Schools and providers have the option to add Student Contacts to each of their students. A student contact can have one of four permission levels: Parent, Family, Approved Pickup, or Emergency Contact. With the exception of emergency contacts, each individual contact is able to create their own brightwheel account with varying levels of access.
Programs have three ways to invite student contacts to join their program and create their own brighthweel account: Email, SMS Text Message, and manually with a 10-digit code (Parent contact types only). When a student contact is invited to join brightwheel, it’s essential that the same email or phone number is used to create the account that was used to receive the invitation.
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Sign-Up via Email Invite
The most common way to be invited to join a center on brightwheel is via email. Once the center has invited a student contact, they will receive an email with the subject: [Action Required] [School Name] has invited you to their brightwheel community. The easiest way to complete the sign-up process is to click the Create your Account button directly from the email, simply enter a password, and click Create Account.
If the email cannot be located, a new account can be created manually.
Navigate to the brightwheel signup page
Click the Parent option
Complete the signup form and click Get Started
Click Create your Account
An email will be delivered with the subject line: brightwheel verification code: XXXXXX
Enter the confirmation code and click Confirm
Sign-up via SMS Message
While an email address is the preferred option, the center has the ability to invite new student contacts with just a mobile number in lieu of an email address. This option may be chosen if the center has not collected an email address for the contact or if two contacts have a shared email address and need separate accounts.
Once the invitation has been received click the unique link provided in the text message, enter the desired password, and click Create your Account. If needed, a new account can be created manually with a phone number:
Navigate to the brightwheel signup page
Click the Parent option
Complete the signup form with the 10-digit mobile phone number and click Get Started
Click Create your Account
Enter the verification code delivered via text message and click Confirm
Sign-up via 10-digit Code
Brightwheel allows student contact to manually add students to their account using a unique 10-digit code. The contact can locate this code in their email or paper invitation (if applicable), or by contacting the center’s administrator. The center can locate the code from the student’s profile in brightwheel. To add the student, navigate to the My Children portion of brightwheel and tap Add a Child.
Errors and Troubleshooting
It is possible for student contacts to run into trouble signing up due to administrative mistakes. The issues below are the most common and quite simple to fix.
Parent contact does not have access to billing or messaging
This indicates that the student contact was added as a Family contact type rather than a Parent contact. To correct this, reach out to the center’s administrator. The administrator will need to remove the current contact record (Student Contacts list > purple Edit button > red Remove button) and then use the +Add a Contact button to re-add the contact record as a Parent contact type with the same contact information that was listed before.
Deleting and re-adding the contact will not delete the contact’s brightwheel account, and will instead update their permissions.
Contact is not seeing students that should be visible to them
If the student contact can see one of their children but not all of them, the contact may have duplicate accounts with different login information. This can happen if the center has added them more than once with mismatched information or the contact mistakenly created duplicate accounts one with their email address and one with their phone number.
The center’s administrator can click +add a new contact under the contact section on the student profiles that the contact cannot see and add the contact record as a new contact for that student. When adding the contact’s new account, the administrator should add them with just their name, contact type, and the email address OR phone number they used to create their account.
Contact sees duplicate/inactive student profiles
This can be fixed by an administrator by removing the contact record from this extra profile:
Log in to brightwheel on the web
Click Students under My School
Clear the default Enrollment Status filters by clicking the "x" next to 'Active' and 'None'
Click the teal Apply button to show all results regardless of Status
To further filter the roster, type the student's First or Last name to find and select the profile in the Student Name field
Select the duplicate/inactive Profile
Scroll down to Contacts and click Edit > Remove so the contact is no longer associated with that extra profile
Contact has created a brightwheel account but does not see any students
This means the information used to create the account did not match the information added to the student’s profile. Or that the contact simply has not been added to the student’s profile in brightwheel. For the security of the child and their information, brightwheel cannot give anyone access to a student’s profile - this is controlled entirely by the center.
In order to be connected, reach out to the child's program administrator and request that they either add the email (or phone number) to the student’s account or provide the student’s specific 10-digit invitation code.