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Parent Access Guide for Teachers

Give parents a chance to find out more about what their children are learning about.

Kenny Dickie avatar
Written by Kenny Dickie
Updated over 3 months ago

Parents can stay up to date with their child’s accomplishments in class or any upcoming assignments so they don’t miss a due date. This guide covers the following topics regarding Parent Access:

How to Enable Parent Access for your Class

Without parent access enabled, parents will only be able to see their child’s portfolio.

Here's how teachers can enable parent access for their classes:

  1. Enter your class

  2. Tap on the wrench

  3. Tap Settings

  4. Tap on the slider next to Parent Access – green means it’s enabled!

Accessing and Distributing Parent Codes

Parents don’t need to be invited to join Showbie, although inviting parents using Showbie’s generated handout gives a nice introduction to Showbie and includes their child’s parent code. Teachers have the option of creating such invitations for individual or multiple students, which can be printed or saved. Individual invitations can simply be emailed.

To create an Invitation:

  1. Tap on the menu on the left hand column

  2. Tap on your profile picture/name

  3. Tap Invite Parents

  4. Tap the Invite Parents bar

  5. Choose between sending Multiple or Individual Invites

  6. Select the class you would like to choose your student(s) from

  7. Select the student(s) for whom you would like to create an invitation

  8. When you’re done, tap Make Invites for Students

  9. Tapping View the Handout will let you preview the invitations. Tap Print, Email, or Save – only choose email if you are working with individual invitations!

How can teachers control a parent’s level of access?

Showbie lets you know right away when a parent adds one of your students; An email notification is sent to all of the student’s teachers.

Blocking and Unblocking Parents

If needed, you can block a parent from all of your classes entirely. When a parent is blocked, they will no longer have access to their child's work for any of your (the teacher)'s classes.

Blocking a Parent:

  1. Go to the Student Tab (tap on Students ) or the class of your choice) If navigating to the class directly, click the 'wrench' icon, then 'members'

  2. Find the student whose parent you’d like to block and tap their name

  3. Tap the student’s profile picture

  4. Tap the name of the parent you’d like to block

  5. Tap Block Parent

If you would like to block a parent from a student’s account completely, please contact support.

Unblocking a Parent

Follow the steps above and select 'unblock' for parent(s) who need to be unblocked.

How can I tell which parents have joined students in Showbie?

You’ll be able to see which parents have joined a student by opening that student’s Student Info. Here’s one way to do it:

  • Go to the Student Tab

  • Select the student

  • Tap/Click the student’s profile picture – the student’s name will be displayed if there is no profile picture

  • Click 'Parents'

What will parents have access to in Showbie?

Parents will be able to access a student’s portfolio by default. If parent access is enabled in a class, parents can also access their child’s assignment folders in that class. While parents with access to a class cannot upload files or add comments, they can view assignments just like students, including update indicators, due dates, and grades.

This is a parent’s view of a class that has enabled parent access. Parents can also open the files but will not be able to add annotations or upload their own files.

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