Private Student Information Published Online

The Tewksbury Superintendent of Schools is apologizing to outraged parents after private student data was was posted online.

Tewksbury Superintendent of Schools has sent a letter to parents apologizing for the mistake, which posted private special education student information online last week. The information was part of a document included in a 222-page School Committee packet and was online for most of the week before being removed on Monday, the Tewksbury Town Crier is reporting.

The documents detail out-of-district placements for 83 students. A spreadsheet includes a list of the students with out of district placements, and includes other information including a ranking of parents as “cooperative,” “somewhat cooperative,” and “not cooperative.” The Town Crier is also reporting the amount of data released could violate state and federal laws.

In a statement to Fox 25, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said “districts are not supposed to release data from which students could be identified, and students can sometimes be identified even if there names are not included.”

Tewksbury Superintendent John O’Connor sent a letter to parents apologizing for the “inadvertent release of an internal document.”

“I cannot begin to tell you how embarrassed I am and, more importantly, how sorry I am to have caused many of you to lose trust and respect for the Tewksbury Public Schools and me personally,” according to Fox 25.