Who should see what at school? Data security through roles and permissions

When a school moves to new software, the first excitement is usually about features: announcements, photos, messages. A question that gets far less attention but matters just as much is this: who will see this information?

A preschool's system holds children's health notes, families' contact details, payment status and private messages. Making all of this open to everyone both undermines trust and creates unnecessary risk. In this article I explain roles and permissions in plain language.

The basic principle: see what you need for your job

The golden rule of permissions is simple: every user sees the information they need to do their job, and no more. This is called the principle of "least privilege". A class teacher needs the allergy information of the children in their class; they don't need the school's entire payment records.

In Funikid, roles and permissions are based on defining specific access rights for user groups: data security is achieved by deciding who can access what for each group.

A sample role map

Every school is structured differently; treat the map below as a starting point:

• School administrator: Sees the whole school; manages users and permissions. Keep the number of administrators small.
• Class teacher: Their own class's children, parents, announcements, photos, attendance and meal tracking. They don't see other classes' information.
• Assistant teacher / trainee: The class's daily tasks (attendance, meal tracking, uploading photos); limited access to the details of children's records and to private messages.
• Accounting: Payment and fee information; not children's health notes or photos.
• Kitchen lead: The menu and special dietary needs (allergy list); nothing else.
• Parent: Only information about their own child and what is shared with their child's class.

The five most common mistakes

1. Giving everyone administrator rights: It's done "so nothing gets held up"; then when something goes wrong, nobody can tell who did it.
2. Using shared accounts: Everyone using a single account called "Teachers" erases the trail of who did what. Everyone should have their own account.
3. Leaving departed staff accounts open: When someone leaves the school, their access should be closed the same day.
4. Opening health information to a wide group: Allergy and health notes should be open only to those involved in the child's care.
5. Setting permissions once and forgetting them: Class changes, new staff and role changes mean permissions need regular review.

Permissions on the parent side

Permissions apply not only to staff but also to parents. In divorced or separated families, which parent can access which information and who is allowed to collect the child are sensitive matters. This information should be clarified at enrolment and kept up to date in the child's record.

Start-of-term checklist

• Does every staff member have their own account? Are any shared accounts left?
• Does each teacher access only their own class?
• Have the accounts of staff who left last term been closed?
• Who can access health and payment information? Is that list really made up only of people who need it?
• Are parent accounts linked to the right children?

Trust is a habit, not a feature

No software ensures data security on its own; properly set permissions and the habits that protect them do. Small rules such as not sharing passwords, not leaving devices unlocked and not passing information around as screenshots matter as much as permission settings. For privacy in photo sharing, take a look at this article too.