July 12, 2026, 5:03 a.m. ET
In 2018, an unsecured server exposed the records of about 50,000 Leon County students, parents, and teachers. Florida Virtual School later confirmed the breach reached roughly 368,000 records statewide. Most parents in Tallahassee never heard about it.That breach happened eight years ago. The law still has not caught up.Florida requires state agencies and every county and city to run a real cybersecurity program. Florida never extended that requirement to schools, public or private. The law protecting your city hall does not protect your child’s classroom.The numbers back this up. In an 18-month study covering 2023 and 2024, the Center for Internet Security found 82% of K-12 schools faced a cyber incident. In 2021, Broward County Public Schools faced a ransomware demand of $40 million. In May 2026, hackers breached Canvas, the learning platform used in thousands of schools, exposing data tied to a reported 275 million users across K-12 and university systems. Each school followed privacy rules. None ran a state-required cybersecurity program.