Admins, Managers, and Lead Staff can add multiple contacts to a child's profile with different access levels, depending on their Contact Type. Contacts added as Parents, Family, or Approved Pickups can create their own brightwheel accounts. Once added, you can invite them to brightwheel using one of the following methods:
Email invitation
SMS text message
Printable invitation
ℹ️ For staff members using brightwheel as both staff and parents, refer to our resource Using brightwheel as a Student Contact and Staff Member for account setup details.
💡Leverage our draft emails and printable overviews to tell families about brightwheel before inviting them!
User Experience
Once invited, student contacts (Parent, Family, and Approved Pickups) can set up accounts on the Mobile App or the web. We highly encourage the App, so parents and family contacts will receive push notifications.
After parents sign up, they can immediately see their child’s profile. Contacts will only see the students they are assigned to by the school in brightwheel and they can view multiple students or siblings on one account.
Adding a contact will allow that guardian to view the student's profile, and removing a contact will rescind the guardian's access to that student's profile.
Invitation Types
Providers can add contacts with a email address and/or phone number. How contacts are added determines if they receive an email, or SMS text message invitation.
ℹ️ If a contact is added with an email address and a phone number, the contact will receive an email invite by default.
Email Invitation
Providers should add contacts with an email address if they wish for families to receive an email invitation.
SMS Text Invitation
Providers should add contacts with a phone number if they wish for families to receive a SMS text message invitation, or if they don't have an email on file for the contact.
Simply leave the email address field blank when creating the contact and enter a valid US or Canadian mobile number. The link in the text message will direct to the Brightwheel app or the app store if not yet downloaded.
Invite Contacts
Inviting new users to brightwheel is the easiest way to get them set up to use the brightwheel app.
On the Web
Log in to your account on the web
Click to expand My School on the purple sidebar & select Parents
Jump between the Parents, Family, or Approved Pickups tabs at the top of the page
Locate the previously added student contact you wish to invite
Under the 'Signed Up' column, click Invite
💡Under the 'Signed Up' column, click View invite to view a preview of the invitation!
ℹ️ Once the invitation has been sent, the button will change to display an "Invite sent" confirmation message
On the App
Log in to the app
Tap Rooms and select the child's room
Click the student's profile
Tap Profile in the top-right corner
Under "Contacts," tap the contact to invite
Tap Invite to join Brightwheel at the bottom
A confirmation banner will appear at the top when the invite is successfully sent
Invite Parents Via 10-Digit Code
The 10-digit code is the child's unique ID in Brightwheel automatically assigned when the student profile is created.
This code allows parents to link their existing account to the student's profile at a program. In cases where you do not have an email or phone number to invite parents, they can create a brightwheel account on their own and use a specific 10-digit code to connect their account with their student.
ℹ️ The 10-digit code invite method should only be used for Parent contacts.
Locate 10-digit Code on the Web
If you are asked for a student's 10-digit code, providers can easily find and provide this to a parent contact.
Log in to your account on the web
Click to expand My School and then select Students
Select the appropriate student's name
Under the 'Contacts' section, the parent invite code is listed in the second sentence displayed
Provide the code to the appropriate parent contact so they can connect with their child's account
Provide physical handouts with a 10-digit code
If you'd like to provide paper copies of the parent invitations that include the 10-digit code, this is also possible!
Log in to your account on the web
Click to expand My school and then select Parents
Under the 'Signed Up' column, click View invite
Scroll down to the bottom of the preview and click Download invites
Download and print the handouts to share with parents!
ℹ️ If you have already added a parent's email address to their child's profile, they will automatically be connected to their child and will not need a 10-digit code.
Track Contact Sign Ups
You can track the status of your parents’ sign-up from your account on the web.
Log in to your account on the web
Click to expand My School and then select Parents
Jump between the Parents, Family, or Approved Pickups tabs at the top of the page
Review the status under the 'Signed Up' column for each student
A Signed Up status means they have completed the setup and logged in
A Remind status means the parent invite was sent but they have not yet signed up
FAQs
Why do parents use brightwheel?
Why do parents use brightwheel?
Typically, schools & teachers choose to invite parents of students to brightwheel for any of the following reasons:
Daily reporting - Securely sharing recorded activities of their children via the app
Digital check-in via private/secure 4-digit pins
Paperless billing and payments
Numerous schools have unsolicitedly shared that using brightwheel with their parents has helped them with marketing and enrolling new students since it offers parents a window into their child’s lives during the day and digitizes otherwise manual and paper-intensive processes.
Can I invite all contacts at once?
Can I invite all contacts at once?
Yes! You can use the Invite all button on the Parents, Family, and Approved Pickups tab to send out all invitations at once.
Can I limit parent's ability to edit student profiles
Can I limit parent's ability to edit student profiles
Yes! Learn how to update parent permissions here if providers wish to limit adding additional information about their child, or inviting additional guardians.
How are parents notified of the activities/action their student has for the day?
How are parents notified of the activities/action their student has for the day?
We summarize each day with a Daily Report! Parents can choose to subscribe to these reports to be emailed daily. Programs can also provide the daily report for a past or current date if requested.