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Manage Staff & Student Schedules

[For Admins] Learn how to add and manage schedules & absences for students and staff.

Sabrina avatar
Written by Sabrina
Updated over a week ago

Managing an early childhood education program involves scheduling students and staff effectively to maintain proper ratios in classrooms. The Student and Staff Scheduling feature allows administrators to input custom repeatable schedules for each individual, ensuring appropriate staffing based on room capacity and student attendance. This helps maintain the desired student-to-staff ratio in each classroom.

  • Admins can view schedules from the mobile app and can view, add, and modify schedules on the web.

  • The schedules page is visible to all staff members on the web and mobile app but can only be modified by administrators.


View Schedules

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

On the Web

  1. Log in on the web

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

  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

Student absences, Staff PTO time, and Staff Sick time will be displayed on the Schedules tab for that day or week. This will appear as a grey block on the web or red block on the mobile app.

Remember that absences 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, administrators 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.

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 right-side menu

  3. Select Schedules

  4. Click the + Student Schedule or + Staff Schedule button

  5. Set the Schedule Type

    1. To view specific steps for scheduling staff or student absences, click the hyperlinked text

  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, if desired

  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! In brightwheel, student and staff schedules can be edited or deleted at any time, for a single day or for the recurring schedule.

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 right-side menu

  3. Select Schedules

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

  5. Select Edit or Delete

  6. Choose This single instance or This schedule

  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 right-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 Absences

In addition to using the Schedules tab to track Student absences, administrators can also use scheduled absences to track expected Staff absences for PTO or Sick leave.

  1. Log in on the web

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

  3. Select Schedules

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

  5. In the Schedule Type field, select PTO or Sick

  6. Select the name of the staff member(s) who are expected to be absent

  7. Choose the date when the staff member(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


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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