The Fort Worth Independent School District Administration building at 7060 Camp Bowie Blvd on Wednesday, April 22, 2026 in Fort Worth, Texas.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Fort Worth
A cyberattack on a widely-used classroom software impacted thousands of school districts and universities across the country on Thursday, May 7, including several in North Texas.
Canvas is an online learning management system that that is used by educators and students to access and manage course materials. A hacking group named ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the hack, according to the Associated Press.
While Canvas is back up and running as of Friday, May 8, the hack did impact North Texas schools Thursday.
Here’s what to know.
🎬 In case you missed it:
Did the Canvas hack impact Fort Worth schools?
In a message on its home page last updated at 5:11 p.m. Thursday, Tarrant County College stated that it’s aware of the cyberattack on Canvas.
For anyone looking for the latest updates, TCC’ recommends visiting this link.
“This is a nationwide event impacting thousands of educational institutions around the world. We will continue to provide updates as information becomes available,” the statement read.
A TCU spokesperson told the Star-Telegram Friday morning that the university does not use Canvas.
Texas Wesleyan University’s student newspaper The Rambler reporter late Thursday that Canvas access had been restored after hours of inaccessibility.
Fort Worth ISD advised teachers and students to shut down their computers Thursday and stay off the school’s Wi-Fi, according to the Dallas Morning News. On Friday morning, students and teachers were allowed to get back online but were told to avoid logging into Canvas.
Other North Texas schools
In a message to students Friday morning, the University of Texas at Arlington stated that Canvas found no evidence of any personal information being involved in the attack.
WFAA-TV, the Star-Telegram’s media partner, also checked with several school districts and universities in the region about the hack.
The University of North Texas relayed that it will discuss how to manage pending assignments and final exams/grade with students. SMU informed students exams would be rescheduled to Sunday, May 10, due to the outage.
Arlington ISD told teachers to use alternate methods of instructional delivery and communication until the issue is resolved. In a letter to parents, Rockwall ISD stated that it has no indication that any of the district’s data was compromised.
Cleburne ISD announced via social media that it had not heard from Canvas about any impact to the district, per WFAA-TV. Allen ISD and Northwest ISD both said that their school’s information had not been directly affected.
Keller ISD mentioned that its teachers will make necessary adjustments to students’ assignment deadlines due to the service interruption. Garland ISD said that it is uncertain of the full extent of the incident and whether any information connected to the district had been accessed.
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Brayden Garcia is a service journalism reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He is part of a team of local journalists who answer reader questions and write about life in North Texas. Brayden mainly writes about weather and all things Taylor Sheridan-related.