NEWTON FALLS — The school district said it has been made aware of a possible security breach impacting several students’ Social Security numbers and potential tax fraud.

District administrators and the schools’ technology department actively are investigating the issue “but at this time, we have no evidence of a security breach through Newton Falls Exempted Village School District,” an announcement on social media states.

Several parents have expressed concern regarding the district’s integration of Final Forms for student registration; however, this was ruled out after receiving confirmation from Final Forms that student Social Security numbers are not stored in its system. Similarly, the school district also received confirmation from ACT that student Social Security numbers are not utilized for testing.

NEOMIN, or Northeast Ohio Management Information Network, which provides shared technology services to public schools in Trumbull County, also has reported no instances of a data breach of their network systems.

“We are continuing to thoroughly investigate this matter to help determine the source of the breach. District administration have contacted both the Newton Falls Police Department and the Internal Revenue Service to notify them of this matter. We are trying to ascertain a complete list of students who may have been impacted by this fraudulent activity,” the school district stated.

Anyone who has been contacted by the IRS within recent months regarding potential fraud with their child(ren)’s Social Security number is asked to contact Newton Falls Superintendent Justin Christopher at chris

topherj@nfschools.org or junior high / high school Principal Rachael Rankin at rankinr@nfschools.org as soon as possible.