How can we help?

The first time you open KidSched, a short walkthrough shows how it works. Then tap Add a child. Pick their school district (or paste a calendar link), enter school hours and who usually does drop-off and pickup each weekday. Want to look around first? Choose Explore with an example family to see a filled-in plan with two kids.

The example family (Leo and Maya) fills the app with a realistic week so you can try things out. A banner on the Today screen shows while it's loaded; tap Remove example family there, or go to Settings → Remove example family. Only the example kids and what came with them are removed. Kids you added yourself stay.

Yes. Open Settings (the gear on the Today screen) and tap How KidSched works.

With more than one child, each kid gets their own color, and every card, name tag and to-do for that child uses it, so you can tell whose plan is whose at a glance. You can change a child's color in their profile.

Leave times need your home address. On the Today screen, tap the gear and set your home address. KidSched then asks Apple Maps for the drive time at the planned departure and tells you when to leave so you arrive five minutes early. "Leave for…" items appear only for drives that are yours, so if someone else is driving that day, you won't see them.

A routine repeats on the weekdays you pick, like Singapore Math on Mondays or library books on Fridays. Add a place and KidSched includes the drive, and you can pick who usually drops off and picks up on each weekday. To skip one day, open the routine and skip that date, or use quick add: "Skip Friday's library day."

Write it the way you'd say it. KidSched looks for a child's name, a routine keyword ("swim" matches Swimming), and dates like "tomorrow," "next week" or "Oct 12." Examples:

• "Cancel next week's swimming class": creates a to-do and hides that class from your plan
• "Dentist for Leo Oct 12 at 3pm": creates an event, because it includes a time
• "Buy poster board for Maya's project tomorrow"

Deleting a "cancel" or "skip" to-do puts the class back in your plan.

Tap the driver's name on the card in Today or Week and pick someone else. Only that day changes: the card is marked Swapped and shows who usually drives, and a heads-up appears on Today that day. To undo it, pick the usual driver again. To change the usual driver for every week, edit the child's school pickup or the routine.

Open the Week tab. The Who's driving card counts drop-offs and pickups for each person, and each day lists every drive with the driver's name. Not set means nobody is assigned yet. Tap it to choose someone.

Only the person driving. If a drop-off or pickup is yours (or nobody is set), your iPhone gets the traffic-based leave alert. If it's handed to someone else for the day, your alert is removed.

The easiest way is to pick your district from the list when you add a child. Otherwise, any of these works: an iCal (.ics) feed, a webcal:// link, or the district's calendar web page. KidSched sorts the events into no-school days, breaks, early release, key dates, board meetings and observances, and you choose which to keep. It checks the calendar again each week.

Some district websites load their events with JavaScript, which KidSched can't read. Look on the page for a Subscribe, iCal or Add to calendar link, and paste that link instead. If you can't find one, email us the page link and we'll take a look.

Most school calendars don't include the early-release dismissal time. Open the child's profile, tap Edit, turn on Early-release pickup and set the time. KidSched moves the pickup on every early-release day to that time.

KidSched can remind you the night before, when it's time to leave (based on live traffic), when school is closed, and about to-dos. Leave alerts cover school drop-offs and pickups and activities with a place, and go only to whoever is driving. You can turn traffic alerts for school on or off for each child. Make sure notifications are allowed in iPhone Settings → Notifications → KidSched.

The weather card only appears when there's something useful to say, like rain on the way or a very hot or cold day. It also needs your home address to know where you are.

Touch and hold your Home Screen, tap Edit → Add Widget, search for KidSched, and choose Today at a glance. It comes in small, medium and large sizes, and on the Lock Screen. It shows what's next, which kid it's for and your to-dos, updates as the day goes on, and switches to tomorrow once today is done. Open KidSched once a day so the widget has the latest plan.

Go to Settings → You and enter your name, then tap Share with family… and send the invite through Messages. Once your partner accepts, you both see and edit the same children, routines, to-dos, events and places.

If you both change the same item at nearly the same moment, the last save wins. Edits to different items never conflict.

The person who started sharing can tap Stop sharing, which removes the family data from iCloud and keeps everything on their iPhone. The other parent can tap Leave family at any time and keeps a copy. See the privacy policy for details.

Each phone keeps its own name for pickups, so it can say "You pick up." If a parent changes their name, the old name can stay in the pickup options. Choose the new name, and the old one will no longer be used.