Methods and apparatus for dynamically configuring a parent circuit through a subscriber record on an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server responsive to an authorization event for the subscriber session on the network element. According to one embodiment of the invention, the AAA server accesses the subscriber record for a subscriber session on the network element. Based on this subscriber record, a set of one or more attributes for a subscriber circuit and a set of one or more attributes for a parent circuit of the subscriber circuit are determined. The network element applies the set of subscriber circuit attributes to the subscriber circuit and the set of parent circuit attributes to the parent circuit.