What happened?
On December 28, 2024, PowerSchool became aware that an unauthorized party gained access to its system. School districts across the state and nation that use PowerSchool, including DJJ’s school district, were impacted. PowerSchool is a cloud-based Student Information System that supports education by providing access to grades, attendance, and more. The breach involved only PowerSchool data. Information stored in other DJJ systems, such as information about family court adjudications and commitments, was not breached.
Who was impacted?
DJJ was notified on January 31, 2025 of the specific DJJ data that was breached. Personal identifying information of current and former teachers employed between August 13, 2009 to December 28, 2024, as well as current and former students enrolled between August 13, 2009 to December 28, 2024 were breached.
PowerSchool is notifying impacted individuals through the email address that was/is stored in the DJJ school district PowerSchool system. Unfortunately, there was not an email address in PowerSchool for many of the DJJ impacted individuals. If you were a teacher or student at DJJ during the above listed timeframes, your data might have been impacted, even if you don’t receive an email from PowerSchool.
What can impacted individuals do to protect their identities?
PowerSchool is offering two years of free identity protection services through Experian. If you believe your data may have been involved in this breach, please visit PowerSchool’s website for more information on the breach and directions on signing up for the free identity protection services: Notice of Data Breach For Individuals in the United States | PowerSchool
Additionally, the Identity Theft Unit of the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs has guidance on avoiding and dealing with the effects of identity theft available on their website: ID Theft | Consumer Affairs. You can also contact them directly with questions.
SC Department of Consumer Affairs Identity Theft Unit
IDTheftHelp@scconsumer.gov
(800) 922-1594 Toll Free or (803) 734-4200 in SC
Office address:
293 Greystone Blvd., Suite 400
Columbia, SC 29210
Mailing address:
Post Office Box 5757
Columbia, SC 29250-5757