Dive Brief:

• More districts are facing security breaches, which has administrators and legislators scrambling to find solutions and patch up potential weaknesses.
• The legal landscape on breaches is catching up to the technological reality: Many states have passed laws specifically protecting education data against breaches, and some require schools to notify those affected if a breach occurs.
• But they’ve also forced districts to reexamine their safety practices and security and craft plans to prevent future intrusions.

Dive Insight:

Some districts have taken breaches as a chance to learn from their mistakes. For example, Provo, UT, took a breach precipitated by a phishing scheme as an opportunity to train employees on recognizing potential scams. The district also improved its data safety policies and paid for credit monitoring for employees in case their data had made it into the wrong hands.

But it’s not clear if responses are happening fast enough to prevent serious privacy leaks. "Right now, we are at a crossroads with how to deal with data breaches," Amelia Vance, the director of education data and technology for the National Association of State Boards of Education, told Education Week. “When you're dealing with data, there's always a level of danger."