# Gradebook Cohort Filter is Disabled
**URL:** https://discuss.openedx.org/t/gradebook-cohort-filter-is-disabled/16945
**Category:** Site Operators
**Tags:** sumac
**Created:** [August 29, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/gradebook-cohort-filter-is-disabled/16945 "2025-08-29T17:39:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Zachary\_Trabookis](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Zachary_Trabookis)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/gradebook-cohort-filter-is-disabled/16945/1 "2025-08-29T17:39:27Z")
We noticed that in sumac.3 that the Gradebook filter for **Student Groups \> Cohorts** is disabled even though we granted Staff or Admin roles to the course user. See picture for details about the cohort drop-down being grayed out.
The platform code at [edx-platform/openedx/core/djangoapps/course\_groups/views.py at open-release/sumac.3 · openedx/edx-platform · GitHub](https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/blob/open-release/sumac.3/openedx/core/djangoapps/course_groups/views.py#L487) has a mixin for APIPermissions which checks permissions with IsStaffOrAdmin at [edx-platform/openedx/core/djangoapps/course\_groups/views.py at open-release/sumac.3 · openedx/edx-platform · GitHub](https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/blob/open-release/sumac.3/openedx/core/djangoapps/course_groups/views.py#L443) .
The IsStaffOrAdmin class [edx-platform/openedx/core/djangoapps/course\_groups/permissions.py at open-release/sumac.3 · openedx/edx-platform · GitHub](https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/blob/open-release/sumac.3/openedx/core/djangoapps/course_groups/permissions.py#L23-L28) checks discussion forum roles only and does not check course Staff or Admin roles for accessing this endpoint at **LMS/api/cohorts/v1/courses/course-v1:CapeCodCC+FAA-ACS-AM-IG-CCC+2025\_2026/cohorts/**.
This LMS endpoint for cohorts returns a 403 Forbidden response with this message.
```auto
{
"developer_message": "You do not have permission to perform this action."
}
```
**Do you have to be a Discussion Admin or have other discussion roles to have this Cohort Filter not disabled?**
cc @braden @dave @Felipe @e0d @AbdurRahman
---
### Author:  [@sarina](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/sarina)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/gradebook-cohort-filter-is-disabled/16945/2 "2025-09-04T15:54:02Z")
Hi @Zachary_Trabookis - it looks like this file was last edited 3 years ago in [fix: discussion moderators can't create posts for specific cohorts by abdurrahman-asad · Pull Request #30352 · openedx/edx-platform · GitHub](https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/pull/30352)
> **Do you have to be a Discussion Admin or have other discussion roles to have this Cohort Filter not disabled?**
Have you been able to test this? That is, make different users with different levels of permissions and see who can access what?
---
### Author:  [@Zachary\_Trabookis](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Zachary_Trabookis)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 5:58pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/gradebook-cohort-filter-is-disabled/16945/3 "2025-09-05T17:58:16Z")
@sarina
I made Admin and Staff roles, and those accounts were not able to see the `Cohort filtering` until I added them to the `Discussion Admin` role.
---
### Author:  [@sarina](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/sarina)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 7:21pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/gradebook-cohort-filter-is-disabled/16945/4 "2025-09-05T19:21:42Z")
So it seems the answer to your question (Do you have to be a Discussion Admin or have other discussion roles to have this Cohort Filter not disabled?) is Yes?
If you think that’s a bug, I’d file an issue on the repo!
---
### Author:  [@Zachary\_Trabookis](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Zachary_Trabookis)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/gradebook-cohort-filter-is-disabled/16945/5 "2025-09-05T19:24:57Z")
@sarina Yeah, I wasn’t sure if this was a bug or by design.
---
### Author:  [@sarina](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/sarina)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/gradebook-cohort-filter-is-disabled/16945/6 "2025-09-09T15:33:50Z")
I _think_ I would classify this as a bug, with the fix being that the cohorts endpoint should check if someone is staff or admin (not discussions staff or admin). I don’t think the `IsStaffOrAdmin` class itself should change because not sure what downstream effects it would have. Does that make sense?