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How to use brightwheel as both a teacher and student contact

[For Staff and Guardians] Learn how to setup and switch between brightwheel accounts if you are a student contact (Parent, Family, Approved Pickup) and staff member

Sabrina avatar
Written by Sabrina
Updated this week

It’s common for parents or student contacts to also be teachers, admin or staff members. If you have dual roles, you will need to set up two brightwheel accounts since both roles have different permissions and access.

Once both accounts are set up, switching between them is simple.


Set up accounts for dual roles

Brightwheel staff accounts can only be created with an email address, so we recommend creating the guardian account using a phone number. Each account must have a unique email and/or phone number - the same details cannot be shared across multiple accounts.

Depending on your needs, there are several setup options available for staff members who also serve as student contacts. The table below outlines these scenarios and recommended approaches:

Option 1

Set up the staff account with an email address (staff can only set up an account with email) and the parent account with a phone number.

Option 2

Use two different email addresses to set up the staff and parent accounts.

Option 3

If you have a Gmail account, use the same email address for the staff and parent account, but add a plus sign and any word before the @ symbol to create an alias for one of the accounts.

For example:

This ensures you have two separate emails to login with, but all your brightwheel email correspondence will be routed to one email inbox (johnsmith@gmail.com)

Learn more about this Gmail trick here.

Important notes:

  • Administrators will send two separate invitations to set up separate accounts.

  • Can't add the staff or guardian? Most likely that email is already tied to another brightwheel account. To free it up to be used for the new account, reach out to our Support Team to request an account deactivation.

  • To reuse an email tied to a staff or parent account, contact brightwheel Support to deactivate the existing account so the email can used for the new account.


Sign in to and Switch Between Accounts

Account switching allows you to be logged into multiple accounts at once without having to re-enter login information each time. This can be especially useful for staff members who are also student contact's. This functionality is only available on the mobile app.

  1. Log in to one brightwheel account on the app

  2. Tap the three horizontal lines in the top left corner

  3. Tap Switch Accounts

  4. Tap Sign In to New Account

  5. Input your username and password

  6. Tap Sign In

  7. Locate the 6-digit two-factor (2FA) authentication code sent to the email address or phone number you're logging in with

  8. Input the 6-digit code into the 'Verification code' box

  9. Click Sign in again

Once you've logged in to multiple accounts, easily switch between them:

  1. Click the three horizontal lines in the top left corner of the mobile app

  2. Tap Switch Accounts

  3. Tap the username for the account you wish to view

ℹ️ You will only receive notifications for the account currently selected/logged into. This means you'll need to switch to the proper account to receive notifications for that account.


Log out of Current or All Accounts

If you are logged into multiple accounts on the mobile app, follow the steps below to logout of one or all of them.

  1. Tap the three the three horizontal lines in the top left corner

  2. Tap Switch account

  3. Tap Log Out of Current Account, or Log Out of All Accounts

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