DC Displayed Private Information on 12,000 Students with Disabilities

The accident occurred when someone in the District’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education uploaded the data to a public D.C. Council account in Dropbox, a cloud service that provides large amounts of storage space online. 

The data was posted prior to a council oversight hearing on the education department.

All affected students, who attend public and charter schools in kindergarten through 12th grade, are part of the city’s Individualized Education Program, which provides tailored education plans for special needs students. 

The information exposed included each student’s identification number, race, age, school, disabilities and any services he or she receives.

The office says one person downloaded the document from the Internet. That person was part of a community organization that has verbally agreed to delete the document, according to officials. 

This is not the first time the office has accidentally leaked sensitive student data.

Last month, D.C. Council member David Grosso (I-At Large), who chairs the education committee, introduced legislation that would, in part, require school contractors to establish security measures for protecting student data.