❗️If the option to switch accounts is not available for you yet, please know this experience is coming to your account soon!
It is quite common across providers using brightwheel for parents or other student contacts to also operate as a teacher or staff member. In order to facilitate this, the user will be required to set up TWO brightwheel accounts. Each account offers a different level of access for a teacher compared to student contacts. Teachers and staff members have access to entire classrooms and students within those classrooms, but parents only have access to their own children. Once separate accounts are set up, staff can easily switch between multiple accounts.
Table of Contents
Setting up a Staff & Student Contact Account
Brightwheel uses verified email addresses and/or mobile phone numbers to create brightwheel accounts. This means that the same email address or phone number cannot be used on more than one brightwheel account, regardless of user type.
Staff accounts do require an email address to be on file, but there are a few options to choose from when setting up staff members who are also student contacts:
Set up the staff account with an email address and the guardian account with a phone number
Use two different email addresses to set up the staff and guardian accounts
If the user has a Gmail account, use the same email address for their staff/guardian account, but add a plus sign and any word before the @ symbol to create an alias for one of the accounts.
For example, if their staff email address is johnsmith@gmail.com, use johnsmith+parent@gmail.com to create their parent account. This will ensure that they have two separate emails to log into their two separate accounts, but all their brightwheel email correspondence will be routed to one email inbox (johnsmith@gmail.com). If you would like to learn more about this Gmail trick, please see this article.
Administrators will send two separate invitations to users to set up a staff account and a separate student contact account. Please visit our Add Teacher/Staff Profiles resource for inviting staff and our Add and Manage Student Contacts resource for inviting student contacts.
Switching Between Staff and Guardian Accounts
Take the steps below to login to multiple accounts on one device. Please note, account switching is only available on the mobile app at this time. To switch between multiple accounts on the web, you’ll need to log out and login to the desired account.
Log in to one brightwheel account on the app
Tap the three horizontal lines in the top left corner
Tap Switch Accounts
Tap Sign In to New Account
Input your username and password
Tap Sign In
Locate the 6-digit two-factor (2FA) authentication code sent to the email address or phone number you're logging in with
Input the 6-digit code into the 'Verification code' box
Click Sign in again
To switch between a staff and student contact account.
Click the three horizontal lines in the top left corner of the mobile app
Tap Switch Accounts
Tap the username for the account you wish to view
Please note: You will only receive notifications for the account currently selected in your app. You will not receive notifications for both accounts that are signed in at once.