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Bulk add new students

[All Staff] Use our Upload Tool to bulk add students and contacts in brightwheel!

Sabrina avatar
Written by Sabrina
Updated yesterday

Save time by letting the brightwheel team add your new students and contacts for you! To add 10 or more students as a new program or for a new school year, simply send us your roster through our Upload Tool.

You can upload any file type, including photos, scanned forms, or spreadsheets, and our team will handle the data entry. Premium customers receive unlimited uploads that are typically completed the same day.


What to know before you get started

To begin, gather your file with student and family contact information. Your file must include each student’s first and last name, and we recommend adding their homeroom and at least one parent contact.

We will accept this information in any form, as long as it is legible and clearly labeled. This is particularly helpful if you have student lists on physical paper copies, or use multiple systems to track students.

Note: If you're adding fewer than 10 students, we suggest using the manual entry option instead.


What information can I upload?

The following information can be uploaded for students. Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required for uploads.

brightwheel ID

The system assigns a unique brightwheel ID to each student. This field is not viewable on the student profile but is used when importing student lists to prevent duplicate profiles. If a student is already in brightwheel, do not change or remove this column.

Leave this field blank for new students.

Custom ID

If you have your own student IDs

Personal info

*First & last name, *homeroom, birthdate, gender, race, ethnicity, allergies, medications, doctor details, home address.

Enrollment details

Enrollment status, free or reduced meal type, key admission dates (E.g. toured date), sibling attending, family income, subsidy details

Custom notes

Any notes specific to the student or family

Student contacts

Add parent, family, approved pickups and emergency contacts by providing at least a first & last name, email, phone number


Accepted file types

We accept all file formats, but prefer CSV or XLSX as they are universally recognized and help prevent conversion errors.

Here are some examples of files you can send:

  • Excel files with student and parent contacts

  • Scanned PDFs of enrollment forms

  • Screenshots from subsidy reports

  • Photos of attendance sheets

  • And more!

💡 Tip: Don’t have a file to upload? Use our Roster Templates to get started, or simply export the data from your previous platform.


Upload student information

Once your file includes the information you wish to upload and the minimum student firs & last name, it's ready to be uploaded!

  1. Log in on the web

  2. From the sidebar menu, click My School > Students

  3. In the top right, select Add Students > Bulk upload

  4. Choose the file > Click Send files when ready

Note: Once imported, our team does not send invites to student contacts. You can send invites by following steps here.


FAQs

I don't have a student roster to upload. Is there a template I can use?

What if my list of students is still in my previous system?

That's no problem! If you are coming from a different platform, simply export your student and contact list from that system, then upload it to brightwheel! We recommend only uploading active students from any old systems to prevent mixups with your current students.

Visit Move your student roster from other systems for guidance on exporting from Procare, HiMama, etc.

Why am I experiencing issues/errors uploading my file with roster information?

This can sometimes happen if you are using an outdated browser. We recommend using Google Chrome to access your brightwheel account on the web and reattempt the upload.

Can I add custom student profile fields for the roster upload?

No, custom profile fields cannot be populated via the Upload Tool. These must be added to the student after their profile is created.

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