> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://educontroldoc.pixelspectivetech.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Guardians

> Recording parents and guardians, linking siblings to one guardian, and the fee payer rule.

Guardians are recorded in their own right rather than as fields on a pupil. That is what lets one guardian hold three children at your school without their phone number being typed in three times — and what lets you see a family's whole position at once.

## One guardian, several children

Link the same guardian to each of their children. Each link records the relationship — mother, father, aunt, guardian.

Guardian phone numbers are unique within your school. If you try to add a guardian whose number is already on file, you have found an existing guardian: link the pupil to them rather than creating a duplicate.

<Tip>
  Search by phone number before creating a guardian. Duplicate guardian records are the reason a family's siblings end up looking like unrelated pupils, and merging them afterwards is fiddly.
</Tip>

## Exactly one fee payer

<Warning>
  Every pupil has exactly one guardian marked as the **fee payer**. Bills, statements and arrears correspondence all route to that guardian and nobody else.
</Warning>

This is a rule rather than a convention, and it exists so there is never any ambiguity about who the school asked for money. Where parents are separated, or where a sponsor rather than a parent pays, the fee payer is the person the school will actually pursue — mark them accordingly, not simply whoever is listed first.

A pupil can carry several guardians for contact and emergencies. Only one is the fee payer.

## Primary contact and emergencies

Separately from the fee payer, one guardian can be marked **primary** — the first person the school calls. These are often the same person, but they need not be: the mother may be the primary contact while a sponsor pays the fees.

Add as many additional guardians as the family needs for emergency contact.

## Guardians cannot sign in

<Note>
  There is no parent login. Guardians do not have accounts, and cannot see balances or report cards for themselves. Pupils have their own portal — see [The pupil portal](/docs/portal/pupil-portal) — but it is the pupil's, reached with their admission number and PIN.

  Balances and statements reach parents when the office sends or hands them over. EduControl does not send SMS or email.
</Note>

## Who can edit it

The `edit_students` permission.