If a student has a duplicate account or is placed in the wrong family unit, follow the steps below. This ensures student profiles are properly linked for accurate billing, communication, and reporting.

Merging a Duplicate Student Profile

A duplicate student means the same student was added to Playground twice. Admins can now find and merge duplicate records directly.

Two student records are flagged as duplicates when their first name, last name, and date of birth all match.

Where Duplicates Appear

Playground surfaces duplicate alerts in three places:

Your Updates on the Students tab

💡 If you don't see this row, Playground hasn't flagged any duplicate students for your school right now.
The row menu on a student's record
The student's Settings tab, under the Account section

How to Merge

Open a duplicate alert from any of the locations above.
The merge screen displays both records side by side.
Select which record to keep.
1. All data from the deleted record—notes, documents, payments, charges, forms, immunizations, subsidies, applications, programs, schedules, and feed posts—moves onto the kept record.
Click Merge accounts to complete the merging process.

🚨 This step can't be undone. The duplicate profile is combined into the profile you kept and removed from the list. You'll see a confirmation message: "[Student name] was successfully merged."

Ignoring a Duplicate

If you don't want to merge right now:

Navigate to your My School -> Students tab.
Click View next to the found duplicates under the Your updates section.
Select Ignore next to the duplicate you want to ignore.

💡 The duplicate remains accessible from the student's Settings tab if needed.

Correcting Family Placement for Students

If siblings are listed under separate families, you can request to have them placed into a single family group.

What You’ll Need:

Full names of all siblings

Template to Email Support:

Hi Playground Support, 

I’d like to put the following siblings into one family:

[Student Name 1]
[Student Name 2]
[Student Name 3]

Thank you!

🚨The ability to merge siblings into one family is not available to administrators. If you need student accounts merged, please send us a chat or email [email protected] with the information shown above. You can copy and paste this template into your message! This is also for student accounts, this is not for Staff or guardian accounts.

Please note: only program admins can request a merge. If you’re a guardian, you’ll need to contact your program directly so they can reach out on your behalf.

FAQs

Will merging a duplicate student profile delete any of their information?

No. Merging is different from deleting a profile outright. When you merge, Playground combines the duplicate's records, like paperwork, siblings, and guardians, into the profile you keep, and shows you a count of items being combined before you confirm.

What happens to guardians when I merge duplicate student profiles?

If both duplicate accounts share the same guardians, Playground merges those guardian records automatically — you won't need to do anything. If the duplicate has guardians who aren't already attached to the profile you're keeping, you'll see a checkbox in the merge window letting you add them to the merged family, along with an info icon showing their names and emails so you can confirm before adding them.

I clicked Ignore on a duplicate by mistake — can I still merge it?

Yes. Open the student's profile, click the Settings tab, and scroll to the Account section — you'll still see the Merge student option there as long as a duplicate exists.

Who is able to merge duplicate student profiles?

Only program admins can review and merge duplicate students. Families/guardians don't have access to this feature — if a family member notices a duplicate profile for their child, they'll need to let your school's admin team know so an admin can merge it.

Merge Duplicate Students and Correct Family Units