Inherent Access

Mosaic automatically connects staff with the data they need based on their role in the school — no manual setup required.

Inherent Access is a permission layer that grants staff members access to student and staff records based on their relationships rather than their assigned roles. When a teacher is assigned to a class, they automatically gain access to those students’ records. When a supervisor is assigned over another staff member, they can view that person’s employment data. This happens without any administrator intervention.

Inherent Access works alongside roles and individual grants. Together, these three layers determine what each user can see and do in Mosaic.

How It Works

Every staff member in Mosaic may have one or more relationships with students or other staff. These relationships are determined automatically based on data already in the system — class enrollments, homeroom assignments, support staff designations, and supervisory structure.

When a staff member logs in, Mosaic checks their relationships and grants the appropriate level of access for each one. This means:

• A teacher who is enrolled on a math class automatically gets access to those students’ profiles, attendance, and grades.
• A homeroom teacher gets slightly broader access, including the ability to view family access and locker information.
• A counselor assigned as support staff for a student can view and edit that student’s support plan.

Roles and Inherent Access Are Independent

Inherent Access and roles are separate permission layers. Even if a teacher’s role grants zero student permissions, they will still have access to their own students through Inherent Access. The two layers are merged together, and the highest access level from any source always wins.

Relationship Types

Mosaic recognizes six relationship types, divided into student relationships (access to student data) and staff relationships (access to other staff data).

Student Relationships

Relationship	How It's Determined	Typical Use
Class Teacher	Automatic — when a teacher is listed on a class that the student is enrolled in	Subject teachers, co-teachers, teaching assistants assigned to a class
Homeroom Teacher	Automatic — when a teacher is assigned as the student's homeroom teacher for the year	Primary teacher, homeroom advisor, grade-level teacher
Support Staff	Manually assigned by an administrator through the student's support staff list	Counselors, therapists, special education coordinators, learning support specialists
Division Principal	Automatic — when a staff member is designated as the principal of a division that contains the student's grade level	Division principals, area coordinators, section heads responsible for a specific set of grade levels

Staff Relationships

Relationship	How It's Determined	Typical Use
Supervisor	Automatic — based on the supervisory assignment in staff records	Principal supervising teachers, department head overseeing a team
Self	Automatic — every staff member has this relationship with their own record	Viewing your own profile, schedule, attendance, and employment information

Support Staff Must Be Manually Assigned

Class Teacher, Homeroom Teacher, Division Principal, Supervisor, and Self relationships are all computed automatically from existing school data. Support Staff is the only relationship that requires an administrator to manually add a staff member to a student’s support team.

What Access Is Granted

Each relationship type comes with a set of default access levels. These defaults are designed to give staff what they need without overexposing sensitive information.

Access Levels

Most permissions use a straightforward None / View / Edit scale, but certain permissions have specialized levels:

Level	Description
None	No access to this type of data through this relationship.
Basic	Limited identifying information only (name, grade/position, photo). Applies to Student Profile and Staff Profile.
View	Can see the data but cannot make changes.
Contributor	Can read existing entries and add new ones. Applies to journal-type permissions (Attendance Journal, Discipline Journal, Health Journal, Support Journal, Communication Journal, Admissions Journal, Academic Journal, Employment Journal, Staff Attendance Journal, Supervision).
Edit	Can see and modify the data. For non-journal permissions, this is the highest level. For Student Profile and Staff Profile, this is the highest level (level 3).

Default Access by Relationship

The tables below show what each relationship type grants by default. These are Mosaic’s recommended settings and can be customized by your school.

Class Teacher Defaults

Grants view access to most student information, with contributor access to journals and edit access to discipline and service hours.

Permission	Access Level
Student Profile	View
Student Schedule	View
Student Attendance	View
Attendance Journal	Contributor
Student Discipline	Edit
Discipline Journal	Contributor
Student Health	View
Health Journal	View
Student Support	View
Support Journal	View
Language Development	View
Student Resources	View
Communication Journal	Contributor
Student Admissions	View
Admissions Journal	View
Academic Record	View
Academic Journal	Contributor
Service Hours	Edit
Family Access	No access
Locker Assignments	No access

Homeroom Teacher Defaults

Grants the same access as a class teacher, plus view access to Family Access and Locker Assignments.

Permission	Access Level
Student Profile	View
Student Schedule	View
Family Access	View
Locker Assignments	View
Student Attendance	View
Attendance Journal	Contributor
Student Discipline	Edit
Discipline Journal	Contributor
Student Health	View
Health Journal	View
Student Support	View
Support Journal	View
Language Development	View
Student Resources	View
Communication Journal	Contributor
Student Admissions	View
Admissions Journal	View
Academic Record	View
Academic Journal	Contributor
Service Hours	Edit

Support Staff Defaults

Grants focused access to what support staff work with directly. More conservative than class or homeroom teacher access — notably excludes Family Access, Locker Assignments, Admissions, Admissions Journal, and Service Hours.

Permission	Access Level
Student Profile	View
Student Schedule	View
Student Attendance	View
Attendance Journal	View
Student Discipline	View
Discipline Journal	View
Student Health	View
Health Journal	View
Student Support	Edit
Support Journal	Contributor
Language Development	Edit
Student Resources	View
Communication Journal	Contributor
Academic Record	View
Academic Journal	View
Family Access	No access
Locker Assignments	No access
Student Admissions	No access
Admissions Journal	No access
Service Hours	No access

Division Principal Defaults

Grants broad edit access to student data within the principal’s assigned divisions — similar to school-wide admin access but scoped to students in specific grade levels.

Permission	Access Level
Student Profile	Edit
Student Schedule	Edit
Family Access	Edit
Locker Assignments	Edit
Student Attendance	Edit
Attendance Journal	Contributor
Student Discipline	Edit
Discipline Journal	Contributor
Student Health	Edit
Health Journal	Contributor
Student Support	Edit
Support Journal	Contributor
Language Development	Edit
Student Resources	Edit
Communication Journal	Contributor
Student Admissions	Edit
Admissions Journal	Contributor
Academic Record	Edit
Academic Journal	Contributor
Service Hours	Edit

Supervisor Defaults

Grants access to subordinate staff members’ professional records.

Permission	Access Level
Staff Profile	View
Sensitive Staff Info	View
Staff Schedule	View
Staff Attendance	Edit
Staff Attendance Journal	Contributor
Employment Records	View
Employment Journal	Contributor
Professional Development	Edit
Staff Supervision	Contributor
Staff Resources	View

Self Defaults

Allows staff to view their own records. This is intentionally read-only — staff can see their profile, schedule, and employment information but cannot modify it through Mosaic.

Permission	Access Level
Staff Profile	View
Sensitive Staff Info	View
Staff Schedule	View
Staff Attendance	View
Staff Health	View
Employment Records	View
Professional Development	View
Staff Resources	View

Why Can’t Staff Edit Their Own Records?

Self access is view-only by design. Changes to employment records, personal information, and other sensitive data should go through proper administrative channels. Schools that want staff to update certain fields (like contact information) can customize the Self relationship to allow it.

Customizing Inherent Access

Administrators with the appropriate permissions can customize the default access levels for each relationship type.

How to Access the Settings

Settings Dropdown (under your name, top right) → District Settings → User Access → Inherent Access

The Inherent Access settings page displays a card for each of the six relationship types. Each card shows:

• The current access levels for that relationship
• Whether the relationship is using Mosaic defaults or has been customized
• A summary of what has changed from the defaults (if customized)

Making Changes

1. Click Customize on the relationship card you want to modify.
2. In the dialog, each permission is shown with a dropdown for its access level (None, View, Edit, or Contributor depending on the permission type).
3. Permissions that match the Mosaic default are marked with (default).
4. Adjust the levels as needed for your school’s policies.
5. Click Save to apply the changes.

Changes take effect immediately for all users in your school.

Reverting to Defaults

If you’ve customized a relationship and want to go back to Mosaic’s recommended settings, click the Revert to Default option on the relationship card. This removes all customizations and restores the original access levels.

Changes Affect All Users

Customizing inherent access affects every staff member who has that relationship. For example, changing Class Teacher access will change what all class teachers can see for their students. Make sure to consider the broad impact before making changes.

How Permission Layers Work Together

When a user logs in, Mosaic combines permissions from multiple sources to determine their final access. The layers are:

1. Inherent Access — automatic, based on relationships (described on this page)
2. Role Permissions — based on the user’s assigned role (e.g., Principal, Faculty)
3. Individual Grants — one-off permissions given to specific users

At each layer, the highest access level wins. This means:

• If Inherent Access grants View and the user’s role grants Edit, the user gets Edit.
• If the user’s role grants None but Inherent Access grants View, the user still gets View.
• Permissions can only be added, never reduced. A role cannot take away access that Inherent Access provides.

Example: A Teacher with the Faculty Role

Consider a teacher assigned the Faculty role who teaches 3rd grade Math:

• The Faculty role provides general platform access (email, calendar, Help Desk) plus view access to basic student information for all students.
• Class Teacher inherent access automatically grants view access to their Math students’ profiles, attendance, health, discipline, and academic records.
• Homeroom Teacher inherent access (if they are the homeroom teacher) adds the ability to view family access and locker information.
• Division Principal inherent access (if they are also a division principal) grants broad edit access to students within their division’s grade levels.
• Self inherent access lets them view their own staff profile, schedule, and employment records.

The teacher ends up with the combination of all these layers — broad view access to their students’ records and basic platform features from their role, without anyone having to manually configure student-by-student access.

Example: A Counselor with Support Staff Access

A school counselor assigned the Student Support role and designated as support staff for several at-risk students:

• The Student Support role grants broad view access to all student information and the ability to edit support records.
• Support Staff inherent access provides focused access to their specifically assigned students’ profiles, schedules, health, academic records, and the ability to edit support records and contribute to journals.
• Even if the role were changed, the counselor would retain access to their assigned students through the Support Staff relationship.

This means support staff access follows the assignment — if a student transfers to a different counselor, the new counselor automatically gains access while the previous one loses it (once removed from the support staff list).

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to set up Inherent Access for new teachers?

No. Inherent Access is automatic. As soon as a teacher is assigned to a class or designated as a homeroom teacher, they gain the appropriate access. No administrator action is needed.

What happens when a teacher is removed from a class?

They lose the Class Teacher relationship for those students, and the associated inherent access is removed. If they are still the homeroom teacher, they retain Homeroom Teacher access. If they have no other relationships, they fall back to whatever their assigned role provides.

Can I give a specific teacher more access without changing the defaults for everyone?

Yes. Use Individual Grants to give a specific user additional permissions without modifying the inherent access defaults. Individual grants are managed through the user’s permission settings.

Can I restrict a specific teacher's inherent access?

No. Inherent Access is a floor, not a ceiling. You cannot reduce access below what a relationship grants. If you need to limit what a teacher sees, you would need to remove the relationship itself (for example, removing them from a class or from the support staff list).

Why do some permissions not appear in the Inherent Access settings?

A few permissions are managed exclusively through roles and are not customizable through Inherent Access. These include basic information (name, grade, photo) — which is always available to anyone with a relationship — and certain reporting and system permissions that apply at the school or district level rather than at the individual student or staff level.

What is the difference between Edit and Contributor?

Edit grants full read and write access to a data area (e.g., editing attendance records or discipline records). Contributor is specific to journal-type permissions and means the user can read existing entries and add new ones, but cannot modify or delete entries made by others. Most journal permissions (Attendance Journal, Discipline Journal, Communication Journal, etc.) use the Contributor level rather than a general Edit.