Invite Student Contacts to brightwheel

Learn how to invite Parents, Family, and Approved Pickups to create their own brightwheel account via email, SMS, or 10-digit code handout.

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Written by Sabrina
Updated over a week ago

Admins, Managers, and Lead Staff have the ability to add four different types of student contacts with varying levels of access. Contacts added as Parents, Family, or Approved Pickups can create their own brightwheel accounts. Once you've added the student contact to a student's profile, you're ready to invite them to brightwheel by following one of the methods below!

There are three ways to invite student contacts: by email invitation, an SMS text message, or a printable invitation.

If your staff member(s) are using brightwheel as a staff member and a parent, review our resource here for more information on how their accounts should be set up.

💡To tell parents about brightwheel even before inviting them through your account, we recommend using these draft emails and printable overviews!


User Experience

  • Student contacts (Parent, Family, and Approved Pickups) can set up accounts on the Mobile App or the web. We highly encourage the App, so parents and family contacts will receive push notifications.

  • Contacts will only see the students they are assigned to by the school in brightwheel.

  • Contacts can view multiple students or siblings on one account.

  • Multiple contacts can be assigned to a student.

  • Adding a contact will allow that guardian to view the student's profile, and removing a contact will rescind the guardian's access to that student's profile.

ℹ️ If a parent is also a teacher, that parent needs a separate email address to create their account. Learn more about using brightwheel as a Student Contact and Staff Member.


Inviting Contacts Via Email

Inviting new users to brightwheel via email is the easiest way to get them set up to use the brightwheel app.

Invite on the Web

  1. Log in to your account on the web

  2. Click to expand My School on the purple sidebar menu and select Parents

  3. Jump between the Parents, Family, or Approved Pickups tabs at the top of the page

  4. Locate the previously added student contact you wish to invite

  5. Under the 'Signed Up' column, click the Invite button

  6. Once the invitation has been sent, you will see the button change to display an "Invite sent" confirmation message

  7. If desired, under the 'Signed Up' column, click View invite to view a preview of the invitation!

Please Note: Only Parent contacts will receive the 10-digit code in their invite email.

Invite on the Mobile App

  1. Log in to your account on the app

  2. Tap Rooms and navigate to the appropriate room the student is in

  3. Click the student's profile that the contact you wish to invite is associated with

  4. In the top-right corner, tap Profile

  5. Under the 'Contacts' section, tap the appropriate student contact you wish to invite

  6. Tap the Invite to join brightwheel banner across the bottom of the screen

  7. Once invited, a small banner will appear across the top of the screen confirming the invite has been sent
    Please Note: You can view the Parent List on the web and click View invite to view a preview of the invitation!


Inviting Contacts Via SMS Text Messaging

If you do not have an email address on file for a contact, you can invite them via SMS text message. Simply leave the email address field blank when creating the contact and enter a valid US or Canadian mobile number. 

ℹ️ If a contact is added with an email address and a phone number, the contact will receive an email invite.

On the web

  1. Log in to your account on the web

  2. Click to expand My School and then select Parents

  3. Select either the Parents, Family, or Approved Pickups tab

  4. For the contact you wish to invite, under the 'Signed Up' column, click the Invite button
    💡Once the invitation has been sent, you will see the button change to say "Invitation Sent"

  5. The contact will receive the following text message with instructions on how to complete their account setup:

On the App

  1. Log in to your account on the app

  2. Tap Rooms and navigate to the appropriate room the student is in

  3. Click the student's profile that the contact you wish to invite is associated with

  4. In the top-right corner, tap Profile

  5. Under the 'Contacts' section, tap the appropriate student contact you wish to invite

  6. Tap the Invite to join brightwheel banner across the bottom of the screen

  7. Once invited, a small banner will appear across the top of the screen confirming the invite has been sent. The contact will receive the same text message as shown above.

Please Note: The link included in the text message will navigate directly to the brightwheel app or to the app store if the brightwheel is not yet downloaded on the user's device.


Inviting Parents Via 10-Digit Code

In cases where you do not have an email or phone number to invite parents with, they can create a brightwheel account on their own and use a specific 10-digit code to connect their account with their student. This invite method should only be used for Parent contacts.

Once a parent creates a new brightwheel account on their own, they will be prompted to enter a 10-digit code to connect with their child.

Locate 10-digit Code on the Web

If you are asked for a student's 10-digit code, you can easily find and provide this to a parent contact!

  1. Log in to your account on the web

  2. Click to expand My School and then select Students

  3. Select the appropriate student's name

  4. Under the 'Contacts' section, the parent invite code is listed in the second sentence displayed

  5. Provide the code to the appropriate parent contact so they can connect with their child's account

Provide physical handouts with 10-digit code

If you'd like to provide paper copies of the parent invitations that include the 10-digit code, this is also possible!

  1. Log in to your account on the web

  2. Click to expand My school and then select Parents

  3. Under the 'Signed Up' column, click View invite

  4. Scroll down to the bottom of the preview and click Download invites

  5. Download and print the handouts to share with parents!

Please Note: If you have already added a parent's email address to their child's profile, they will automatically be connected to their child and will not need a 10-digit code, per the instructions above. 


Tracking Contact Sign Ups

You can track the status of your parents’ sign-up from your account on the web!

  1. Log in to your account on the web

  2. Click to expand My school and then select Parents

  3. Click Parents 

  4. View the information to the right of each student's name, the status will read Signed Up once they have completed the setup and logged in. Admins will also receive an email every time a parent successfully signs up.
    💡 If a parent has not yet signed up, you will see an option to click Remind and send them a reminder!


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why do parents use brightwheel?

Typically, schools & teachers choose to invite parents of students to brightwheel for any of the following reasons:

  1. Daily reporting - Securely sharing recorded activities of their children via the app

  2. Digital check-in via private/secure 4-digit pins

  3. Paperless billing and payments

Numerous schools have unsolicitedly shared that using brightwheel with their parents has helped them with marketing and enrolling new students since it offers parents a window into their child’s lives during the day and digitizes otherwise manual and paper-intensive processes.

Can I invite all contacts at once?

Yes! You can use the Invite all button on the Parents, Family, and Approved Pickups tab to send out all invitations at once.

Can I limit parent's ability to edit student profiles

Yes! Learn how to update parent permissions here.

What happens after parents sign up?

After downloading the app and joining your school, parents can immediately see their child’s profile. If the program has enabled parent editing permissions, they can also change settings, like adding additional information about their child, inviting additional guardians, or changing their check-in code.

How are parents notified of the activities/action their student has for the day?

We summarize each day with a Daily Report! Parents can choose to subscribe to these reports to be emailed daily. Programs can also provide the daily report for a past or current date if requested.

Do I have to invite parents to brightwheel to use the reporting features?

No. You may leverage all the features of brightwheel for recording actions without incorporating parents into the experience. (But you should, they’ll love it.)

Can I limit parent access to the real-time activity feed?

Yes, you can record private/staff-only Activities within the app that parents cannot see.

My parents are asking for a 10-digit code. What is this?

The 10-digit code is the child's unique ID in brightwheel. This code can be found in the parent invitations. A parent will need this 10-digit code to connect to their child if they either a) used a different email address to create their brightwheel account than the one listed in the school's account or B) they were never added as a parent on the child's profile, but they want to connect to them.

You can locate this code in the student's profile or by providing a handout to the parent as described above.

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