This is the second in a three-part series on cyber preparation and cyber resilience in Indiana schools. Can classrooms maintain essential student services if their technology systems become unavailable?
School districts’ digital systems are being targeted across the country. In last week’s report, the latest cyberattack was Oct. 4; today, that date is Oct 19, and 20, the most recent attack, and the attacks are becoming more elaborate.
Ransomware cyberattacks are targeting US schools and EdTech providers, forcing districts to shut down. Jerome School District (JSD) in Idaho reported that attackers took control of school cameras, door locks, and HVAC systems.
“Beyond infiltrating the networks and accessing student data, the attackers gained control of various internet-connected systems, forcing JSD to close Oct. 19 and 20,” KMVT11 News reported.
“When you’re talking about cameras, door locks, and our air-conditioning and heating systems and our Internet, they are really core systems to make sure that our students are safe and our faculty can do world-class lessons every day,” said Brent Johnson, superintendent of Jerome School District.
Johnson labeled the situation “delicate” when asked if the district was considering paying the ransom.
When a school’s digital system becomes unavailable, the work of educating and caring for students does not stop. This report examines whether US school systems are cyber resilient and whether schools can function without technology.
Students still need to be accounted for. Nurses may need access to critical health information. Cafeterias must continue feeding children; transportation departments must coordinate how students get home, and teachers must find ways to keep the learning moving.
The question for schools is not whether paper can replace modern technology. It is whether carefully planned, secure offline procedures can help essential services continue when digital tools are unavailable.
For Indiana schools evaluating their preparedness for cyberattacks, pen and paper may offer one practical avenue to examine.
A printed attendance roster, for example, may allow staff to record which students are present when an electronic attendance system cannot be accessed. Printed class lists and transportation information may offer a temporary reference for authorized employees. Paper assignments, books and writing materials can help teachers continue instruction without relying entirely on an online learning platform.
But these measures may be most effective when they are part of a deliberate plan. A paper roster that has not been updated may contain inaccurate information. A printed emergency contact list may be useless if it is locked away or unavailable to the people who need it. Medical information must be current, protected and accessible only to authorized staff.
The value of paper is not that it is automatically safer or more reliable than technology. It is that a properly maintained backup may provide another way to carry out essential tasks.
That principle aligns with federal cybersecurity guidance. In its January 2023 report, “Protecting Our Future: Partnering to Safeguard K-12 Organizations from Cybersecurity Threats,” the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends that K-12 organizations back up critical systems, store backups offline and test whether data can be restored. Its guidance emphasizes recovery planning and testing rather than assuming that backups will be usable during an incident. The report also acknowledges that its recommendations are only a starting point.
“These recommendations are presented with a caveat: change must come from the top down,” the report stated. “Leaders must establish and reinforce a cybersecure culture. Information technology and cybersecurity personnel cannot bear the burden alone.”
When Indiana’s Department of Education (IDOE) was asked if Indiana schools are cyber resilient, Emily Price, communications director, responded by saying, “We recommend reaching out to specific schools to learn more about their individual preparedness efforts.”
The practices that CISA recommends for safeguarding K-12 organizations from cybersecurity threats depend on leadership from the top down, and IDOE’s response indicates that individual schools are responsible for developing these practices.
Additionally, offline records and paper procedures are not the same as digital backups, and paper cannot restore a compromised network. But both raise a broader preparedness question: What alternatives are available when the usual way of working is no longer available?
The potential benefits may extend beyond emergency operations to the classroom itself. Research comparing handwritten and typed notes has examined whether the method students use to record information affects learning.
A 2024 meta-analysis published in the “Educational Psychology Review” examined 24 studies involving college students. Researchers found that taking and reviewing handwritten notes was associated with higher academic achievement, while typing allowed students to record substantially more information. The findings suggest that handwritten notetaking can have learning benefits in some circumstances, but the research focused on college students and does not establish that paper-based instruction is superior for every age group or subject.
The research also addresses a different question from cyber preparedness. Evidence about handwritten notes and academic performance cannot establish whether a paper attendance sheet will help a school recover from a cyberattack. Those are separate claims requiring separate evidence.
For school leaders, the immediate issue is operational: which functions need a backup, what form should that backup take, who is responsible for maintaining it, and how often should it be tested?
A school might examine whether staff can take attendance without logging into a student information system, whether a nurse can access essential emergency information during a network outage, and whether cafeteria and transportation teams can continue their work if digital records are temporarily unavailable.
Each department would need to determine which information is essential, how it can be accessed safely, and how records created during an outage will be reconciled with digital systems after service returns. Paper-based processes also require safeguards against unauthorized access, loss, theft and the accidental disclosure of student information.
The goal is continuity, not a return to an entirely paper-based school. But should returning to pen-and-paper be completely out of the question? If Indiana schools are data-driven entities, pen-to-paper may be the answer to the failing literacy data.
IDOE’s 2026 ILEARN results for grades 3–8 reported that 23.9% of Black students were proficient in English/language arts (ELA), compared to 48.3% of white students.
Leondra Radford Ddungu, principal of the Renaissance School in Warren Township, said that for grades 6–12, the grades under her purview; the research supports classroom lessons reverting to pen-and-paper.
“Decades of literacy research show that pen-and-paper learning supports deeper processing, better memory, and stronger comprehension than any digital alternatives,” Radford Ddungu said.
Her response is supported by Charlotte Hu’s 2024 Scientific American article, “Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning.”
Digital systems support communication, recordkeeping, instruction and coordination at a scale paper alone cannot easily match. They also create dependencies that schools need to consider when planning for disruptions. A resilient approach may account for both possibilities: technology is essential, and technology can become unavailable.
IDOE’s spring 2026 annual education technology survey reported that more than 75% of schools have a cyber incident response plan, about 85% conduct phishing simulations or planned to start them during the 2026–27 school year, and nearly all use multifactor authentication. Those figures describe important security measures. They do not, however, establish how many schools maintain paper-based contingency procedures or have tested them during a simulated outage.
Have schools conducted exercises in which staff must operate without access to their usual digital systems? Which services continued without interruption? Which depends on technology? Did the exercise reveal outdated records, missing supplies or employees who did not know where to find backup information?
The answers could help districts determine whether paper procedures are useful, where they are insufficient and what other contingency measures are needed.
A school’s preparedness may be measured by whether staff can use accurate information, follow established procedures and protect students when normal systems are disrupted.
Pen and paper are not a cybersecurity strategy on their own, but according to the research, they can be part of a broader continuity plan — one that is designed in advance, tested under realistic conditions and improved when gaps are found.
When the network goes down, the test is not whether a school can return to the past. It is whether the school can keep meeting students’ needs.
Contact Health and Environmental Reporter LaTasha Boyd Jones at tashaj@indyrecorder.com or follow her on social media @iamtashajones.
Tasha Jones is a poet, writer, researcher, and educator whose work explores language as a tool for liberation and resistance. She hosts In the Beginning: The Spoken Word Podcast, the #1 spoken word podcast on Apple and Spotify. Tasha is also the Poems & Parables Literary Journal editor and is currently writing Pyramids. Plantations. Projects. Penitentiaries. You can follow her on social media: @iamtashajones, @itbspokenwordpod, and @poemsandparables.
