Security in PowerSchool: Page Permissions and Group Securities Evelyn Bragg Director of Administrative Technology Meriwether County Schools Modified by Jesse Peavy Director of Technology Bleckley County Schools

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/hottopics/ht12-17-08.html What is FERPA? How does FERPA apply to me? Information may not be protected under FERPA, http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/hottopics/ht12-17-08.html What is FERPA? is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records How does FERPA apply to me? Two types of records: Educational Records & Non-Educational Two types of Educational Records: Directory & Non- Directory Information Directory *Name; *Address; *Phone number and email address; *Dates of attendance; *Degree(s) awarded; *Enrollment status; *Major field of study. directory information can be disclosed without consent; however err on the side of caution as a student has the right to restrict the release of information Transcripts- should NEVER be faxed… cannot guarantee delivery to specified person. Non-Directory Information *Social security numbers; *Student identification number; *Race, ethnicity, and/or nationality; *Gender *Transcripts; grade reports faculty and staff can access non-directory information only if they have a legitimate academic need to do so

Security Groups Determine group level security Who, What, When, Where & How Who needs access? What information is required? When will information be accessed? Everyday or Occasional Where will information be accessed? District or School How many groups?

Create Security Groups Determine group level security How many groups are optimal? What about special education teachers? Verify that a Security Group is assigned to User 1. Select Staff on the Start Page. 2. Select a user. 3. Select the Security Settings staff page. 4. Scroll down Group, and choose a security group. 5. Submit the page.

Access to Page Permissions Navigate to System > Security > Access to Page Permissions. On the Access to Page Permissions screen, select Turn modify permissions on from the pull-down list. Click Submit.

Securing the DDA screen Navigate to the Direct Database Access. Click the Modify access privileges for this page link at the bottom of the page. Set the access level to None for any group that should not be allowed to access the DDA page. Click Submit.

Page Security: Critical Pages admin/security (main security page) admin/importexport/quickimport/quickimport1.html (Quick Import) admin/tech (general System Admin) admin/faculty/home.html (staff security page)

Pitfalls Too many groups Groups not well defined Too few groups Staff included in wrong group Too many users with the ability to change user security settings

Common Complaints Submit button is missing "Insufficient access privileges" Special Education and Advisors “I need to modify…” “I cannot do my job…”

Customized Reports http://www.powerdatasolutions.org/ http://nicktech.org/ http://www.sisresources.com PowerSchool User Groups (National/States)

Be Careful with Your Little Fingers Taken from PowerSource “Whilst I was trying to figure out security and rights to different pages, I disabled my access to our Powerschool student "start page".  Not only that, I included everyone else in my group (Admin).  Does anyone know how to go around this and allow me to restore access to this page for all of us?  At the moment, we cannot search for students, enroll etc.”