More details emerge on AZ Board of Education student data breach

More details have emerged on a breach first noted on this site last month.

Jim Small of the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting (AZCIR) reports that the breach occurred after AZCIR filed a public records request for records of appeals filed by students over letter grades issued by the state Board of Education. On Oct. 13, he reports, the BOE provided the documents that were submitted by 73 schools.

AZCIR subsequently published those documents Oct. 16 as part of its reporting, not realizing that personally identifiable information on students had not been properly redacted by the BOE before they provided it to AZCIR.

AZCIR learned of the redaction failure on Oct. 24 when an administrator for a charter school in Tempe asked for documents related to its appeal to be removed from the AZCIR website.

Upon examination, AZCIR discovered that student names were included in appeals filings for six schools: Cesar Chavez High School, Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy, Leading Edge Academy East Mesa, New School for the Arts and Academics, Paramount Academy and Sinagua Middle School.

In addition to the names, the data included student scores on AzMERIT tests. In several cases, student birthdays were aso included.

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