How to enable and reconfirm Google Additional Services
Google Workspace for Education includes Core Services and Additional Services. Core Services contain no advertising and are the staples of Google Workspace for Education, such as Gmail, Google Classroom, Google Drive, and Google Docs. Additional Services may include advertising, such as YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Earth. If you’d like to know more specific differences between Google Workspace Core Services and Additional Services, you can check out the following Google articles:
- Google Workspace for Education Privacy Notice
- Google Workspace for Education Core and Additional Services
Due to the difference in Core Services and Additional Services, Google requires the school to obtain parent or guardian consent on behalf of users (students) under the age of 18 for any Additional Service enabled. From 2024, Google also requires schools to reconfirm each year that they're obtained the required parental consent.
With all of that said, we've created instructions for school administration to follow, should they wish to enable one or more Additional Services. We've also answered a number of frequently asked questions, should you wish to learn more.
Instructions
Only Principal accounts have the ability to access the Google Admin Console and complete the instructions below.
- If you're viewing this article in Google Chrome, click here. Otherwise, open Google Chrome and enter admin.google.com into the address bar.
- If you're asked to sign in, be sure to sign in using your school Google Account (must be the principal).
- On the left of the Admin Console, Click Apps and click Additional Google Services
- Select the Organizational Unit titled 2. Students
Instead of turning on this service for all Students, you can choose another Organization Unit such as 1. Primary, 2. Intermediate, or even a specific Grade. (Check out the orange box in the image below)
- On the right, check the box next to the service you'd like to turn on
- Once checked, click on On button in the top right
- In the first pop-up, click TURN ON
- In the second pop-up, check the box next to I have read and agree to the above, then click TURN ON
Need more help?
Submit a Request and our team will happily walk you through the process.
FAQ
Your school utilizes the Google Workspace for Education platform which houses 2 categories of services known as Core Services and Additional Services. Google's definition of each category is as follows.
"Core Services (like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Classroom) are the heart of Google's educational offering to schools."
"Additional Services (like YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Earth) are designed for consumer users and can optionally be used with Google Workspace for Education accounts if allowed for educational purposes by a school’s domain administrator."
We'd love to — but when we start the process of enabling YouTube on the Google back-end, here's what we see:
As the above (scary, legally binding) screenshot details, since your students are all under 18 years of age you'd need to acquire parental consent before we can enable YouTube (or any other Additional Service) for your students to use. Since teachers and other staff members are over 18, you should already be able to access most services without issue.
Google Additional Services do come with some different Terms of Service, and Google Additional Services may also show ads to students (whereas Core Services are ad-free). Google offers details on the differences right here.
In terms of what the workflow would look like for obtaining consent, it would generally look something like this:
- Your principal would augment a consent form like this Google-provided template (remember to choose File > Make a copy so that you can edit the template) to be school-specific. Note that we're not lawyers and can't really provide any advice on this form.
- The school / teacher would send this form out to parents (either school-wide, which may be easier as part of a registration package, or mid-year to a class that needs access). These forms are for the school's records and should not be sent to Classmate.
- Your principal would then follow the instructions above to enable the desired services for students.
A Learning Team member will connect with you well before the due date to ensure that you have plenty of time to reconfirm (or change) access to your Additional services.
If they haven't been able to square away any time with you (this should take less than 5 minutes) we'll send you details via email — please look at them, and either take action, or reach out with any questions you may have.
Google details the process to do so right here, and you can get a bird's eye view of all services that need confirmation by logging into your school Google account at admin.google.com, and then heading to Apps > Additional Google Services (or by clicking here).
If parental consent is not reconfirmed before the deadline, then Additional Services will no longer be accessible by students until you have confirmed consent.
Google notes that Students with YouTube turned off:
...can still view embedded YouTube videos assigned in Google Workspace for Education products, such as Google Classroom. All users can continue to link and preview videos in Docs.
This means a teacher could find an appropriate video on YouTube and share it within Google Classroom or Google Slides. Even if students cannot access YouTube, they can still watch a video posted by their teacher.
Certain Google Additional Services have age-based restrictions that cannot be removed for educational users under 18 years old, and certain services are not available at all. As an example, students under the age of 18 cannot upload videos to YouTube or create channels, even if consent has been granted and YouTube turned on.
Additionally, YouTube will still limit the videos students can find on their own before a teacher needs to approve YouTube videos for your school.
You can find a list of Google Additional Services, including descriptions, here.