All guidesGetting connected to your studio
User guides

Getting connected to your studio

One correction first, because it catches nearly everyone: the "Join a studio" item in the sidebar is for STAFF. Its heading reads "Join a studio as staff" and it wants an invite code from a studio that has asked you to teach or help run things. A parent never uses it.

Accept a family invite

An emailed link — there is no way to reach it from inside the portal

This is the real way a family joins. Your studio creates the family and emails you a link.

  1. Open the link from the studio’s email.
  2. If you are not signed in, the card reads "Join the {family} family" or "Join {studio}". Fill in First name, Last name, Email (already filled in from the invite) and Password, then click "Create Account & Accept". If that email already has a Catomni account the button reads "Sign In & Accept" instead.
  3. If you are already signed in with the right email, you get a short card and a single Accept Invite button.
  4. Joining an existing family — as a second guardian — takes you straight to My Students.
  5. Joining a brand-new family gives you one more card, "Add your first child", with the full add-child form. Fill it in, or click "I’ll do this later". Either way you land on My Students.
  • An invite is tied to one email address. Signed in as somebody else, you get a "Wrong account" card telling you which address the invite was sent to, and a Log out button.
  • An expired or already-used link shows "Invite not found" — "This invite is no longer valid — contact the studio for a new invite."

Find a studio yourself

Sidebar → Directory · /portal/directory

Use this when you do not have an invite yet. Signing in is required — it is not a public page. The heading reads "Studio Directory" if you already belong somewhere, and "Find your studio" if you do not.

  1. Open Directory.
  2. Search with "Search by studio, city, or discipline..." and narrow by state if you like — the filter starts on All states.
  3. On a studio’s card, click Contact Now to open that studio’s own enquiry form, or Request to join to send them a request stamped with your account.
  4. A sent request replaces the button with "Request sent — the studio will be in touch."
  • Neither button enrols anyone. Both are ways of starting a conversation — the studio still creates your family and sends the invite.
  • Already connected? The request is refused politely: "You already have an account with this studio."
  • A studio that is not taking requests returns one deliberately vague line: "That studio is not accepting requests right now."
  • Nothing to show yet reads "No studios here yet".

Still stuck on something?

The support portal has the rest, and a real person on the other end of it.