District 51 released a Weekly Superintendent Update stating “some potentially protected data involving past or current students may have been accessed during a breach of Illuminate Education’s database,” on Friday, April 22.

Illuminate Education, based in California, is the parent company of EduClimber, a data company used by District 51. Illuminate Education claims to serve 12 million students throughout the United States.

“[EduClimber] provides [the district’s] multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) and student plans (ALP, CLD and 504s),” explained Dan Burke, technical enterprise operations manager for District 51, in an e-mail.

This system includes student demographics such as names, academics and behavior, enrollment, accommodation, special education, and other personal information. 

“Illuminate Education stated that they became aware of suspicious activity on January 8… they immediately took steps to secure the affected applications and launched an investigation with external forensic specialists to determine the nature and scope of the activity,” continued Burke’s email.

Illuminate Education and Superintendent Diana Sirko state that social security numbers and financial information was not a part of the breach. 

The school district is awaiting a full report of the breach from Illuminate Education to learn more. Any students affected will be notified as soon as the breached information is made clear. 

As a precaution, the district is terminating their contract with Illumination Education. District 51 technology employees did not respond to requests to interview with the Orange and Black. 

The district asks any further questions be emailed to [email protected].