brightwheel: Child Care App

As a teacher this app is the worst designed one’s I’m ever had to use. There is NO editing!!! The feed is continuous and involves everyone that has access to your student and offers no way to differentiate rooms or messages. If I am messaging a parent and someone else from the school send out a message I have no way to remember what student I needed to get back to without going into every single students messages and scrolling to find where I was. You are limited to uploading only 10 pictures at a time. And to post them you have to go through several steps. Well with 39 students I spend 30 minutes just trying to post pictures from the week. I get constant notifications whenever there is a parent message but half the time they’re not for me they’re for another teacher or administrator but I have to check bc we all know what happens when you don’t respond to a parent. There are so many more issues these are the ones that vex me daily. This app was clearly designed without teacher input and to work well for administration and finance. If anyone from Brightwheel would like insight on how to make this app workable for the classroom please reach out bc unfortunately it doesn’t look like we’re allowed to use anything else bc of how well it works for student payments.

Where should I start? The instant messaging between my parents and I is the best thing ever! I don't have to call each Parent over simple questions throughout the day. I can address the parents questions or concerns about Anything and everything. I can even message back and fourth after school hours if needed to be helpful to my parents. When a child in my class seems sad or missing their parents I help them by posting a picture or video to their parents letting them feel connected in the child's time of need. I've just recently started using the lesson planning feature and it is so awesome! Especially because my plan can be shared with my Parents as a way for them to spark up conversation in the evening with their children instead of asking what they did at school and the child responding with "I don't know" everyday. I also love the note section so I can ask the parents to donate supplies or anything else needed for the classroom. Posting notes, pictures, videos and sending messages couldn't be any easier. I also participate in a health screening before entering the classroom to help my center stay open and safe for all the families.

We have been one of Brightwheel’s longest customers. We started off when the app was small and had just a few features, and we stayed because of the product they have built and we fully believe In Brightwheel & their mission! They have proven over and over that they are listening to us as caregivers and parents as they add all of our requested features. When we were told we would need to move to a paid version earlier this year, there was no hesitation because this has revolutionized our work and our ability to communicate with families. This app helped us immediately contact a parent for a child that was having a seizure, helped us to identify food allergies through the daily food log (that didn’t get lost because it was paper!), and is a selling point for our school because everyone likes having access to know what their child is doing each day! It saves us money on paper, time it takes to write out each activity for each child, and our parents LOVE it! We love brightwheel and I will never have enough positive things to say. Thank you Dave, Jen and team! 💙