Through its statewide school-improvement initiatives and its regulatory functions, the department strives to ensure all citizens have access to high-quality public education.

[1] The Post-Dispatch notified DESE of the security flaw and delayed the publication of its story "to give the department time to take steps to protect teachers’ private information, and to allow the state to ensure no other agencies’ web applications contained similar vulnerabilities".

[2] In response, governor Mike Parson announced that the Missouri State Highway Patrol digital forensic unit would investigate "all of those involved", vowed to seek criminal prosecution of the "hacker" journalist who reported the story, and said his "administration is standing up against any and all perpetrators who attempt to steal personal information and harm Missourians".

[4] Parson's response was widely condemned by tech experts, who asserted that checking a web page's source code does not qualify as hacking and that prosecution would result in chilling effects that would prevent future security vulnerabilities from being reported.

Parson was also criticized by a variety of local and national politicians, including Republican lawmaker Tony Lovasco and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden.