Adding student contacts is crucial for setting up brightwheel. A student's contact list determines which guardians will have access to their profile, what level of access, and how they can interact with their student and the program. Adding, inviting, and managing student contacts can often bring up many questions - we've covered the most common ones below!
đĄ If you haven't already done so, review our Add and Invite Student Contacts resource first!
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
Providers often share that using brightwheel with their parents has helped them with marketing and enrolling new students since it offers parents a window into their childâs lives during the day and digitizes otherwise manual and paper-intensive processes.
Why does it say the contact information already exists when I attempt to add, or update the email/phone number for a student contact?
Likely the student contact has an existing account they are not aware of, preventing you from making changes. If they have access to that other account, we recommend you add them as a new contact with the email or phone number associated with that existing account. Then you can delete their old contact entry.
Following that action, we recommend the family reach out to brightwheel Support and request their duplicate account be deactivated, which would free up their other phone number or email to be listed on their primary account.
đĄTips for errors when adding or updating a contact:
Existing contact? Don't edit it. Remove and re-add the contact instead.
Add with only a phone number or only an email. If either one is linked to a separate account, it can cause conflicts.
Duplicate account after a successful add? Have the family contact Support to deactivate the redundant one.
Family wants to change their email or phone? Let them know you can't update it for an existing contact, since that information is their brightwheel username. Encourage them to do it themselves in their account.
Why am I getting an error "The phone number and email belong to different accounts in brightwheel"?
This error indicates that there is a mismatch between the email address and mobile phone number entered. This may mean that the contact has two accounts, one with their phone number and one with their email address.
To resolve this, add the contact using the matching credential type (email or phone) tied to their existing account. If duplicate accounts exist, we recommend the family contact brightwheel Support to deactivate redundant accounts.
Why am I getting an error "[Contact name] is already a contact for [Student name]"?
This indicates that the contact being added is already added as a contact for that student. If the intent is to change the contact type, simply edit the student contact's profile and choose the desired contact type. |  |
Why am I getting an error "This email belongs to a teacher account. Please use a different email to create their parent account"?
This means that the email address of the contact being added is already associated with a staff/teacher account.
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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?
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?
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.