SEATTLE – A law firm working for Seattle Public Schools inadvertently released personal confidential information about roughly 8,000 special education students in the school district.

SPS officials sent letters home with all students last Thursday to alert parents to the problem and explain what they’re doing about it, King 5 reports.

According to the letter reprinted in part by the news site, “Late Tuesday night Seattle Public Schools learned that a law firm retained by the district to handle a complaint against the district inadvertently sent personally identifiable student information to an individual involved in the case. The district promptly removed the law firm from the case and is working to ensure that all improperly released records are retrieved or destroyed.

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“Protection of student privacy is of critical importance, and this inadvertent release of student information is unacceptable. Confidential information about several thousand of our students was improperly released,” the notice continued.

“They are primarily Special Education students. Seattle Public Schools is reporting the release of student information to the U.S. Department of Education and is asking for their assistance in investigating how this happened.”

Special Education PTSA member Cecilia McCormick told the news site the “very disturbing” data breach involves the names, addresses, student ID numbers, test scores, disabilities and other personal details of about 8,000 students. The receiving party – another member of the PTSA – notified the district that the documents were not redacted as they should have been, although the data hasn’t been redistributed, according to King 5.

Regardless, McCormick said the incident shouldn’t have happened in the first place, and calls into question the district’s ability to keep confidential data confidential.

“In this instance, because I know who received this information and I trust that he will do the right thing like all of us do to protect our students, I really don’t think there will be any ill effects to any families,” she said. “But still, you never know the next time.”

“In the wrong hands, this information could lead to bullying abuse, and taint people’s attitudes towards a certain student and his or her ability to learn,” McCormick said.

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According to the Seattle Times:

Sam Morley, the legal guardian of a student, alerted district officials on Tuesday that he had received, via email, documents with information about individual students, including whole special-education plans, disciplinary records, student test scores and transportation records with students’ names and home addresses.

By Morley’s count, he received confidential information about more than 8,000 students, including what appears to be the entire caseload for a special-education manager at Roosevelt High School.

Morley told the Times he was the only person who received the documents, which he hasn’t shared with anyone. He believes the law firm – Preg O’Donnell & Gillett – intended to drown him in documents as he pursued a relative’s case against the district.

Morley said the law firm first emailed him a few documents with personal information a few weeks ago and he contacted school officials but nothing happened. It wasn’t until after the firm emailed a much larger batch of files that district officials took action.

“I hope that they were just incompetent and not malicious,” he said of Preg O’Donnell & Gilbert.

District attorney Ron English emailed Morley to assure him the law firm was taken off his case. District spokeswoman Stacy Howard told the Times officials “are assessing the other work they do for us, to determine whether other cases should be transferred.”

Morley said he contacted an administrative law judge overseeing his case against the district, but does not want to voluntarily return the documents until he’s had adequate time to review the material and determine if it will help his case.