You add a teacher and the dashboard says Teacher already exists. That is the product protecting the teacher’s walkthrough history. One email address means one teacher record, so every walkthrough of that person rolls up in one place. The message tells you where the record already lives, and what to do depends on which message you got.
Teacher already exists in this school
The teacher is already on this roster, possibly archived or added under a slightly different name. Search the Teachers page for the email address. If the teacher is archived, open Archived and restore them rather than adding again.
Teacher already exists with a different school
The teacher’s record belongs to another school in your district. The dialog offers to add them to this school as well. Choose that, and the teacher becomes a shared teacher: one record, on both rosters, with each school’s walkthroughs kept separate, see How to Share Teachers Across Schools. If the teacher has actually moved, add them here and ask the other school to remove them from its roster.
Teacher already exists and belongs to another district
A teacher record belongs to exactly one district. If the email is in use by a different district, the add is blocked. This usually means the teacher moved districts and the old one still has the record, or the email is a personal address they used elsewhere. Contact support with the teacher’s name and email and we will resolve which district owns the record.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Can I just use a different email to get past it?
A: Please do not. Two records for one person split their walkthroughs, and the reports will show one of them as never observed. Matching is by email on purpose.
Q: The error appeared during a CSV import.
A: The import reports the row and the reason. Fix the row (or remove it) and import the rest, see How to Add Teachers. Rows that match an existing record in the same district are added as shared teachers automatically.
Q: I already have a duplicate.
A: Two rows with the same email on one roster means the records were created before the check existed. Open each one’s profile to see which holds the walkthroughs, see The Teacher Profile, and submit a ticket with both so we can merge them.
Q: Does this apply to users too?
A: Yes, separately. A user account also has to be unique by email; that message says It looks like this user already exists.