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Using brightwheel as a Student Contact and Staff Member
Using brightwheel as a Student Contact and Staff Member

Learn how to set up accounts so that users who are student contacts and staff members can operate in the two different accounts and roles.

Audrey avatar
Written by Audrey
Updated over a week ago

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:

  1. Set up the staff account with an email address and the guardian account with a phone number

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

  3. 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 log in to multiple accounts on one device.

ℹ️ 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 log in to the desired account.

  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 in your app. You will not receive notifications for both accounts that are signed in at once.

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