Given a locally compact \'etale groupoid and an ideal $I$ in its groupoid C$^*$-algebra, we show that $I$ defines a family of ideals in group C$^*$-algebras of the isotropy groups and then study to which extent $I$ is determined by this family. As an application we obtain the following results: (a) prove that every proper ideal is contained in an induced primitive ideal; (b) describe the maximal ideals; (c) classify the primitive ideals for a class of graded groupoids with essentially central isotropy.
Comment: 22 pages; v3: minor corrections; to appear in Adv. Math. v2: Minor corrections and improvements, and a new section has been added with a new result on fibers of the singular ideal