Frontline or SmartFind Express: how to tell which one your district uses, and which job alert tools work on each

Your district uses Frontline if you sign in at app.frontlineeducation.com with a Frontline ID. It uses SmartFind Express if the app asks for a district code and carries the PowerSchool name. The two are separate products from separate companies, and a job alert tool built for one does nothing on the other. Sub Hero works on Frontline only. If your district is on SmartFind Express, the alerts to set up are the ones in PowerSchool's own app, and this post shows where they are. Everything here comes from each company's own pages as we read them on October 5, 2026.

Two systems that do the same job

Both systems do the same thing for a district. A teacher reports an absence, and the system offers the job to substitutes. That is why subs mix them up, and why a search for one often turns up advice about the other.

Frontline Absence Management is made by Frontline Education. It used to be called Aesop, and plenty of people still call it that. Frontline's own page on the change says: "While Aesop's name has changed to Absence & Substitute Management, it's still the same go-to tool for managing employee leave and finding qualified substitutes." So if your district's instructions say Aesop, you are on Frontline.

SmartFind Express is made by PowerSchool. PowerSchool's product page describes it as a way to "automate callouts and streamline online substitute management to quickly fill teacher and staff absences."

How to tell which one you are on

• Look at the sign-in page. Frontline's Substitute QuickStart Guide says: "Go to app.frontlineeducation.com. Enter your username and password and click Sign In." The sign-in box in that guide is headed "Sign in with a Frontline ID." If that is what you see, you are on Frontline.
• Look at what the app asks for first. PowerSchool's Substitute User Guide for the SmartFind Express mobile app says: "Each district will provide you instructions and a district unlock code. Open the app and enter the code." The first screen in that guide reads "Enter District Code." Frontline's app does not start that way.
• Look at the name on the app. Frontline's guide tells you to search "Frontline Education" in the app store. The SmartFind Express app is listed in the App Store under the seller PowerSchool Group LLC, and its description reads: "This is the SmartFind Express Mobile App for substitutes."
• Do not go by the PIN. Both systems use one somewhere. Frontline's phone line asks for "your ID number" and "your PIN number," and PowerSchool's guide mentions a PIN too. A PIN on its own tells you nothing.
• Ask the sub office. If none of this settles it, the person who set up your account knows. It is a one-line email.

You can be on both. If you work for two districts and they chose different systems, you have two accounts, two apps and two sets of settings. Nothing links them.

If your district uses SmartFind Express

Start with PowerSchool's own app. It is free, and it has job notifications built in. PowerSchool's product page says: "Substitutes get alerts and texts about new jobs, including key details." The same page says the system keeps substitutes informed "by text, email, mobile app, and automated phone calls."

PowerSchool's mobile guide gives the steps for turning notifications on:

• Select Settings from the main menu.
• From the General tab, select Notifications.
• "Turn notifications on or off for both push (in-app) and SMS (text) delivery."
• If you choose text messages, tap Enter Mobile Phone Number and add your number and provider.

The same guide has a section called Manage Auto Accept. Its steps are to open Auto Accept Setup under Settings, "select your minimum acceptance window," then "turn Auto Accept on or off for each location." That is a feature inside PowerSchool's app, set up with your district login, with no outside service involved.

Two limits on what we just told you. The guide is undated, so a menu may have moved since it was written. And it does not say whether every district offers every setting. PowerSchool's product update page talks to districts about choosing to "Enable Text Message Job Offers," which reads as something a district turns on. If a setting in the guide is missing from your app, your district's sub office is the place to ask.

Sub Hero is not an option for SmartFind Express. It does not connect to it, and a Sub Hero account would show you nothing from a SmartFind district.

If your district uses Frontline

Frontline's own tools come first here too. The QuickStart Guide describes the Frontline Education mobile app this way: "This free app provides increased accessibility to job alerts and other job acceptance tools." What the app does and does not tell you about a new job is covered in our post on the free app's notifications.

Frontline also has a phone system. The guide says: "If an available job has not been filled by another substitute two days before the absence is scheduled to start, the system will automatically begin to call substitutes and try to fill the job." You can call in yourself at 1-800-942-3767 to hear the jobs available to you.

Then there are third-party alert services, and that list is shorter than a search suggests. SubSidekick has shut down, SubAlert's sign-up page says it is not accepting new customers, and Jobulator has been retired. Our guide to Frontline job alert options in 2026 goes through each one, including where Frontline's free tools are enough.

Before you give any service your Frontline login, ours included, read the questions to ask an alert service.

If you came here from an old SubSidekick account

We tried to open subsidekick.com on October 5, 2026 and it did not load. So we are not going to describe what it offered for SmartFind Express. If you used it with a SmartFind district, the working option we can point to from a source we read is PowerSchool's own app and the notification settings above.

What we can't tell you

• How fast SmartFind Express notifications arrive. We have no data on SmartFind Express at all. Everything we have measured is from Frontline.
• Whether any third-party alert service works with SmartFind Express today. We did not find one whose own site we could read, and we will not name one from memory.
• Which settings your SmartFind district has turned on. The app can only show what the district offers.
• Which system is better. Your district chose it, and you work with the one it chose.
• Whether these pages will say the same thing next month. The quotes are as the pages stood on October 5, 2026.

Where Sub Hero fits

Sub Hero is for substitutes on Frontline Absence Management. It sends an alert by email and push when a job matching your filters appears, with filters on school, district, position, day, time and length, and on Pro it can accept a matching job for you. It does nothing outside Frontline, so it is no use on SmartFind Express. On Frontline it cannot win a job someone else booked first, and it cannot see the non-work days you set in Frontline. Sub Hero is independent and not affiliated with Frontline Education or PowerSchool.

Learn more: app.getsubhero.com

Plans start at $6.99/month. Works with Frontline Absence Management.