cyberattack threats

Breathe deep before reading further, PSD family.

A program used by educators to track grades and more was recently caught up in a data breach, and local and area school districts are among those impacted according to information released by the Georgia Department of Education.

Polk School District, Floyd County Schools, the Bartow County School District, Bremen City Schools and others were among dozens across the state who use the software that were caught up a data breach in software they use, Power Schools.

Superintendent Dr. Katie Thomas said that the district was aware of the December 2024 breach, but said Power Schools communicated with PSD that none of its data was compromised in the hack.

“We remain on high alert based on the increasingly high number of recent cyberattacks,” Thomas said in response to an inquiry about the hacking incident.

The Georgia Department of Education provided a report that included Polk School District among 60 across the state utilizing the software’s Student Information System, which was breached in the hack late last year. Some 50 million students information are administered with the PowerSchool product, with some district reporting issues and notifying educators and parents of the incident.

Check back for further information as needed on this story.