Brightwheel users have different permission levels based on their relationship with students. The four contact types set by a program administrator are Parent, Family, Approved Pickup, and Emergency Contact.
💡 The signup process is the same for all contacts. It's often easier to wait for an invitation from a school or parent. Students can join using their email or phone number!
Getting Started
Outlined are the various permissions each contact type has when interacting with a student in brightwheel.
Parents
Parents can send and receive messages, check their children in and out, view their child's profile and daily feed, add family and pickups, and access billing. They have the most access to the student's account.
If a parent account was created before being invited by the school, the school can provide a unique 10-digit code for each student.
Family
These contacts can see the student's daily activity feed but cannot edit personal information like homeroom, allergies, birthday, or medications. Family contacts can drop off/pick up a student and send messages to the school for quick updates.
Approved Pickups
These student contacts will not see any child information on the brightwheel app and can only perform pickup/drop-off actions.
Emergency Contact
Providers and parents can add emergency contacts to a student's profile for emergencies. These contacts do not set up a brightwheel account, have no app access, and cannot check a child in/out; they serve solely as additional emergency contacts.
How to Use Brightwheel
Visit our For Guardians Help Center collection, or Parent Guide video playlist for tutorials on using brightwheel. To star, some key resources are offered below: