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St. Louis Park Public Schools accidentally shares thousands of students' personal information

WCCO digital update: Morning of Sept. 4, 2023
WCCO digital update: Morning of Sept. 4, 2023 01:24

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. -- School officials in St. Louis Park say thousands of students' personal information was accidentally shared with other families in the district via email.

According to St. Louis Park Public Schools, the student IDs, names, addresses, parent/caregiver phone numbers, email addresses and bus pick up/drop off times for 3,753 students was accidentally included as an attachment on a district email about transportation routes.

"The matter was brought to our attention by a few parents within one hour of the message being sent," the district said in a letter to families. "We immediately contacted the technical support team for the communications platform, however, unfortunately, it was not possible to recall the email or disable the attachment. Please respect the privacy of our school community and kindly delete the email from your inbox and trash as soon as possible."

READ MORE: University of Minnesota reports possible breach of "sensitive data"

The district said it will investigate what led to the situation and work with staff and its communications platform vendor "to ensure that it does not happen again."

"We take full responsibility for sharing your student's directory information with other families," the district said. "An error like this should never happen. We understand the impact of this error goes beyond the impact on families whose information was accidently shared; it also impacts the confidence and trust all families have in our ability to keep student information safe."   

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