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Managing Users

How district and organization administrators invite staff, grant only the access they need, manage pending invitations, and deactivate accounts without losing historical records.

What user management accomplishes

User management controls who belongs to the district workspace and what each person can see or administer. In SocialNote, professional role, administrative privilege, school access, and account status are separate settings. Review all four whenever someone joins, changes responsibilities, transfers schools, or leaves.

Who can manage users?

District admins and organization admins can open Settings → Users. Only an organization admin can grant organization-admin access.

Understand the access model

SettingWhat it controlsHow to choose
Professional roleIdentifies the user as a Social Worker, Counselor, Psychologist, or Intern.Select the person’s actual working role. A professional role is not the same as administrative access.
District adminGrants district-level settings and administrative workflows, including schools, users, referrals, and consent configuration.Enable only for staff responsible for district administration.
Organization adminGrants organization-wide administrative workflows and the ability to grant organization-admin access.Reserve for the small number of people who administer the organization across districts.
School accessAllows all district schools or limits the user to selected schools.Use selected schools when the person’s responsibilities do not span the district.
Active userDetermines whether the person is treated as active staff in SocialNote workflows and staff lists.Leave enabled for current staff; disable during offboarding while preserving history.
Use least-privilege access.

Start with standard access and the person’s assigned schools. Add district or organization administration only when the job requires it.

Invite a user

  1. Open Settings from SocialNote, then select Users.
  2. Select Invite User.
  3. Enter the person’s name and district email address.
  4. Select the appropriate professional role.
  5. Leave both admin options off unless the person is responsible for administrative settings.
  6. Choose All schools or Selected schools. When access is restricted, select at least one school.
  7. Review every field, then select Invite User.

The invitee receives an email link to create a password. The invitation remains in Pending Invitations until it is accepted, cancelled, or expires. Invitation links expire after seven days.

Confirm the email address before sending.

The email becomes the user’s sign-in identity. SocialNote will not create an invitation for an email that already belongs to a user or already has a pending invitation.

Worked example: invite a school counselor

Jordan Rivera is a counselor assigned only to Springfield High School. Jordan will document and coordinate student support but will not manage district settings.

FieldExample entryReason
NameJordan RiveraUse the name staff and students will recognize.
Emailjordan.rivera@springfield.eduUse the person’s verified work address.
Professional roleCounselorMatches Jordan’s role rather than treating “admin” as a profession.
District adminOffJordan does not configure district settings.
Organization adminOffJordan does not administer multiple districts or grant organization access.
School accessSelected schoolsJordan’s responsibilities are limited to one school.
Selected schoolSpringfield High SchoolProvides the minimum school scope required for the job.

After sending the invitation, confirm that Jordan appears in Pending Invitations with the Counselor role, standard privileges, one-school access, the correct inviter, and the expected expiration date.

Manage a pending invitation

Select an invitee in the Pending Invitations table to review the invitation’s status, role, privileges, school access, sender, and expiration.

ActionWhen to use itWhat happens
Edit InvitationCorrect a name, email, role, privilege, or school assignment before acceptance.The pending invitation is updated. Changing the email automatically sends a new invitation link.
Resend InvitationThe invitee did not receive the message or the link is near expiration.A new link is sent with a fresh seven-day expiration; the prior link no longer works.
Cancel InvitationThe invitation was sent in error or the person should no longer join.The invitation leaves the pending list and its acceptance link can no longer be used.

A district admin may resend an organization-admin invitation, but only an organization admin can edit or cancel that invitation.

Update an active user

  1. Open Settings → Users and select the user.
  2. Review the status, professional role, privileges, and assigned schools.
  3. Open Quick Actions → Edit User.
  4. Make the necessary change and select Save User.

Use this workflow when a person changes roles, gains or loses administrative responsibilities, or transfers between schools. An administrator cannot deactivate their own account or remove their own admin privileges from this form, which helps prevent accidental self-lockout.

Deactivate instead of delete

When a staff member leaves or no longer uses SocialNote, deactivate the user. SocialNote’s district user settings do not provide a delete action, and deactivation is the preferred approach because it preserves the person’s historical authorship, service records, assignments, and reporting context.

  1. Confirm the staff member and effective offboarding date.
  2. Review open cases, assigned tasks, caseload students, groups, referrals, and other active responsibilities.
  3. Transfer or close each responsibility according to district procedure. Deactivation does not reassign this work automatically.
  4. Open Settings → Users, select the staff member, and choose Edit User.
  5. Turn off Active user and select Save User.
  6. Confirm the Users table shows the account as Inactive.
  7. Complete any separate district identity-provider, SSO, or account-access offboarding steps required by your organization.
Do not delete historical support records to remove a staff name.

Those records explain what support was delivered and who documented it. Preserve them, transfer current responsibility, and use inactive status for the former staff member.

Reactivate a returning user

Inactive users remain in the district’s Users table. If a person returns, select the user, open Edit User, review their role and school access, turn on Active user, and save.

Do not send a second invitation to the same email. Reactivate the existing record so the person’s identity and historical work remain connected.

Review access regularly

District and organization administrators should review the user list on a predictable schedule and whenever staffing changes occur.