In an unsettling breach of privacy, the Austin Independent School District (AISD) has confirmed the accidental dissemination of special education student records to individuals not authorized to receive them. The errant release, which impacted approximately 160 students, occurred due to a glitch in a recent system update managed by a third-party vendor, according to KVUE.
The coding mishap was detected on December 16, following a system update to the EasyIEP platform, used to manage special education reporting within AISD. The error "altered the notification settings, which sent notifications or signature requests to non-guardian contacts listed in EasyIEP," which include emergency contacts such as neighbors or grandparents, not necessarily legally entitled to access such sensitive information, as per KVUE.
EasyIEP's managing company, Public Consulting Group, received immediate notification of the error and proceeded to deactivate the inadvertently sent links. This move prevented further unauthorized access to the sensitive documents, which contained details about each student's latest special education or 504 plan, as reported by KVUE.
In a bid to restore trust and ensure future security, AISD has pledged to work more closely with the vendor. The district is also obliged to report the breach to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), as it continues to work under an improvement order related to the monitoring of special education plans.
