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Add staff & student schedules

[For Admins + Managers] Learn how to add and manage program schedules & absences

Sabrina avatar
Written by Sabrina
Updated this week

Brightwheel's Schedule feature makes it easy to keep track of when your staff and students are scheduled to be present or absent.

Student-to-staff ratios are automatically calculated on schedules to help you maintain compliant ratios in rooms and ensure appropriate staffing based on room capacity and attendance.


Who can view and edit schedules?

Admins, managers and other staff can view all student and staff schedules; however, only admins and managers can add or change schedules.

This tool is meant for internal use and families cannot view or edit their child's schedule. Families can view program-wide events scheduled with brightwheel's Calendar feature.

View all student and staff schedules

Add & modify schedules

Admins & managers

✔︎

✔︎

All other staff

✔︎

x

Families

x

x

Note: Staff can view their own schedule, schedules for other staff and any time off events.


View schedules

Easily view schedules on the web and mobile app.

ℹ️ Important notes

  • Only students with an Active Enrollment Status will appear on the Schedules tab!

  • There is not an option to customize sorting students and staff on the schedule. They can only be sorted alphabetically at this time.

On the web

  1. Log in on the web

  2. Click to expand the My School section

  3. Select Schedules

  4. Use the date switcher and Room filter at the top of the page to narrow down the results
    💡 By default, the Schedule page will display the current week's schedule for all rooms

  5. Toggle between the Week and Day view
    💡 The Day view will display each shift record in addition to student-to-staff ratios

  6. Use the Print option as needed

On the Mobile App

  1. Log in on the mobile app

  2. From the Administrator Home, click Schedules

  3. Tap the 📆 to change the timeframe to review a schedule for
    💡 By default, the Schedules page will display the current week's schedule for all rooms

  4. View the 'My schedule', 'Staff', or 'Students' tabs to see your personal schedule, other staff members, or students

  5. Use the All rooms dropdown menu to filter the schedules for a specific room, if wanted


View scheduled absences & time off

Student absences and Staff Paid/Unpaid Time off will be displayed on Schedules from the web and mobile app. Student absences will appear as a grey box and Staff Time off appear as a red block.

Providers can add, edit and delete Time off instances for staff in Schedules and from the Time off tab.

Remember that absences or Time off won’t replace previously scheduled blocks for students or staff. If a student or staff is expected to be absent for the entire duration of their typical scheduled block, Admins and Managers may also want to delete the single instance of that schedule.


Add a new schedule

Setting up a schedule for students and staff is easy and can be done individually or by grouping all students or staff with the same schedule. Providers can also add Time off directly to Schedules and that will appear within the Time off tab, and vise versa.

ℹ️ Students and teachers can have multiple schedules for different times, on different days, and/or in different rooms.

  1. Log in on the web

  2. Click to expand the My School section on the left-side menu

  3. Select Schedules

  4. Click + Student Schedule, + Staff Schedule or + Staff time off

  5. For students, set the Schedule Type
    💡 View specific steps for scheduling staff or student absences

  6. Select the individual(s) from the drop-down or click the gray Add button to the right to quickly multi-select

  7. Use the Room drop-down menu to apply schedules to specific rooms

  8. Use the Repeat every week checkbox to set a multi-day recurring schedule or uncheck it to add just a single day

  9. Set the Date(s), Start/End Times, and Days of the week to repeat the schedule if applicable

  10. Add any relevant Description
    💡 Staff will not be able to see any descriptions listed

  11. Click Save

💡 Creating a new schedule while viewing a specific room will automatically attribute the schedule to the viewed room, but this can be changed before saving a schedule.


Edit/delete a schedule

We know that schedules for students and staff can change often! Providers can easily edit or delete student absences and staff schedules, including Time off. This can be done for a single day or for recurring schedules.

ℹ️ Please note, that there is no way to bulk delete student or staff schedules at this time.

  1. Log in on the web

  2. Click to expand the My School section on the left-side menu

  3. Select Schedules

  4. Click on the schedule or absence block for the person and day that needs to be modified

  5. Select Edit or Delete

  6. Choose This single instance to delete a single event, or This schedule to delete all subsequent schedules in the sequence

  7. If deleting, click Confirm

  8. If editing, update the schedule as needed and click Save

💡 At this time, staff will not receive any sort of notification when a change has been made to their schedule. Consider using sending staff a brightwheel Message to notify staff of any changes in the schedule.


Schedule student absences

Through the Schedules tab on the web, providers can track expected or planned student absences. This makes it easier more accurately predict and plan for class sizes and ratios throughout the day.

  1. Log in on the web

  2. Click to expand the My School section on the left-side menu

  3. Select Schedules

  4. Click the purple +Student Schedule button in the top right corner of the page

  5. In the Schedule Type field, select Absence

  6. Select the student or students who are expected to be absent

  7. Select the date when the student(s) are expected to be absent

  8. Enter the start and end time of the absence

  9. Enter an optional Description, if desired

  10. Click Save

ℹ️ Scheduled absences tracked via the Schedules tool won’t prevent parents or staff from checking a student in on the day of a scheduled absence.


Schedule staff time off

Staff Time off can be added to Schedules from the Time off page on the web in brightwheel. Admins can then edit or delete the time off directly from Schedules or the Time off page.

💡Visit our Time off Overview for steps on creating Time off events visible on schedules.


Schedule reporting

ℹ️ Schedule reports only include student schedule data and does not include staff data at this time.

There are two options for pulling data from your student schedules:

  • Custom Report with schedule data - Customize schedule data alongside student profile information to view total number of scheduled students for selected date ranges, review attendance gaps, schedule event types, and more.

  • Full-Time Equivalent Report - View daily, weekly, or monthly Full Time Equivalent (FTE) totals for each room to determine how many full time students are scheduled for future dates. The Full Time Equivalent report compares your total scheduled student hours per day to the total maximum full time hours your program is open.

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