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Understanding & Updating Staff and Admin Custom Permissions

Dennis Han
Updated

Custom permissions allow users with permissions_admin to assign or remove up to six permissions for any individual staff member in the Connect Directory. Permissions determine what you are able to see and do while logged into the platform. This article will explain the different permissions and how to assign or remove them for individual users.

In this guide, you will learn:

✍🏼 Note: This is for users who are not Teachers with their own rostered classes. Without any additional permissions mentioned below, Teachers are able to access their Classroom Directories, create Announcements for their Classrooms, and access all the tools and features the district has turned on for Teachers in settings.

Pro tip: To alter the permissions that staff have in relation to managing students who have already been added to Connect, head to the classroom or settings page. This will affect all of the staff in the class or school. 

Understanding Permissions

Below are the permissions available in SchoolStatus Connect and how that affects a user’s access, including what they can expect to have and not have access to.

Permission Title

Access Details
Family Access Only
  • Access to the directory at your location(s)
  • Masked credentials of students and guardians
  • Only simplified information about students (grade, student ID, guardians, schools, classrooms), except within the Student Card for districts with the High Impact package
  • Access to Calling and creating Conversations
  • Access to Student Engagement Log
  • Access to visit the School(s) they are associated with
  • No checkboxes in the Directory to multi-select profiles
  • No access to visit Classrooms that you are not explicitly a staff member of
  • No➕ Button (which means no access to tools such as Announcements, Smore Newsletters, Events, etc.)

School-wide/

District-wide Comms (+ Family Access)

School-wide/District-wide Comms automatically assigns Family Access as well. It has the same access as Family Access, but also:

  • Access to visit School(s) and Classrooms, Home, and the Directory
  • Access to Announce in the Action menu in the Directory
  • Action to the ➕ Button and all its tools (Announcements, Smore Newsletters, etc.)
  • Note that Schoolwide/Districtwide Comms allows the user to send an Announcement or create an Event for the entire location at which they have this permission.
  • No ➕ People button in Directory
Permissions Admin (+ Family Access)

Permissions Admin automatically assigns Family Access as well. It will also identify you in the directory as “Admin”. It has the same access as Family Access, but also:

  • Access to updating the permissions of any staff member at the location
  • No➕ Button (which means no access to tools such as Announcements, Smore Newsletters, Events, etc.)
  • No Action or ➕ People button in Directory
  • No access to visit Classrooms that you are not explicitly a staff member of
Rostering Admin (+ Family Access)

Rostering Admin requires Family Access as well. With Rostering Admin, you have:

  • Access the directory at your location(s)
  • Full details of student information and credentials of staff, students, and guardians
  • Access to the Action and ➕ People button in the Directory
  • Access to Student Engagement Log
  • View and visit everyone’s classes, schools, and the |district within your scope
  • Access to the three-dot menu in Classrooms to allow you to create manual classrooms
  • Reset credentials in a directory profile
  • No ➕ Button (which means no access to tools such as Announcements, Smore Newsletters, Events, etc.)
Content Moderation (+ Family Access)

Content Moderation requires Family Access as well. With Content Moderation, you have the same access as Family Access, but also:

  • Access to all Reports, including Content Moderation Report
  • Access to visit the school (s) they are associated with
  • No ➕ Button (which means no access to tools such as Announcements, Smore Newsletters, Events, etc.)
  • No access to visit Classrooms that you are not explicitly a staff member of
  • No Action or ➕ People button in Directory
User Manager (+ Family Access)

User Manager requires Family Access. With User Manager, you have the same access as Family Access, but also:

  • Full access to staff, guardian, and student credentials
  • Access to visit the School(s) they are associated with
  • Ability to edit Guardian details for districts that do not sync data. For those who sync data, most of this information is managed by the sync, but you can edit the language.
  • Access to Profile Update Requests from users within your scope
  • Ability to reset credentials
  • No Action button in the Directory
  • No ➕ Button (which means no access to tools such as Announcements, Smore Newsletters, Events, etc.)
  • No access to visit Classrooms that you are not explicitly a staff member of
Engagement Visibility By itself, Engagement Visibility gives no access to the user. If they have access to the Directory through other permissions or setup, they will be able to see all communications that any staff member has had with a student and their family in the student’s Engagement Log.

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Customizing Staff Members' Custom Permissions

   Permission Title

Access Details
Permissions Admin Ability to update staff members' Custom Permissions.
School-Wide Communications Access to all Schoolwide communication features.
Rostering Administrator Can manage Schoolwide Directory; enroll new students, add staff, assign students and staff to classrooms, manage guardians, and set staff's job titles.   
Content Moderator View and manage flagged content for moderation    
Engagement Visibility

Access all engagement log entries for students that belong to you.

Note: When enabled, users can view engagement logs and details for all students within their access scope.

Note: When disabled, users can only access communications where they are a direct participant.
Users Manager Update active student, staff, and guardian accounts.
Family Access Access to Schoolwide Directories and the ability to view and contact students and families.
 

💡Note: Custom Permissions can be assigned to staff members by an Admin with Permissions Admin and Rostering Admin access.

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How to Customize a Staff Member's Custom Permissions

1. Go to the School's Directory

 

2. Search for the school staff's name and click it

 

3. Under the user's profile, click the School

 

4. Select the user's job title

5. Set their Custom Permissions

6. Click Save

To learn more about the Directory, click here. Learn more about the Engagement logs, click here.

💡 Special Notes:

  • A Permissions Admin cannot remove their own permission set.
  • With SchoolStatus Connect, a school staff member can have any combination of six available permissions. While school administrators may have all six permissions, some staff members may have none.

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How does roster synchronization set staff permissions?

If you set up roster synchronization for your school or district, some staff members may get added to your school by the sync. The permissions they get depend on their role in SIS data and whether they are already part of the school or not.

Types of staff members

Currently, the sync recognizes two types of school staff members — administrators and teachers (or non-administrators). This type is defined by the data your SIS sends to SchoolStatus Connect. For the SFTP or ClassLink sync, if the user role isadministrator, he gets all permissions except for the User Manager and Content Moderation. These two permissions can be later assigned to him manually. The same rules apply to users who are listed  Staff on Clever.

Staff members with other roles in SIS data are only given the Family Access permission.

Existing staff members

Please note that synchronization sets staff member permissions only when it connects a staff member to a school. It only happens once or doesn’t happen at all. For example, if a user did not exist on SchoolStatus Connect, or existed but was not associated with a school, when the sync adds him to the school as a teacher, he only gets the Family Access permission. If you now change permissions for this user, the subsequent sync won’t do anything to them because the user is already associated with the school.

If before you launch the sync for the first time, a user is already a school staff member with a certain set of permissions, the sync won’t change them because it doesn’t add the user to the school — he was added there before.

With the rules above, you can be sure that the permissions that you manually set for school staff members persist.

More information may be found here:

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FAQs

Q: A staff member is reporting that they do not have access to the + Button. How do I fix this?

A: Ensure that the staff member is either 1) a Teacher in a Classroom, or 2) that they have both School-wide or District-wide Comms AND Family Access permissions. Also, make sure that they have confirmed their credentials and that they are logged into the staff account, not their guardian account.

Q: I would like one of my staff to be able to reach out directly to individual families, but I do not want to give them access to sending a message to the entire school or district. How do I set them up with this access?

A: For this, you would want that staff member to have the Family Access permission. This will let them see all students and initiate Conversations with anyone in their Directory.

Q: What do staff members loaded into Connect without additional permissions have access to?

A: If they are not teachers, they will have access to:

  • Receive and review communications from their district and school,
  • See posted Activities and Library resources, 
  • Initiate Conversations with coworkers at their location (district or school(s)).

Teachers will be able to do all of the above, but they will also have access to the + button tools (Announcements, Smore Newsletters, Activities, etc.) for their Classrooms. They can also access the Student Profile of any of their rostered students, which will allow them to call, see Conversations, access the Backpack, Engagement Log, and, for some, the Student Card with additional data.

Q: Can my teachers send invitations to the guardians in their class directory? 

A: Yes, teachers may send invitations to their classroom directories. Depending on settings, they may need to select their classroom from the drop-down menu in the Directory. 

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