Students & families
Parent account linking
How a guardian record gets a portal login, the four routes that create one, and why a second child cannot be added to a login that already exists.
Students & families guide for day and boarding schools.
Last updated August 29, 2026
A guardian in Schoolyi is two things that are easy to conflate: a guardian record attached to one student, holding the name, relationship, phone, email and address; and, optionally, a portal user account attached to that record. Family data works without the second one. Only the login lets anybody sign in and see the child, and only the school can create it.
The four ways a login is created
| Route | When it applies | What it produces |
|---|---|---|
| Admissions enrolment | An accepted offer is enrolled at /admissions/enrollments | Guardian record from the application fields, a portal login, and a welcome link by email. If the address is taken it still saves the guardian, without a login. |
| Create guardian at /parents | Adding a guardian by hand with a portal password set | Guardian record and login together, plus a welcome link. |
| Edit guardian at /parents | A guardian record exists without a login | Adds the login. Refused if the record already has one. |
| Portal invite on the guardian | The usual repair path after a failed auto-provision | Creates the login when missing and emails the welcome link; resends the link when one already exists. |
All four need an email address on the guardian record, and all four go through the same uniqueness check, which is where sibling families come unstuck. Creating and editing guardians is limited to Platform Admin, Principal, Vice Principal and the office Admin role. Guardians themselves cannot self-register or self-link, and a guardian who is not linked to a student sees nothing, however closely the names match.
Common questions
Quick answers in plain language.
Can I attach an existing parent login to a second child?+
No. Every route that links a login also creates it, and creation fails when the email is already in use — by design, because a user email is unique. Admissions enrolment reports "Guardian record created without portal (email already used)" and saves the guardian without a login; the portal invite returns "Email is already used by another portal account". The workable answer today is a second guardian record on a second email address, typically the other parent.
What does changing the student on a guardian record do?+
It moves the guardian to that student rather than adding a child. The guardian record has exactly one student, so re-pointing it removes access to the previous one. If you want the same person recorded against two children, create two guardian records.
Does the guardian bulk import create portal logins?+
No. It only creates and updates guardian records. It matches each row to a student by registration number first and student email second, and updates an existing guardian when the student and phone number both match, so a re-upload corrects details instead of duplicating them. Logins are a separate step per guardian.
A guardian says they never got the welcome email. What now?+
Check SMTP first at the email test screen, because the link is sent by email and nothing else. Then check the guardian record: if it has no portal login, the invite is what creates it; if it has one, the invite resends the welcome link. The link expires after fifteen minutes, so a parent opening yesterday’s email will need a fresh one.
How do I link a parent portal account to a student?+
Office staff open /parents, find or create the parent user, and add the student link. Parents cannot self-link. After linking, parent refreshes /parent-dashboard or signs out and back in.
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