Setting up Microsoft 365 for a school

Want to get your school started with Microsoft Teams, OneNote and the other Microsoft 365 apps? This starter guide walks you through setting up an education environment step by step: from the right license and your own domain to users and the first class teams. Office 365 for education is now called Microsoft 365 A1, A3 and A5. Terms and included storage change regularly, so check them with Microsoft or your partner.

Step 1: choose the right license

LicenseWhat's included (in broad terms)
Microsoft 365 A1Free for qualified education institutions. Teams, Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive and the web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Microsoft 365 A3Everything in A1, plus the desktop apps and more management and security options.
Microsoft 365 A5Everything in A3, plus advanced security, compliance and analytics.

Your school has to be verified as an education institution before you get education licenses. That happens after you sign up.

Signing up for Microsoft 365 for education

Step 2: create your environment

  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 education page and choose to sign up your school.
  2. Enter the details of your school and the admin.
  3. You get a temporary address such as schoolname.onmicrosoft.com. Use it to sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
  4. Wait for your school to be verified.
Entering the school details

Step 3: add your own domain

  1. In the admin center, go to Settings > Domains and choose Add domain.
  2. Type your school's domain, for example myschool.edu.
  3. Prove you own the domain with a TXT record at your domain registrar.
  4. Add the DNS records Microsoft suggests so email and Teams work properly.

See add a domain to Microsoft 365 for more detail.

Adding a custom domain in the admin center

Step 4: add teachers and students

Give teachers and students the right license. With group-based licensing that happens automatically.

Adding users in the Microsoft 365 admin center

Step 5: set it up securely

  1. Turn on multifactor authentication, especially for admins and staff.
  2. Limit who can create teams: see restrict who can create teams.
  3. Decide what students can do in meetings, for example not starting meetings themselves.

Step 6: set up your first class

  1. In Teams, create a team of the Class type.
  2. Add students, or share a team code with them.
  3. Set up the Class Notebook and a Staff Notebook for your staff.
  4. Hand out your first assignment.
Creating a class team in Microsoft Teams
A new class team with students

Also see Parent connection in Teams for Education and getting started with Microsoft 365.

Read also

Set up and use the Staff Notebook in Microsoft Teams for Education
Add your own domain to Microsoft 365
Bulk import users or guests with a CSV file

Nederlandstalige versie: Microsoft 365 in het onderwijs: je school en klas inrichten

share on LinkedIn ☕ buy me a coffee

More in English

▸Parent connection: reach parents through Microsoft Teams for EducationLet teachers reach parents and guardians through Teams chat with Parent connection. What IT prepares and… ▸Assign Microsoft 365 licenses automatically with groups in Entra IDLink licenses to a (dynamic) group in Microsoft Entra, so users automatically get the right… ▸Disable Meet now in Teams so students can't start meetingsStop students starting their own Teams meetings: turn off Meet now in a meeting policy and assign it to the… ▸Create a team code so colleagues can join your team themselvesCreate a team code in Microsoft Teams so colleagues can join themselves. Joining with a code, guest limits…