CalSAAS Users

The user roles assigned in CalSAAS allow varying levels of access and responsibility. Access to view exceptions, assign workload, verify determinations, and view reports are all based on the user’s role. There are five different user levels available: 1) County Administrator, 2) County User, 3) District Administrator, 4) District User, and 5) Charter User. 

User Levels

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County Administrator-

The user level in CalSAAS designated as the main administrator and the monitoring authority for non-charter schools and county authorized charter schools; County Office of Education. The County Administrator has the capability to create new district users and county authorized charter users in CalSAAS and assign those users’ workload. This user has the final authority for determining misassignments, and is responsible for verifying the monitoring results prior to submission to CTC. 

Note: a county or district admin can have more than one administrative user.  However, only one person will be able to submit exceptions to the Commission. If your county or LEA does this, please discuss which user will be the submitter. 

County User-

This user is responsible for reviewing determinations for districts and schools within their workload as well as assignments under the county (such as itinerant teachers employed by the County Office of Education). The County User may work exceptions, and may return the exceptions to the District for additional documentation if needed. If the county is responsible for monitoring any county authorized charter schools located within the county, this user would also be responsible for monitoring them. 

District Administrator- 

The user level in CalSAAS designated at the Local Educational Agency (LEA) to work exceptions and submit necessary documentation to the Monitoring Authority related to the exceptions. This user is also responsible for assigning district users and district authorized charter users that they serve as the Monitoring Authority for within the district. This user is responsible for verifying the monitoring results for charter schools authorized by the district prior to submission to CTC.

District User-

This user works exceptions for the schools assigned to their workload by the District Administrator. They are responsible for submitting any necessary documentation related to those exceptions to their Monitoring Authority.

Charter User–

This user is able to view and work the exceptions of their associated charter school.  This user will work exclusively with the user representing the entity that is the chartering authority. 

User Assignment Hierarchy

The Commission’s only role in this process is to create the County Administrators.  After that, user creation and maintenance is entirely the designation of the county and their selected district administrators.  

During this test process, The Commission will setup a County Administrator user for any Credential Analysts that send us an email requesting a County Administrator user ID and confirming that they are the individual in charge of the assignment monitoring process for their county.  The user ID will be based upon the individuals workplace email address.  

Once this user is active within the system, they can begin to assign additional users.  County Administrators can create: 

1) County Users to assist in verifying determinations; 
2) District Administrator Users for individuals in charge of the assignment monitoring process at individual districts; and
3) Charter Users for county authorized charter schools within the county’s vicinity1.

Furthermore, once District Administrators are in place, they are responsible for assigning:

1) District Users to assist in determining exceptions for non-charter schools; and
2) Charter Users for district authorized charter schools that they serve as the Monitoring Authority for within the district.

Aside from creating users, these Administrator Users have control over the assignments of the user’s they create.  By default, full access is given to new users, but Administrators have the ability to limit their work assignments to specific districts (for County Users) or specific schools (for District Users).  This ability is intended to allow the administrators to plan staff workload and distribute exception responsibilities as they see fit.  

1Charter Schools authorized by the State Board of Education pursuant to Education Code §47605.8, are monitored by the Commission.

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Workload vs. Scope

County Administrators have the option of assigning users to work all the districts in their county and similarly, District Administrators have the option of assigning users to work all the schools within their district. They may also limit the user's workload to specific districts in the county or specific schools within the district.  Whatever the administrators assigns is within the user’s workload.

A user’s scope, in contrast, is a user’s access to information.  For example, if a user is assigned a workload of a few schools within a district, they will still be able to see information for the entire district. This includes the ability to see exceptions outside of their workload, as well as access to view comprehensive district-level reports.  The same is true for county users who are assigned only a portion of the districts within their county— they would still be able to explore the county’s full records.  

CalSAAS is designed this way for a few reasons.  First, this allows colleagues to see each other’s assignments in order to facilitate their ability to discuss or troubleshoot ambiguous assignments together.  Second, we believe that viewing reports allows analysts to compare the schools and/or districts within their workload with others in the area.  We can imagine instances where seeing the results for similar schools in the same geographic location could trigger additional lines of inquiry and technical assistance.  

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Multiple Roles

In rare instances, some users will be assigned multiple roles across educational entities. If so, this user will be asked to pick the role they are assuming once they login.  For example, an individual working for a charter school organization may be assigned to work exceptions at more than one school site, requiring a separate user role for each site.
Updated May 19, 2023