Finalsite, a school communications vendor based in Glastonbury, Connecticut, is experiencing a multi-day outage that has disrupted mass notifications for districts in several states, including Memphis-Shelby County Schools in Memphis, Tennessee. Multiple customers told families the disruption followed a “breach” or “security incident,” but Finalsite’s status updates have not described the cause as a breach, instead citing emergency maintenance and subsequent “security testing and system validation” as systems were restored.
Finalsite said the trouble began Oct. 2 with spotty text delivery. On Oct. 3 it shifted messages to backup numbers, and on Oct. 5 it took its notification systems offline for emergency maintenance. Service began coming back Oct. 6-7, but text and some voice alerts were still unreliable. On Oct. 8, the company said text delivery was still limited and some administrative features were temporarily restricted while repairs continued.
Districts in eastern North Carolina said their regular Sunday night messages did not go out and switched to alternatives such as district websites, social media and ClassDojo. Outside K-12, the Onslow County Water and Sewer Authority in North Carolina also reported a systemwide Finalsite/Blackboard Connect outage affecting its alerts.
Memphis-Shelby County Schools told families its Finalsite messaging platform went offline after what MSCS called a security breach; the district said Finalsite reassured them no MSCS data was affected and moved to a backup channel for emails and reminders. West Irondequoit Central School District in New York also told its community the vendor had informed them of a breach as it worked to fix the problem.
Finalsite provides website, notification and related tools to thousands of K-12 clients from its headquarters in Glastonbury, Connecticut. The company expanded its customer base by acquiring Anthology’s Blackboard K-12 Community Engagement division in 2022, which includes Connect and Mass Notifications. High-profile users include Los Angeles Unified School District’s districtwide Connect program and Fort Bend Independent School District near Houston, Texas.
