Security in PowerSchool:

1
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
2
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

• http//www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/hottopics/h
  t12-17-08.html
• What is FERPA?
• How does FERPA apply to me?
• Information may not be protected under FERPA,

3
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?

4
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.

5
Access to Page Permissions

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

6
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.

7
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)

8
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

9
Common Complaints

• Submit button is missing
• "Insufficient access privileges"
• Special Education and Advisors
• I need to modify
• I cannot do my job

10
Customized Reports

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

11
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.