A district spends a semester getting every principal to use the same look-fors, and by spring there are nine home-grown variations of the template floating around the buildings. The data stops lining up. Lock School Template Creation is the setting that keeps the instrument in the district’s hands: when it is on, people in the schools use the templates they are given and cannot build or change their own.
Turn template locking on
- Sign in as a District Admin and open Settings.
- Scroll to Lock School Template Creation.
- Switch it On. The setting saves on its own and you will see Settings updated successfully.
From then on, School Staff, School Leaders, and School Admins in that district cannot create templates or edit existing ones. They still see and use every template shared with their school. District Admins keep full control of the template library. In a district with offices, the switch on an office’s settings also covers the District Office Leaders in that office.
What it does and does not do
- Does. Hides the option to create or edit templates for school-level roles, so new templates and edits only come from the district.
- Does not. Touch existing templates or walkthroughs. Anything a school built before the lock stays as it is and keeps working.
- Does not. Change who can run walkthroughs. Observers keep every template already shared with them.
Pair it with sharing: build the district’s templates once and share them to every school, see Sharing Templates. Building is covered in How to Build a Walkthrough Template.
Frequently asked questions
Q: A principal wants one extra question for their building. What now?
A: Ask them to send the request to the district, which can duplicate the district template, add the question, and share the copy to that school only. The lock keeps the district as the author.
Q: Can a school still see its own old templates?
A: Yes. Locking stops new creation and editing. It does not remove or hide templates that already exist.
Q: Can I lock one school but not another?
A: The switch applies at the level where you set it, the district or a district office. To treat one school differently, put it under its own office, see Understanding the District Plan.
Q: Who can turn it off?
A: A District Admin, from the same place in Settings. It takes effect immediately.