Step 2: Define the family and student roles

In the District view, Aspen contains default family and student roles with pre-defined privileges that cover most functions a family and student user would need. Roles also determine which views users can access. For example, the Family and Student roles usually only have access to the Family and Student views.

If you'd like to change these predefined roles to meet your district's needs, we suggest copying and editing the default roles to adjust security access before creating new roles. By copying and editing them, you'll always have the original roles saved to revert back to, if needed.

Before defining the user roles, define the District Family and Student Portal Preferences.

First, determine the areas of the system and the data the Family and Student roles can access, and then define the specific privileges (create, read, update, delete) these roles have with the data.

For example, you might define that a Family user can read student attendance information, but cannot update that information.

It is up to your district to determine what you want families to view and set up the system accordingly. Some districts choose to give families access to all or most of the child's information in the system. Some districts restrict what families can view, and allow them to access grades, but not conduct and health information.

Note: Check your school, district, state, and federal confidentiality policies before giving any user access to view another individual's information. This is particularly important when allowing Student and Family users to view a student's health, conduct and special education information.

The following table lists all information that you can allow a family to access on their child:

Note: There is set up required to give families and students access to some of this information. See Step 5 - Set Up Portal Features.

From this tab...	Families can view a student's...
Family	Demographics, address, activities, ethnicity, photo Contact names and phone numbers Daily Attendance Health office visits, immunization records, health screenings, medications list Conduct and actions taken Transcripts and course information Assessments, such as SAT and state-mandated test scores Current class schedule Membership/Enrollment history in district’s schools Records of student fees Documents such as IEPs and 504 Plans Subscriptions to e-mail notifications
Academics	current schedule grades assignments class attendance
Groups	Extracurricular activities including: list of members group events
Calendar	Monthly calendar with events and assignments due in the student's classes. You can customize the calendar by choosing the categories you want listed and color-code each child’s activities to include: due date reminders for class assignments activity events school calendar

To set up user roles:

• Define the details for roles, such as the specific areas of the system that role can access and its privileges.
• Create and assign security tags to roles.
• Assign several users to a role at one time.
• Run the Role Access report to view the privileges by category and table for the role you specify.

Keep the following in mind when defining Family and Student roles:

• The Family view (portal a view in Aspen where authorized parents and students can access student data, including attendance, assignments, conduct incidents, and grades) is not school-specific since parents may have students in multiple schools. Therefore, a Family user role used to grant or restrict access to a group of users (such as teachers or nurses) to different areas and functions in Aspen does not need to be connected to a school.
• As the Aspen system administrator, you manage user accounts for contacts and family members in the same place and in the same manner you manage other user accounts.
• Students who are given access to the Student portal are only able to view their own information, not their siblings' information.
• Some districts create one user account the login ID and password needed to access Aspen for each student and the parent and student share the account. The student's account gives them access to the Student portal, but it only allows them to view information on that one student. Every student can have their own account and log in for their own information.