Welcome back to Extra Credit, a weekly roundup of education-related news from across Southwest and Southside Virginia. Have a story idea, tip or think there’s something I missed? Email me at meghan@cardinalnews.org. Thanks for reading! Cybersecurity incident affects schools, students across Virginia Several Virginia colleges, universities and K-12 school systems were among the victims of a cyberattack last week that left students locked out of assignments and resources. Hackers breached Instructure, the company behind Canvas, a platform used by schools across the world to manage assignments, track grades and deliver course content, Higher Ed Dive reported. The ed tech company confirmed the security incident Wednesday and even disabled access to the platform for a few hours Thursday. Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University and branches of the Virginia Community College System are among the higher ed users of Canvas in the state. Roanoke City Public Schools, which uses Canvas primarily for submitting assignments, advised staff and students to stay off the platform Friday. Alleghany Highlands Public Schools also sent out a notice about the breach Friday, but said there was “no evidence that AHPS systems were impacted.” As of Friday, the platform was up and running, and most users had regained access, but some school officials continued to warn users to be wary of suspicious activity, such as phishing attempts. Information impacted by the data breach includes messages between users, names, email addresses and student ID numbers, according to Higher Ed Dive. Instructure is continuing to investigate the incident but has not disclosed how many school systems or users were affected. Nottoway teacher is Virginia’s Teacher of the Year Madeline Duffy, a special education teacher at Nottoway High School in Nottoway County, was named this week as the 2027 Virginia Teacher of the Year. “Today, we celebrate an extraordinary educator who