Spring ISD has been informing the parents of about 8,000 students of an incident that occurred in the evening on Wednesday, May 14 that involves the students’ personal information. The Spring ISD testing coordinator’s car was broken into while she was making a stop at a business on her way home from work that evening and a Spring ISD laptop computer and an external flash drive were stolen.

The flash drive contains the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) results of third and fifth graders who have taken the first round of reading and math tests, eighth graders who have taken the first round of math tests and 11th and 12th graders who have taken the exit level retest. In addition, the drive contains the students’ personal information, including name, social security number or state-assigned identification number, gender, name of school, grade and birthday. This also applies to students who are in those testing groups but were absent when the testing took place.

Personal phone calls were made to the parents of these students on Thursday, letters were sent home with students and the letters are being mailed to homes also in an effort to help parents quickly take steps to protect their children from identity theft.

“The district immediately contacted federal agencies to make them aware of the theft, and we are checking to see whether there is any thing else we can do on behalf of the individual students. In the meantime, we urge parents to use the information we have provided,” said Regina Curry, assistant superintendent for communications and community relations.

An information sheet has been enclosed with the letter and the following Internet addresses are included in the letter to provide information on steps parents can take if they suspect identify theft. The Internet addresses are: Identity Theft and What to do if a Victim of ID Theft.

The theft is being investigated by the Harris County Sheriff’s Department and every effort is being made to recover the equipment. The district has reported the incident to the Texas Education Agency Test Security Task Force and will comply with whatever action they require.

“This incident is highly regrettable and the district is looking at potential security precautions to protect the students’ personal information in the future,” Curry said.