Verify teachers and set permissions

This article is for Google Workspace for Education administrators.
Students and teachers can’t change roles or manage permissions.

When users sign in to Classroom for the first time, they identify as teachers or students. Users who identify as teachers are automatically added to the Classroom Teachers group.

As a Google Workspace for Education administrator, you verify users who identified as a teacher to give them access to the Classroom features they need. Also, you set the teacher permissions for your domain.

When you verify teachers:

• You prevent non-teachers from creating classes. 
• You allow verified teachers to view and manage guardians.

Tip: Only verified teachers can share Practice Sets with other verified teachers. Before a teacher can share a Practice Set with another teacher, you must verify the other teacher first. Learn more about how Practice Sets work.

Identify teachers, roles, and permissions

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Verify teachers

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

   

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  Apps.
3. Click Google Workspace.

   

4. Click Groups for Business.

   

5. At the top right, click Edit Service.

   

6. Select On for everyone to turn on the service.

   

   Note: If Groups for Business is turned off, teachers can't be added to the Classroom Teachers group.

7. Click Save.

   

8. In a browser window, open the Classroom Teachers group.
9. Under People, click Pending members.
10. Next to the user’s name, check the box and on the right, click Approve applicant or Reject applicant .

If you use Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS), Google School Directory Sync (SDS), or any other sync tool or if you already have a group containing all the teachers or staff in your domain, you can add those groups to the Classroom Teachers group.

Also, if you use GCDS or SDS, you should manually exclude the Classroom Teachers group from any synchronizations. For details, see instructions for GCDS or SDS.

Warning: To ensure that teachers can continue using Classroom, don't remove the Classroom Teachers group. The group is automatically re-created, but it's empty. As a result, users are asked again to identify and you need to reverify the teachers.    

Change a user's role from student to teacher

Students and teachers can’t change roles. Only administrators can change roles.

If a teacher identifies as a student, you must manually add the teacher to the Classroom Teachers group.

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DirectoryUsers.
3. In the Users list, find the user.
   If you need help, see Find a user account.
4. Click the user’s name to open their account page.
5. Click GroupsAdd .
6. Choose an option:
   • Enter the name of the group you want to add the user to.

     As you enter text, Classroom shows matching groups. Click a group.

   • From the list, click a group.
7. (Optional) To add the user to another group, repeat steps 5–6.
8. Click Add.

Change a user's role from teacher to student

Students and teachers can’t change roles. Only administrators can change roles.

If a student identifies as a teacher, you must manually remove the student from the Classroom Teachers group.

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  DirectoryUsers.
3. In the Users list, find the user.
   If you need help, see Find a user account.
4. Click the user’s name to open their account page.
5. Click Groups.
6. Next to the teacher group name, check the box and on the right, click Remove.
7. Click Remove again.

Decide who can create classes

As an administrator, you can set who can create classes in your organization.

Note: Changes you make in the Admin console might take up to 24 hours to apply to your users.

1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

   Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

2. Click AppsGoogle Workspace Classroom.
   • If you don’t see this option, click AppsAdditional Google servicesClassroom.
3. At General settings, click Teacher permissions.
4. Point to Teacher permissions and click Edit .
5. Choose an option:
   • Anyone in this domain (teachers and students)
   • All pending and verified teachers
   • Verified teachers only
6. Click Save.

Decide who can view and manage guardians

Only verified teachers can view guardian information. You can allow verified teachers to invite and remove guardians. For details, go to Manage guardians in your domain.

Manage app and age-based access for teachers

As an administrator, you can enable or restrict app access for an individual.

• Turn a service on or off for Google Workspace users
• Control access to Google services by age

What happens if I delete a teacher account?

Before you delete a teacher's account, confirm that the teacher's classes are no longer in use by students or co-teachers. If the class is still in use, transfer class ownership to another teacher.

When a teacher's account is deleted without transferring ownership:

• The teacher loses access to Classroom.
• Their classes can no longer be transferred to someone else.
• Their classes remain available to other users, but with limited functionality.

If you need to recover classes from a deleted teacher's account, you can restore the deleted account within 20 days of deletion.

Related topic

Control user access to Classroom