Teachers: FAQs

Common questions from staff members who do not have administrator permissions on brightwheel. 🍎

Claire Lee Lyall avatar
Written by Claire Lee Lyall
Updated over a week ago

See this training guide for a general overview on brightwheel. Below are answers to some common questions we hear from teachers as they use brightwheel to streamline their day and connect with families.


I don't see any students when I log in to my brightwheel account

When signing up for a staff / teacher account on brightwheel, make sure you use the exact email address your administrator invited you with. You also want to make sure you click Join a school (as shown below) in the sign-up process.

If you accidentally created a new school instead of joining your existing one, reach out to support@mybrightwheel.com requesting that your account be "deactivated." Once the deactivation process is complete, you can sign up with this email address and join your existing school on brightwheel.

Who can see my Messages on brightwheel?

When you use brightwheel's parent Messaging feature on the web or mobile apps, the child's Parents, any administrators, and any other teachers assigned to the child's Room(s) can see messages that are sent in the child's thread. This helps all staff members and parents stay on the same page, and parents love having one place to check for updates and reminders.

When using Staff Messaging, you can start threads with a specific Administrator or with all teachers in your Room.

What is the Name to Face activity?

Name to Face is an activity type some programs use for internal "attendance" or "roll call" to quickly check if all students are present at any point in the day. Sometimes brightwheel's 'Attendance' feature is automatically shared with parents, and Attendance is also linked to the check-in report for licensing. Name to Face is an option for teachers and administrators to take attendance without sharing it with parents and without having it impact reporting for licensing. Here is more information on brightwheel's Activities.

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