On April 1st, students across the North Allegheny School District received an unusual email from the Kroll Settlement Administration. This email contained the details of a class action lawsuit.
PowerSchool, the leading gradebook and student information system in K-12 education in the U.S., is being sued by a Chicago Public Schools student who goes by the initials Q.J.
The email came as a surprise to many NA students, and while it was sent on the first of April, it was no April Fool’s joke.
“The class action lawsuit seeks to recover against defendants for their alleged roles in the alleged non-consensual interception of students’ confidential and sensitive communications,” the Kroll Settlement Administration email stated, “while using educational technology products offered by Hobsons and, later PowerSchool, including a product commonly referred to as Naviance.”
Students affected by this case must have accessed PowerSchool between August 18th, 2021 through January 23rd, 2026–a date range that is applicable to most NA students.
PowerSchool claims to not be at fault.
“PowerSchool, and the other co-defendants (Hobsons, Heap and the Chicago Board of Education) did not violate any law,” PowerSchool has stated. “This settlement was reached to avoid the uncertainties and expenses associated with continuing a case like this.”
How this could have happened to a business as successful as PowerSchool? The answer lies with 20-year-old college student Matthew Lane, who hacked into PowerSchool by finding one of the company’s contractors’ credentials online. Now Lane feels remorseful.
“I want to take accountability for everything I’ve done, for everything I ever did,” Lane said. “Not just recently, but for everything I ever did. It was disgusting. It was greedy. It was rooted in my own insecurities. It was wrong.”
Lane is currently serving a four year prison sentence for this crime.
PowerSchool has also confirmed with school districts–NA included–that no student data has been compromised.
“For clarity, this case did not involve any data security incident of the Naviance platform, nor of any other PowerSchool product,” a statement from PowerSchool reads. “No student data has been compromised.”
NASH junior Jordan Phillips was caught off guard by the Kroll Settlement email.
“I didn’t really know what the email meant when I first saw it,” she said. “I knew it must have been something detrimental, but I needed clarification on the situation.”
Philips also landed on the decision to file a claim.
“I filed a claim with the help of my parents,” Phillips said.
Senior Alaina Roth shared a similar sentiment.
“I could have never seen this coming,” she said. “but I have not decided if I want to file a claim or not.”
PowerSchool continues to emphasize the importance of the privacy of student data.
“At PowerSchool, we take our responsibility to protect our student privacy and to act responsibly as data processors to schools and districts extremely seriously,” the PowerSchool statement cited above reads. “We believe ensuring the personal information contained in student education records is protected should be the standard globally and is at the center of how we build education technology at PowerSchool.”
If you believe you are eligible to make a claim, the Kroll Settlement Administration lists the details of the lawsuit and how you can move forward in filing a claim.
