Hinsdale D86 Admits 'Erroneous' Posting Of Info

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale High School District 86 acknowledges that it mistakenly posted information to its website last week that included student identification numbers.

The information consisted of last school year's out-of-school suspensions and the types of offenses.

It was posted in the Freedom of Information Act section of the school board's agenda packet for last week's meeting.

In an interview Thursday, acting Superintendent Chris Covino said the information was up for less than an hour a couple of days before the meeting.

The district, Covino said, contacted its cyber insurance company and its law firm. He said the district was told there was no student privacy issue.

Out of an abundance of caution, he said, the district informed the suspended students' families of the issue.

A portion of student identification numbers, Covino said, are used in students' email addresses.

But he said one could not identify specific students with the partial identification numbers. For example, he said, inputting the partial identification numbers into the district's internal Google search engine yielded nothing that connected the numbers to specific students.

"The district is very careful about how it works with student information," Covino said. "We have a lot of people with jobs who handle a lot of sensitive information."

Over the last week, Covino exchanged emails with a resident who asked for the district to take steps to rectify the situation.

He acknowledged the "erroneous" posting and asked the resident to delete any copies of the document she may have made. In response to a public records request, the district gave the resident a redacted copy of the document.

State and federal laws require that information about specific students be kept private.

The redacted document shows 60 out-of-school suspensions at Hinsdale South High School, with Covino noting situations where some students had more than one such suspension.

Hinsdale Central had less than 10. Under state requirements, the school redacted all of Central's information because the number was so small. A smaller number makes it easier to identify which students got the suspensions.

Friday is Covino's last day as acting superintendent. For the last couple of years, Covino has been the district's assistant superintendent for academics. Starting Saturday, he is the superintendent of La Grange School District 102.

With a day left in office, the district posted Covino's photo in the place of Superintendent Tammy Prentiss'.