Kiosk profiles based on groups

[Guest]

Kubuntu 12.04
KDE 4.8.5
LTSP 64bit Server with 32bit fat and thin clients

I am relatively new to Linux, yet it is my duty to manage the computer labs at a school. I know this is probably Linux 101 stuff so I would be happy to be redirected.

I need to lockdown user's desktop based on their primary group. (youngStudents, oldStudents, teachers, libraryKiosks, admins). Last year I successfully used Sabayon and Pessulus with gnome, but the tools don't seem to work because 12.04 is now using dconf. (right?) Besides, I want to use KDE.

I think I understand how to lock down a KDE desktop now, but I am confused on how to direct users of different groups to a different set of (copied from default) configuration files. How would one change $KDEDIRS and/or $KDEHOME to point to the different set of files, or is there an easier way to do this? (I don't think I understand the '$****** stuff yet)

Thanks,
Jason

[Guest]

I found this thread on setting environmental variables ( the $****** stuff - sorry for the ignorance) by group. Is it a good practice to alter /etc/profile, or is there a better way? Am I barking up the right tree?