Why are my iPads forgetting a known Wi-Fi network?

Yes, and the problem is that an Apple ID should NEVER be shared between different individuals, only between devices used by one person.

Apple IDs are personal; they shouldn’t be shared any more than you would share a toothbrush. If you share an Apple ID with someone else many bad things will happen. Each user should have their own Apple ID, then you can create Family Sharing→What is Family Sharing? - Apple Support. That way you can share what you want to share and not share what you don’t want to share.

It is OK to share an Apple ID among devices used by one person, such as an iPhone, an iPad and a Mac; in fact, it is a very useful thing to do. But not between devices used by different people.

Here is Apple’s FAQ: https://appleid.apple.com/faq/#!&page=faq. See the 4th bullet item.

And here is Apple's expansion of what I've posted→Make sure that each family member has a unique Apple ID - Apple Support

It doesn’t matter who “owns” it or knows the password. Different individuals should never share an Apple ID. For one thing, everyone can see everyone else’s text messages, photos, contacts, reminders, notes, etc., and change everyone else’s settings. And anyone can lock out the Apple ID for everyone else.

As Apple makes very clear→Make sure that each family member has a unique Apple ID - Apple Support

JoeNathan14 wrote:

Are you saying if someone on my team clicks "forget" for the same network on one device that our Apple ID is signed into, then any others in our pool of devices that our Apple ID is signed into, they too will automatically forget that network if it is one of their known networks?

• Yes, this is what is supposed to happen. This happens all the time with all of my devices, if I forget a WiFi network with one of my devices, all of my devices forget that network. It doesn't always happen immediately but it does happen.

Does this happen right away or take time?

• It sometimes happens right away and sometimes takes time. It all depends on how fast that device is responding to the cloud or accessing the cloud.

Why in the world would that be a "feature"? I can see having the option being reasonable, but automatically doing that to all my devices?

• The idea behind a lot of choices that are made as to why to do things by Apple is to make it easier on people and convenient for most situations.

Does it also work the opposite way where if I add a network to one device, all my others get it? I don't think I've seen either of these happen.

• It does, but here is the kicker. In order for this to work, it has to be connected to the network. In other words, if it gets kicked from the network because it has forgotten the WiFi because it was forgotten on another device, then in order for it to get the information to get the network back is for it to be connected to the cloud. So if it forgets the network, it will disconnect, and now that it's not connected, it has no way to connect again to get the information about the network to be able to add it again. If it were to connect to another WiFi network, then it would remember that information again and when back by that network it would connect.

You still don’t get it. Apple’s entire user interface design assumes 1 Apple ID 1 person. It has been this way for 10 years. If you violate this basic principle MANY things will go wrong; for one thing, privacy is totally out the window. The fact that Wi-Fi addresses propagate is the least of your worries. For example, one disgruntled employee can bring down your business.

Does the iPad share an Apple ID and a Wi-Fi network with other devices? If it does, and another device is told to “forget” the Wi-Fi network it is using that will remove it from the kiosk iPad also.

But you are going to continue using the same Apple ID for multiple users. I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite you.