This checklist is designed for Org Admins setting up MagicSchool before a school year launch. Work through it in order — each section builds on the last. Most admins can complete the core setup in two to three hours. The compliance and moderation sections are worth doing before teachers onboard, not after.
📋 What You'll Accomplish
📋 What You'll Accomplish
By the end of this checklist, you'll have:
Provisioned your users via SSO/rostering or CSV
Configured tool access, branding, and District Knowledge
Set up moderation alert routing
Confirmed your compliance documentation is in order
Understood how to read your usage reports
👥 Section 1: Provision Your Users
👥 Section 1: Provision Your Users
Option A — SSO / Rostering via Edlink (Recommended for Enterprise)
MagicSchool integrates with major SSO and LMS providers via Edlink.
Support SSO Providers: Clever, Classlink, Google, Microsoft, Canvas, Schoology (we can also support generic OIDC and SAML connections)
Supported LMS Platforms: Canvas and Schoology
Work with your Customer Success Manager to establish your Edlink connection during onboarding.
Confirm your sharing rules in Edlink — pay attention to the difference between Share by Class and Share by Person.
Verify that roles (Teacher, Student, Admin) are correctly mapped before your first sync.
After the sync, check the Users page in your Org Admin dashboard to confirm user count and role assignments.
✅ Best practice: Run a test sync before your official launch date to catch role mapping issues early.
⚠️ Important: MagicSchool does not automatically update rosters after an initial sync. Re-run your integration after add/drop periods.
Option B — CSV / Domain Access (Manual)
If your district is not yet on SSO, or you are managing a subset of users manually:
Navigate to the Users page in your Org Admin dashboard.
Add users individually by email, or upload a CSV with bulk email addresses.
Assign the correct role: Teacher
Click Update to finalize.
✅ Best practice: Before the school year begins, remove any staff who will not return. Stale accounts affect the accuracy of your usage data.
⚠️ Important: Watch for users who created free accounts with personal email addresses before your district provisioned them — they may appear as duplicate accounts. Contact your Customer Success Manager if you see unexpected user counts.
🛠 Section 2: Configure Your Org Admin Dashboard
🛠 Section 2: Configure Your Org Admin Dashboard
Your Org Admin dashboard is the control center for your district's MagicSchool implementation. Spend time here before your launch.
User Roles
Understand which role to assign before you provision users:
Role | Access level |
Org Admin | Full district-wide access: users, tools, settings, reporting, and integrations |
Site Admin | School-level access: reporting, rooms, and users at their assigned site (requires SSO mapping via Edlink) |
Teacher | Access to teacher tools, Student Rooms, and their own usage data |
Student | Access to student-facing tools in MagicStudent, within teacher-set permissions |
✅ Best practice: Assign Site Admin roles to principals or tech coordinators at each school. This gives them visibility into their building without requiring full Org Admin access.
📝 Note: Site Admin roles can only be assigned to users already mapped to a site through your Edlink SSO data sync. They cannot be manually assigned.
Tool Access Settings
As Org Admin, you control which tools are available to teachers and students across your district.
Navigate to My Organization → Tool Access.
Search for a tool using the search bar.
Enable or disable specific tools by school site, grade band, or subject area. This is also where you enable or disable MagicStudent, MagicSchool Labs, and MagicSchool MCP.
My Organization menu — Tool Access controls which tools are available across your district.
✅ Best practice: Start with a focused set of tools most relevant to your district's instructional priorities. You can expand access as adoption grows.
District Bulletin Board Message and Logo
New in 2026–2027: you can now post a message that appears on every teacher's MagicSchool home screen when they log in.
Navigate to My Organization → Settings → Bulletin Board Message.
Write a welcome message, link to key onboarding resources, or highlight your district's AI use priorities. (500 character max.)
Click Save. The message goes live immediately.
To upload a district logo, go to My Organization → Settings → Upload District Logo.
Bulletin board message settings — 500 character max, visible to all teachers on login.
Upload District Logo — adds your branding to the left navigation bar for all users.
✅ Best practice: Use the bulletin board message for your back-to-school launch. A short message from district leadership sets expectations and signals that MagicSchool is an endorsed tool.
District Knowledge
District Knowledge lets you upload documents — pacing guides, standards frameworks, Acceptable Use Policies, academic calendars — that ground teacher tool outputs in your district's own materials.
Navigate to My Organization → Knowledge.
Upload your documents. MagicSchool supports PDFs and Word documents.
Once uploaded, teacher tools will generate outputs aligned to those materials. When District Knowledge is not relevant to a request, MagicSchool will respond using its general guidance instead.
District Knowledge — upload approved documents to ground AI outputs in your district's materials.
The three-step process: upload documents → extract knowledge → use as sources.
District Knowledge can:
Help responses reflect district-approved guidance
Ground outputs in uploaded documents when relevant
Show source documents used in a response
Keep documents scoped to your organization
Recommended document categories (up to 10 district-wide documents):
Templates and approved examples — approved lesson templates, family communication templates, rubric exemplars, intervention plan templates, or observation templates
District instructional planning — academic calendars, benchmark windows, district assessment calendars, standards crosswalks, scope and sequence overviews, or high-level pacing guidance
Teaching frameworks — teaching quality frameworks, coaching models, walkthrough rubrics, teacher evaluation rubrics, UDL guidance, or professional learning guidance
Policy, conduct, and safety — student handbooks, acceptable use policies, BYOD policies, student codes of conduct, district AI guidance, or privacy notices
Student support guidance — IEP process guides, MTSS frameworks, EL/MLL guidance, intervention guidance, accommodation guidance, or specialized program expectations
The five recommended Knowledge document categories.
⚠️ Important: Use current, district-approved documents that apply broadly across schools. Avoid drafts, duplicates, student records, one-off classroom materials, or documents your district does not have permission to use.
✅ Best practice: Upload your most-used curriculum frameworks and your AI Acceptable Use Policy before teachers onboard. This reduces the chance of teachers receiving outputs that conflict with your district's guidance.
Don't upload documents that aren't appropriate for district-wide AI grounding, including:
Student-specific records, named IEPs, evaluations, health records, behavior reports, or other sensitive student information
Draft, outdated, or unapproved guidance
School-only or classroom-only documents unless they are intended to guide the full organization
Documents that conflict with current district policy
Copyrighted or third-party materials your district is not authorized to upload or use in MagicSchool
🔒 Section 3: Configure Moderation Settings
🔒 Section 3: Configure Moderation Settings
MagicSchool's moderation system flags student messages that may indicate safety concerns. As Org Admin, you can Navigate to My Organization → Moderation to configure which categories are monitored, who receives alerts, and which topics are blocked entirely.
✅ Best practice: Designate at least two staff members per alert category to ensure coverage. Revisit routing assignments at the start of each year.
📋 Section 4: Confirm Compliance
📋 Section 4: Confirm Compliance
Before your launch, verify the following:
☐ A signed Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is on file with MagicSchool. If you are unsure, ask your Customer Success Manager — most districts are covered through the signed order form.
☐ MagicSchool is listed in your district's approved vendor list.
☐ Your AI Acceptable Use Policy is finalized and uploaded to District Knowledge (see Section 2).
☐ Your district's FERPA and COPPA compliance obligations are confirmed. MagicSchool is FERPA and COPPA compliant and SOC 2 certified.
📝 Note: Need to sign or update your DPA? Contact your Customer Success Manager.
📊 Section 5: Understand Your Reporting
📊 Section 5: Understand Your Reporting
Your Org Admin dashboard includes usage reporting at the district and school level.
Navigate to My Organization → Reporting.
Reports available:
Usage by main dashboard or by individual site
Usage by user type (teacher vs. student)
Usage by individual users
Tool-level engagement data
Data filtered by date range
✅ Best practice: Export your usage report at the end of each semester. This data supports board presentations, budget conversations, and renewal planning.