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Manage Student Contacts as a Parent
Learn how Parent contacts with edit permissions can add, manage, and remove additional student contacts on a child's profile.
Sabrina avatar
Written by Sabrina. Updated over a week ago

School Administrators, staff members with edit permissions enabled, and Parent contacts with edit permissions enabled can add additional Student Contacts (Parent, Family, Approved Pickup, and Emergency Contacts) to a student’s profile.

The ability to modify a student's profile and contact list does depend on the provider’s permissions settings, many childcare providers limit the parent contact’s permissions to be view only. This means that the student contact will need to contact the provider directly to make any updates. Parent contacts will see a banner that reads This profile is available to view only when viewing the student’s profile on the mobile device if your school has limited parent permissions.

Table of Contents

Add a New Contact

Parent contacts with edit permissions have the ability to edit a student's profile and can add student contacts from the web or mobile app. Adding a new contact that is a Parent, Family, or Approved Pickup will allow that individual to immediately create a brightwheel account and be associated with that specific student.

💡It's also important to note that when a Parent contact type is added, and the program uses billing, this student contact will automatically be added as a payer. Learn more about Primary Payers and what this means.

The provider will not be alerted when a new contact is added, it’s important to also communicate with the provider if there are any changes to the list of people who are approved to pick up a student.

From the Web

From the App

  1. Click to open the My Children page

  2. Select the desired student's account by clicking on their name

  3. Scroll down to the 'Contacts' section and click + Add a Contact

  4. Select the appropriate Contact Type from the dropdown menu
    💡Learn more about the different contact types and their permissions

  5. Fill in the relevant contact information

  6. Click Save Contact

  7. Choose to send an invitation to join brightwheel now or at a later date

  1. Open your student’s profile by tapping on their name

  2. Tap the Pencil icon to edit on android or Profile on iOS

  3. Scroll down to locate the 'Contacts' section

  4. Click the ➕ sign

  5. Select the 'Contact Type'
    💡Learn more about the different contact types and their permissions

  6. Fill in the 'Personal Details' and 'Account Info'

  7. When finished, click Save

Modify or Remove A Student Contact

Parent contacts with edit permission have the ability to edit or remove other contacts from a student's profile at any time.

From the Web

From the App

  1. Click to open the My Children page

  2. Select the desired student's account by clicking on their name

  3. Scroll down to the 'Contacts' section and click Edit

  4. To make updates:

    1. On the appropriate contact's row, click Update

    2. Make changes to the First Name, Last Name, or Contact Info fields as needed

    3. Click Save Contact

  5. To remove:

    1. On the appropriate contact's row, click Remove

    2. Click Remove again

  1. Open your student’s profile by tapping on their name

  2. Tap the Pencil icon to edit on android or Profile on iOS

  3. Scroll down to locate the 'Contacts' section

  4. Click the appropriate contact to open their profile

  5. To make updates:

    1. Update the First Name, Last Name, Phone Number, and Relationship fields as needed

    2. Click Save

  6. To remove:

    1. Click Delete and then Delete once more

💡Once an account is activated, that account holder's login information (email address and/or authorized phone number) can only be modified by them from their account moving forward. If the account has not yet been activated, parents with edit permissions can edit this information on behalf of the user.

Change Contact Type

If a contact is added to a student's profile as an incorrect contact type, there are ways to remedy this!

Update Contact Type as an Admin on the Web

  1. Log in to brightwheel on the web

  2. Click to open My School on the purple sidebar and select Students

  3. Click on the student's name to open their profile, and then scroll down to the 'Contacts' list

  4. Click the purple Edit button in the top right corner of the Contacts list

  5. Locate the contact you need to change and select Update
    💡Click Learn More to understand how this contact type change affects permissions

  6. Use the Contact Type drop-down menu to select the new contact type

  7. Select Save Contact

  8. Click Done

Update Contact Type as a Parent with Edit Permissions

Please Note: If you are a parent contact and unable to perform the steps outlined below, we recommend contacting your program for further assistance in remedying this situation.

From the Web

From the App

  1. Click to open the My Children page

  2. Scroll down to the 'Contacts' section

  3. Click Edit in the top right corner of the box

  4. Make note of the email address or mobile phone number the contact uses

  5. Click Remove to remove the contact with the incorrect contact type

  6. Click Remove again

  7. Click Done

  8. Click + Add a contact

  9. Choose the correct contact type

  10. Input only the email address or mobile number of the user
    💡The rest of the details will auto-populate!

  11. Click Save Contact

  1. Click to open the appropriate child's profile

  2. Click Profile in the top right corner

  3. Scroll down to the CONTACTS section

  4. Locate the specific contact to be removed and click to open the profile

  5. Make note of the email address or mobile phone number the contact uses

  6. Click Remove to remove the contact with the incorrect contact type

  7. Click Remove again

  8. In the CONTACTS section, click the + sign

  9. Choose the correct contact type

  10. Input only the email address or mobile number of the user
    💡The rest of the details will auto-populate!

  11. Click Save

Please Note: Emergency contacts can not be changed to something else, and a contact can not be changed to an emergency contact using these methods.

Instead, you will have to either delete the emergency contact and add them again as a different contact type OR delete the current parent, family, or approved pick-up contact and add them as an emergency contact.

Contacts and Access

Each student contact type has a different level of access to a student’s profile and brightwheel features.

Parents

  • Can see all updates in the Daily Feed

  • Can access all Billing and Payment information

  • Can edit the student’s profile information

  • Can send messages to the childcare provider, and receive messages in a thread shared between all staff members and Parent contacts associated with the student

  • Can add or remove other contacts from the student’s profile (depending on the provider’s settings)

Family

  • Can see all updates in the Daily Feed

  • Can send messages to the school, but cannot receive messages or see sent/received messages.

  • Can access all Billing and Payment information (if added as a payer)

  • Cannot add or remove other adults from the student’s profile

  • Cannot edit student’s profile information

Approved Pick-ups

  • Can check the student in/out

  • Cannot see updates in the Daily Feed

  • Can access all Billing and Payment information (if added as a payer)

  • Cannot add or remove other adults from the student’s profile

  • Cannot edit student’s profile information

  • Cannot send/receive messages.

Emergency Contact

  • Is the only Contact Type that does not get an invitation to join brightwheel upon being added and cannot create an account

  • Has no access to the student’s profile within brightwheel. This is simply a reference for contact information.

Troubleshooting Error Messages

For the security and safety of the student’s personal information, adding and modifying contacts in a student’s profile must be done in a very specific way. It is common to receive an error message if the instructions outlined above are not followed.

Common Error Messages

The following error messages are the most common when modifying a student’s contact list. Typically they're straightforward to resolve, but sometimes, the contact may need to reach out to our support team to deactivate an old or duplicate account.

The phone number and email belong to different accounts in brightwheel.

This error indicates that there is a mismatch between the email address and mobile phone number entered. This may mean that the contact has two accounts, one with their phone number and one with their email address. To correct this, try adding the contact with ONLY their email address. The contacts should reach out to help@mybrightwheel.com to have the account associated with their phone number removed so that they can add it to their active account.

[Contact name] is already a contact for [Student name].

This indicates that the contact being added is already added as a contact for that student. If the intent is to change the contact type, simply edit the record and choose the desired contact type.

This email belongs to a teacher account. Please use a different email to create their parent account.

This means that the email address of the contact being added is already associated with a staff/teacher account. The staff account needs to be deactivated before the email address can be used for a student contact. Start a conversation with our Support team and we can assist with deactivating that account. Alternatively, this contact can be added as a student contact with just their mobile phone number. This will allow them to use brightwheel as both a student contact and a teacher.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Sometimes it is not always clear what is happening when viewing the brightwheel app as a student contact. Below are the most common questions our support team receives and how best to address them.

Why can’t I see any messages or billing?

This could mean the contact type is not set correctly or possibly that you need to added as a payer on the student's billing account.

Parents can send and see messages, Family can only send messages, and Approved Pickups/Emergency Contacts cannot see or send messages at all.

Family and Approved Pickups can added as payers on a student's account, but are not added by default, like a Parent would be. A program administrator will need to create your account with the correct contact type if it's set up incorrectly.

I have two accounts, one with my email and one with my phone number, can I merge them?

While it is not possible to merge these accounts, it is possible to disconnect and deactivate one account and then add the information to the desired one.

  1. Log into the account associated with the phone number

  2. Add yourself as a parent contact to the student(s) with your email address to ensure that your primary account will be associated with all relevant students

  3. Remove the contact record associated with your phone number

  4. Send an email to help@mybrightwheel.com with your full 10-digit phone number requesting that it be deactivated

  5. Once deactivated, add the phone number to your account associated with the email address.

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