Your own account, linked to your kid
Every student under 18 has a linked parent or guardian account. You sign in as yourself, with your own password. One account covers all your kids in the course, and a second guardian can have their own.
Students who are 18 or older apply and sign the ethics agreement on their own. That includes an 18-year-old in the high school group. The parent account described here is for students under 18.
What you can see
- Progress. Which weeks are done, what they're on now, their badges and title, and recent activity like bugs found and write-ups submitted.
- Write-up status. Whether each write-up is drafting, submitted, almost there or passed.
- A two-line note every week. It's built from what they did, so I can't pad it, and neither can your kid.
- What's coming up. Live sessions, due dates and demo day on Thursday, March 11, with the link to join it.
- The ethics agreement. Who has signed, and the place you sign it with your kid before week 1.
- Billing. Payments, receipts and refunds for your kid's place in the course.
A write-up's status tells you where it is in the process. You can see whether your kid is still drafting or has feedback to work through without opening the write-up itself.
What stays private
Your account doesn't show the contents of your kid's write-ups, my feedback on them, their private thread with me or their notes. Students stop trying rough ideas once they think someone is reading them. They need room to get something wrong, write it down and work out why.
You can ask me about any of it. Keeping drafts out of the parent account doesn't mean asking a student to keep secrets. I never ask a student to keep anything from their parents, and if I think a student under 18 is at risk, I tell their parent or guardian.
You don't see the student forums or other students' accounts. Students and parents never share a forum, and you only ever see your own kids.
Your own thread with me
Message me from your parent account about a missed session, a schedule clash or a worry you'd rather not raise in front of your kid. They don't see your thread.
If you'd rather your kid skip the student forums, ask me and I'll turn them off. You can also ask to watch a live session. Safety at BugClub HQ explains the groups, moderation and recordings.
Helping with sign-in
You see the email address your kid signs in with, but never their password. If they forget it, you can reset it from your account and hand them a temporary one. They choose a new password at their next sign-in, and you never see that one either.
I can open a student's account as they see it, notes included, to debug a problem. Nobody else has instructor access. The rules I follow with students explain that access and the limits on private conversations.
How long the work stays
Write-ups and the Case File stay for a year after the course ends. You can ask for earlier deletion at privacy@bugclubhq.com. Messages and other account data have their own retention periods, listed in the privacy policy.