A number of schools have reported a data breach by ClassCharts this week.  ClassCharts is school management software that allows teachers to create a customisable classroom seating chart.  It can also be used to track student behaviour, reading levels and other student data.
The software can be used via the ClassCharts website or an app.  The app can be used to give awards, behaviour points and homework.  It can also allow parents to view their child's weekly timetable and detentions. In order to use their account, the parent receives their own parent code to be able to login.

Yesterday schools around the country advised parents that there was a national data breach within ClassCharts, with many of the schools shutting the app down for use by their school until further information about the breach was available.

The statement given to ClassCharts customers at the time was:

"We regret to inform you that a data breach has occurred on Class Charts; rest assured, we are actively addressing the issue, you do not need to take any actions but we will be in contact with affected users to ensure their data security." 

ClassCharts did not directly contact all customers.  Report were of parents seeing other student's data, including data from other schools.

ClassCharts advised later in the day that the issue had been resolved but currently there has been no communication about what data was breached and which data subjects were affected.  If you think you have been affected by this data breach then we advise that you report it in the normal way.

The initial reports of problems were reported in January, a recent update from the BBC indicates that some schools have reported the breach to the ICO, but ClassCharts (part of TES Global) have not commented further.  The BBC report includes screenshots of the breach experienced by some parents at Northfield School: Explicit comments on school app after apparent hack

Further information about handling data breaches can be found in our Data Breaches Best Practice Area.