Chelsea Schools Continue to Monitor National Lawsuit on School Data Breach

The Chelsea School District updates the community on a nationwide lawsuit that came out of last year’s PowerSchool data breach. Although it appears at this time local schools were not impacted by the breach, Saline, Dexter, Chelsea and Milan were all utilizing this cloud-based K-12 software provider at the time of the breach.

Chelsea School District Superintendent Mike Kapolka updated the suit at the Oct. 20 school board meeting. The Sun Times News (STN) followed up with him.

Kapolka told STN the Chelsea School District is monitoring a national lawsuit against PowerSchool following a December 2024 data breach that may have exposed information on 62.4 million students and 9.5 million teachers across the country. He said the case, filed in federal court in California, alleges negligence and breach of contract.

 PowerSchool can contain student and staff data.

“At this time, the district has not been notified that any Chelsea School District data was accessed or compromised,” Kapolka said. “PowerSchool has confirmed that unauthorized access occurred within portions of its system, but has not released a list of affected schools. As a result, the full scope of the breach remains unclear.”

The district is consulting with its legal counsel to monitor developments and determine next steps, Kapolka said.

“No action is required from parents or students at this time, and the district will continue to prioritize data security, transparency, and timely communication as new information becomes available,” he said.