Improving parent communication is one of brightwheel's top priorities. The messaging platform is built for the specific needs of parents, staff, and the program and creates a simple, all-in-one solution to keep all communication with parents within the brightwheel environment. From the mobile app to the web you can reply quickly on whatever device you're using!
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Messaging in brightwheel
There are several different ways parents, teachers, and administrators/managers can communicate within brightwheel through our messaging platform. Each new message can be assigned a message type to improve communication and readability for parents and staff, and there are additional structured communication options like Announcements and Newsletters.
Administrator and Parent Messaging - This feature has been specifically designed for school administrators to better communicate with parents and there are a few options that can be selected to determine who should receive/be able to view the messages:
Individual parent(s) (and visible by all staff)
Individual parent(s) (and only visible by admins/managers)
Entire Room(s)/Program
Administrator and Staff Messaging - Any admin or staff member can draft and send messages to each other for easy communication in the program without having to leave brightwheel.
Teacher to Parent Messaging - Any teacher or staff member can draft and send messages to parents of any student(s) assigned to their rooms.
Parent to Teacher Messaging - Parents can reply in a threaded message to any communication from teachers or staff as well as send new messages to communicate Late Drop Off, Late Pick Up, Early Pick Up, and Absent notifications.
Advanced Communication Features
In addition to sending general instant messages back and forth between parents and teachers. Brightwheel has created features to further improve the effectiveness of communication through different Message Types. In each of these message options, all URLs are clickable to enable document sharing or directing parents to external resources. Some additional communication features to highlight:
Announcements - Announcements allow Admins/Managers to message an entire room at once and can be a great way to communicate brief classroom updates, events for the week, and more.
Newsletters - Newsletters can be created by any teacher or administrator on the web. This is a great way to communicate with groups of parents on a regular basis in a more formal, structured way.
Viewing All Messages
Administrators are granted access to a convenient admin messaging panel to view all the conversations happening throughout their organization, so there's no need to navigate to individual rooms to gain insight!
Learn more about Viewing Parent Messages and Viewing Staff Messages in the linked resources!