Invite parents and link them to students
Updated . Written by the ProgresslyAI team from the current product. Examples use invented records.
A parent can see a student in the family portal only when three things are true: a staff member has linked the parent's email to that student, the parent has joined your school with that same email, and the email is verified. This guide covers each step and what to check when a parent says they cannot see their child.
Quick answer: open the student, select + Add parent, enter the parent's email and select Add parent. The parent opens the invitation, signs in or creates an account with that email, verifies it and selects Accept and join.
Who can do this
Owners and instructors can link parents to students and invite them. Instructors can invite people with the parent role only. Parents do not use instructor seats on any plan.
Step 1: Link the parent to the student
- Go to Students and open the student.
- In Parents & guardians, select + Add parent.
- Enter the parent's Email and, if you want, a Relationship (optional) such as Mother or Guardian.
- Select Add parent.
You will see one of these messages:
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Parent linked and invitation sent to (email). | The link is saved and an invitation email was sent |
| Parent linked. They already have access to this org. | The parent already belongs to your school. They will see this student once their email is verified |
| Parent linked. An invitation is already pending; check it in Team. | An earlier invitation has not been accepted yet |
| Parent linked, but invitation email could not be sent: ... | The link is saved; invite the parent again from Team |
To link one parent to several children, repeat these steps on each child's page with the same email.
When staff approve a registration request, the contact email on the request is linked to the new student automatically.
Step 2: The parent accepts the invitation
The parent opens the invitation link and sees Join your school. They must:
- Select Sign in or Create account and use the email address that received this invitation.
- Verify their email using the verification message. Until they do, the invitation page shows Verify your email to join.
- Select Accept and join followed by your school's name.
Step 3: Check what the parent sees
Once joined and verified, the parent's portal lists each linked child. For each child they can read:
- skills grouped by level, with each skill's status and a percentage per level
- overall mastery: mastered skills out of all skills in the student's current curriculum
- the 15 most recent daily attendance records
- the latest published progress report, if staff have published one
- on Business schools, the latest AI readiness result if staff have requested one
Under invoices, they see their linked children's invoices with transaction history and can print an invoice or credit note. The portal is read-only: parents cannot edit records, message staff or book classes.
Troubleshooting
The parent sees "no students are linked to your account yet". The parent is signed in with a different email from the one staff linked, or the link was never saved. The message shows the email they are using. Add that exact email to the student, or ask the parent to sign in with the email you linked.
The parent sees a verification banner and no children. Children appear only after the parent's email is verified. Ask them to use the link in the verification email, then sign in again.
The invitation page says "Invitation unavailable". The invitation was already used or cannot be found. If the parent has already joined, they can simply sign in. Otherwise send a new invitation from Team.
The parent has two accounts. Access follows the email address, not the person. Link the student to the email the parent wants to use, and remove the link for the other email.
A parent should no longer see a student. On the student's page, remove the parent. Their access to that student's portal page and invoices ends.
A parent can see a readiness score you did not mean to share. Readiness results on Business are shown to linked parents as soon as staff request them; there is no separate publish step. Request readiness only when you are ready to share the result. Progress reports, by contrast, stay private until published. See progress reports.