Self-assessed
Your district team establishes its own baseline and records the current practice.
- Who leads
- District assessment team
- What supports it
- Scope, ratings and written rationale
- Where it leads
- Owned priorities and practical next steps
Georgia K-12 cybersecurity program · GLET, Georgia's CoSN chapter
Keep learning moving.
Move cyber
resilience forward.
K12 Cyber Forward, a GLET program, helps Georgia school districts benchmark against the Cybersecurity Rubric 2.0, prioritize the work and document progress—together, as Georgia's education technology community.
About the program
A shared, rubric-led path for Georgia districts.
K12 Cyber Forward is a cybersecurity improvement program for Georgia public school districts, run by GLET, Georgia's chapter of CoSN (the Consortium for School Networking). Districts assess their cybersecurity maturity with the Cybersecurity Rubric 2.0—22 categories organized under the six NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 functions, each described across five maturity levels—then plan owned improvements, keep supporting evidence and choose the level of review that fits.
Supportive, not punitive: district results are never ranked publicly, and a score is where the conversation starts.
For the leaders behind every school day
A common view.
A useful next step.
Cyber resilience reaches beyond the technology office. Bring the right people into a shared plan without losing clear ownership.
CIOs · technology directors · district IT teams
Turn a broad cyber challenge into accountable work.
Establish the rubric baseline, identify gaps, assign practical actions and bring the supporting evidence into one district workspace.
- Guided assessment with NIST CSF 2.0 and CIS Controls crosswalks
- Owned operational plans, tabletop exercises and policy work
- Evidence collection, human review and review requests
Superintendents · cabinet leaders · district decision makers
See the priorities. Support the people doing the work.
Bring assessment findings into an understandable improvement plan, with clear owners, practical milestones and reports your leadership team and board can use.
- A common view of district maturity and priorities
- Ownership and dates for improvement work
- Branded reports for leadership and board conversations
Business officials · human resources · finance · school operations
Connect everyday decisions to district resilience.
Coordinate account lifecycle, access reviews, vendor agreements, insurance renewal evidence and recovery work with the people responsible for each part of the school day.
- Readiness evidence for cyber insurance conversations
- Vendor data privacy agreements and renewal dates in one place
- Information about the optional, separately governed pool track
Built on the Cybersecurity Rubric 2.0
Know where you are.
Choose what comes next.
Work through 22 categories across the six NIST CSF 2.0 functions, record the rationale and connect the baseline to an improvement plan. A score starts the conversation; the follow-through makes it useful.
The six functions in plain language →The rubric's six functions (NIST CSF 2.0-aligned)Select a function
Govern: give the work direction.
Clarify accountability, policies, priorities and partner responsibilities so decisions can be followed through.
6 categories: organizational context · risk management strategy · roles, responsibilities and authorities · policy · oversight · supply chain risk management
Identify: understand the environment.
Know which systems, information and dependencies support school operations, and who is responsible for them.
3 categories: asset management · risk assessment · improvement
Protect: strengthen everyday protection.
Focus on accounts, access, staff awareness and the protective practices that reduce unnecessary exposure.
5 categories: identity management, authentication and access control · awareness and training · data security · platform security · technology infrastructure resilience
Detect: make useful signals visible.
Organize logging, monitoring and escalation so the district can recognize and investigate concerning activity.
2 categories: continuous monitoring · adverse event analysis
Respond: coordinate the people and decisions.
Agree on incident roles, communication paths and working procedures before a disruption creates pressure.
4 categories: incident management · incident analysis · incident response reporting and communication · incident mitigation
Recover: bring learning back.
Use scoped recovery exercises, observed results and lessons to improve service restoration and continuity.
2 categories: incident recovery plan execution · incident recovery communication
Function and category names follow NIST CSF 2.0.
A guided approach, from the first conversation
From participation to practical progress.
After you request participation, the program team reviews the district and contact before preparing access. From there, every district follows the same five-stage journey at its own pace.
The journey at a glance: five stages, repeated as practice matures.
- MeasureBuild an honest Cybersecurity Rubric 2.0 baseline across all 22 categories, with the reasons behind each rating.
- PrioritizePick the few areas that matter most this year and agree who leads each one.
- ImproveTurn priorities into dated actions that fit the school calendar, with practical tools and peer support.
- ProveKeep supporting evidence next to the work and choose the review pathway that fits.
- SustainReturn to the baseline each year, recognize progress and set the next priorities.
The right support for the work in front of you
One rubric. Three review pathways.
Keep the district's rubric ratings and the level of review visible as separate measures.
Guided & assisted
A named facilitator helps the team examine its baseline and work through questions.
- Who leads
- District team with a facilitator
- What supports it
- Working sessions and category review
- Where it leads
- Documented findings and follow-through
Independently reviewed
A named third-party verifier reviews the stated scope and shared supporting evidence.
- Who leads
- Independent verifier
- What supports it
- Evidence, category decisions and recorded review scope
- Where it leads
- An issued, time-bounded review record
Inside the portal
A workspace your whole team will want to use.
Between assessments is where improvement happens. The private portal gives every role a clear place to pick up the work, see progress and share it.
Measure
A guided rubric baseline
Rate all 22 categories together, with guidance beside every question.
Prioritize
A 90-day plan that fits the calendar
Three to six priorities, each with a named lead and a date.
- Evidence that's ready when you need it
- Learning for every role
- Community and recognition
Why it matters for Georgia schools
Cyber incidents interrupt learning. Preparation shortens the interruption.
Georgia's public schools serve about 1.7 million students across 181 school districts. National research shows what is at stake when systems go down, and why districts are acting together.
- 3 days–3 weeksof lost learning after a cyberattack, with recovery taking two to nine months, according to district officials interviewed by the U.S. GAO.GAO-23-105480, October 2022
- 1,300+publicly reported cyber incidents at K-12 organizations accumulated from 2018 through 2021.CISA, Protecting Our Future, January 2023
- 55%of K-12 data breaches from 2016 to 2021 were carried out on schools' vendors, which is why vendor agreements matter.CISA, citing K12 SIX, 2023
- No. 1priority for education technology leaders is cybersecurity, and 51% report rising cyber insurance premiums.CoSN, U.S. State of EdTech 2026
Georgia figures: Georgia Department of Education (students) and GLET (districts served).
School-community resources
Different roles.
Shared safety habits.
Give students, families and staff a clear way to recognize concerns and ask for help.
One school community
Three ways to put safety into practice
Students
Pause before sharing.
- Keep passwords, personal details and location private.
- Ask a trusted adult when a message or request feels wrong.
Families
Make checking a habit.
- Use the school's known communication channels.
- Practice a quick pause-and-ask conversation at home.
Staff
Verify, then act.
- Confirm unexpected requests through a known channel.
- Report concerns using the district's established process.
Every audience can use the same three-step habit.
- Pause
- Verify
- Get help
Ready for school conversationsIllustrated handouts, discussion guides and presentation resources in your district's private library.
Sign in for resourcesResources
Practical guides for Georgia districts.
Frameworks · 6 min read
What is the Cybersecurity Rubric 2.0?
A plain-language guide to the self-assessment many school systems use to measure cybersecurity maturity: who publishes it, how it is built, how it fits with other frameworks, and how a Georgia district can set an honest baseline.
Frameworks · 6 min read
The Cybersecurity Rubric 2.0 and NIST CSF 2.0: how they fit
K12 Cyber Forward measures districts with the Cybersecurity Rubric 2.0, a K-12 maturity rubric organized around the six functions of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0. This guide explains how the two fit together, what each function means on an ordinary school day, and a first step a Georgia district can take this month.
Incident readiness · 6 min read
Ransomware tabletop checklist for a school day
Run your next tabletop as if the attack started at 6:40 on a Tuesday morning. This checklist follows a Georgia district from preparation through the first hour, the first day, recovery and the after-action review.
A Georgia community.
A district-first approach.
GLET connects education technology leaders with shared resources, professional learning and a statewide community of practice. K12 Cyber Forward brings that community to cybersecurity.
Before you begin
Who should request district participation?
A district technology leader or another authorized contact who can coordinate participation with district leadership.
What should we have ready?
Start with your professional contact information. Once access is prepared, your team can agree on assessment scope and gather redacted supporting evidence in the private portal.
What happens after we submit a request?
GLET reviews the district and the contact before preparing any account access. You receive a private receipt link to check the status of your request. Nothing is provisioned automatically.
Is the learning content formal rubric certification training?
No. The portal provides original practical guidance and knowledge checks. Formal rubric training and licensing follow the publisher's own programs and terms.
Begin with the people. Build on the work.
Your next step can be a shared one.
Bring your district's cyber improvement work into K12 Cyber Forward.