Sumner County Schools saysSUMNER CO., Tenn. (WTVF) — it has restored its network following an unauthorized access incident that forced the district to delay the beginning of the school year.
Classes will begin Monday, Aug. 10, six days later than originally scheduled. The district said there will be no additional delay.
Sumner County Schools first became aware of the unauthorized access on July 20. The district notified local and federal law enforcement, the Department of Education and third-party forensic specialists.
The district said its IT team and outside experts spent the following days securing the network before restoring communications over the weekend.
The investigation is now entering its next stage: a forensic audit involving outside specialists and officials from the FBI, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security.
“This investigation and audit will take time,” the district said. “It is more important to get it right than to get it fast.”
The district has not said what information, if any, was accessed or compromised. It said additional details will be released as investigators reach concrete conclusions.
Officials said several major systems were not affected, including Skyward, school nutrition, payroll and student devices such as iPads and Chromebooks.
The district also clarified that recent Skyward outages across Tennessee were caused by the platform’s transition to a new server and were unrelated to the Sumner County incident.
New student registration nights have been rescheduled for next week. Families should check their school’s website, social media pages and other communications for specific dates and times.
A list of all registration dates can be found here.
Individual schools will provide more information about Friday, Aug. 14, along with drop-off and dismissal procedures.
Sumner County Schools is also replacing Remind with a district-approved messaging system called Sumner Chat.
