Pupil Path Outage Raises Concerns Over Data Security and Access

The recent outage of Skedula, a popular digital platform used by New York City schools to track student attendance and grades, has left many educators and families worried about the security and accessibility of their data. The incident has raised several troubling questions, including whether any personal identifiable information (PII) such as student and parent addresses and phone numbers was compromised.

According to reports, the app went down again after briefly being back online on Thursday night. While some schools have reportedly received a 'data capture' with information including grades, it appears that the data was not presented in a user-friendly format. This has left many teachers anxious about the loss of grades they entered into Skedula and did not backup elsewhere.

The company has been in touch with some schools to discuss 'extracting' and sending data even while the website remains down. However, this has done little to alleviate concerns over the security and accessibility of the data. The fact that the app went offline again after briefly being back online has raised further questions about the reliability of the platform.

The outage has also hindered the ability of educators and families to carry out basic classroom functions, including contacting families and providing a record of which kids shared a class with an infected classmate for COVID-19 contact tracing. This is particularly concerning given that final attendance and grades are entered in separate systems that were not affected by the outage.

Overall, the pupil path outage has raised significant concerns over data security and access, and it is essential that the company takes swift action to resolve the issue and ensure that educators and families can once again rely on the platform to carry out their duties.

Pupil path outage