Sign in to schoolOS

The sign-in page asks for one thing first: your Email. Type it and select Continue, and schoolOS takes you the right way in for that address. It decides by the part after the @ (the domain), never by whether you have an account, so the page never tells anyone who's on schoolOS.

You can also skip the email and select Continue with Google or Continue with Microsoft under it.

A district email#

An address at one of your district's own domains, like [email protected] or [email protected], signs in the same way you sign in to your school email. While your district has Google, Microsoft or ClassLink turned on, its accounts never use a schoolOS password or an emailed sign-in link, even a password set up before.

• Your district uses one way to sign in. You see Taking you to Google… (or Microsoft, or ClassLink), with your email already filled in. Select Not you? Change email if it's the wrong address.
• Your district uses more than one. You see only your district's buttons, like Continue with Google and Continue with ClassLink, and the note that your district's accounts never use a schoolOS password.
• Your district has turned all of them off. Nobody is locked out: you see Email me a sign-in link and Use a password, the same as a personal email.

If someone types a district email and a password anyway, while the district uses single sign-on, the sign-in is refused with the same "That email and password don't match" message as a wrong password, so the page never tells anyone whether the address has an account. The refusal is in the login log as Password for a district email (the district signs in with single sign-on).

Your district's domains are the ones recorded for its account, and their subdomains. Free email like gmail.com never counts as a district's, even if it was recorded by mistake.

A personal email#

Any other address, like a parent's gmail.com or a vendor's company email:

• Gmail: Continue with Google comes first. It's the easiest way in.
• Outlook, Hotmail or Live: Continue with Microsoft comes first.
• Email me a sign-in link. We email you a link that signs you in. It works once, for 15 minutes. The page says "If your address can sign in here, we sent it a link", whether or not you have an account.
• Use Face ID or fingerprint, if you added a passkey. See Passkeys. On Windows the button says Use Windows Hello, and on Android Use fingerprint or face unlock.
• Use a password, if you have one. See Passwords.

For example, a parent who follows their bus request types [email protected], selects Continue, then Continue with Google, and is back on their request in two taps.

Passwords#

A schoolOS password is optional, and only for people outside a district's own domains: Guests, families and vendors. schoolOS staff keep theirs. A district email can never set or reset one, and a password it already has stops working while the district has single sign-on turned on (A district email).

A new password needs:

• At least 12 characters. No required mix of numbers or symbols, and it never expires. A long phrase you'll remember is best.
• Not found in a data breach. schoolOS checks it against known breaches without sending your password anywhere: only the first five characters of a scrambled version of it leave schoolOS. If the check can't be reached, your password isn't refused for it.
• Doesn't contain your email or name.

The rules show as you type, each with a check mark when it's met.

Password managers work as expected: the first screen has a password field they can fill, and with a personal email, Continue signs you straight in with it.

Forgot your password#

Select Forgot password?, type your email and select Send code.

1. Check your email. If your address has an account, we sent it a 6-digit code. It works for 15 minutes. Type it and select Continue. After 5 wrong tries the code stops working: select Send a new code, which you can do every 45 seconds.
2. Choose a new password. The rules show as you type. Select Save password and sign in. Saving signs you out on your other devices.

With a district email you see No password needed instead, with your district's sign-in button. If you forgot your school Google or Microsoft password, your school resets it, not schoolOS: ask your teacher or the front office.

A Guest who hasn't confirmed their email yet is sent the "Confirm your email" email instead of a code (Guests).

Google worked, but you're new here#

Sometimes Google or Microsoft signs you in, but no district has you yet:

• On a district's own sign-in page that takes guest accounts, you see You're new here, with your email marked Confirmed by Google. Type your name and select Continue as a guest: you're a Guest, and can send the district requests and follow them. Next time, sign in with Google again. If you work there, select Sign in with your district email instead.
• On a district's page that doesn't take guest accounts, you're asked to have the district add you.
• On app.theschoolos.com, schoolOS doesn't know which district you mean, so it asks you to use your district's own sign-in link.
• With an email at a district's domain that the district doesn't have yet, you ask the district for access, as before.

Districts choose whether to take guest accounts in Guest accounts. After someone confirms their email from a request, the same setting offers them Use my Google account (or Microsoft, for an Outlook address), Use Face ID or fingerprint on this device when the device can make a passkey, and a small Set a password link, so they can come back on their own.

Passkeys#

A passkey lets you sign in the way you unlock your phone or computer: with Face ID, a fingerprint, Windows Hello or the device PIN. There's nothing to type and no password to remember, and nobody else can use it: it never leaves your device (or the password manager that keeps it, like iCloud Keychain or Google Password Manager), and it only works on schoolOS.

Who can use one. Passkeys are for the same people who can have a password: Guests, families, vendors and anyone else with an email outside a district's own domains, plus schoolOS staff. District accounts, like [email protected], always sign in with their district's Google, Microsoft or ClassLink instead, and never see the passkey buttons on their profile.

Signing in with one. On the first screen, select the Email box: if this device has a passkey for schoolOS, the browser offers it right there, and choosing it signs you in. Or type your email, select Continue, then Use Face ID or fingerprint. Neither tells anyone whether an address has a passkey: the device offers whatever passkeys it holds.

Adding one.

• After you sign in with a password or an emailed link on a device that can make a passkey, schoolOS asks once: Sign in faster next time with Face ID or fingerprint. Select Set it up, or Not now, and this device won't ask again.
• After you confirm your email from a request, select Use Face ID or fingerprint on this device. We email you a sign-in link; open it on the same device and you're asked to set it up.
• Any time: open your profile, select Sign-in in the side rail, then Add a passkey.

Each passkey is named for the device that made it, like iPhone or Mac (Chrome). Synced means your password manager keeps it on your other devices too; This device only means it stays on this one.

Renaming or removing one. On your profile's Sign-in tab, select the ⋯ beside a passkey, then Rename or Remove. After removing one, select Undo to put it back. Removing your last passkey is fine: you can always sign in with an emailed link (or your password, if you have one), and the page says so before you confirm. Removing it from schoolOS doesn't delete it from your device; delete it in your device's password settings if you no longer want it there.

A passkey belongs to you, not to one district: if you're in more than one, it signs you in to all of them, like your password. If you're removed from schoolOS, your passkeys stop working. Changing your password doesn't remove your passkeys. A passkey works on app.theschoolos.com and on every district's own sign-in page, like lincolnusd.theschoolos.com.

Welcome back#

After you sign in, this browser remembers your name, your email and how you signed in. It never keeps anything that signs you in. Next time you see Welcome back with a Continue as card for you, marked Last used: one tap goes straight to Google, Microsoft or ClassLink with your email filled in, asks your device for your passkey, or goes to the password screen.

Select Use another account to type a different email, or Forget these on a shared computer, like a library or classroom computer, so it remembers nobody.

Your district's own sign-in page#

On your district's vanity URL, like lincolnusd.theschoolos.com, the sign-in page shows your district's logo, name and primary color from Account branding, with Powered by schoolOS at the bottom, and only the sign-in buttons your district turned on. Emailed sign-in links lead back to the same page.