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. sj.com /tech/ai/student-mental-health-ai-chat-bots-school-4eb1ba55
When There s No School Counselor, There s a Bot
Julie Jargon
Feb. 22, 2025 8:00 am ET
Teens around the countr are confiding in Sonn hen the feel the don t ha e an one else to talk to.
Sonn is part human, part AI: a ne kind of chatbot that school districts are adopting to pro ide support
hen there aren t enough counselors to go around.
Sonar Mental Health, the de eloper of the AI-po ered ellbeing companion named Sonn , is rolling out its
h brid model to school districts, hich are struggling to meet student demand for mental-health ser ices.
As cases of chatbots hallucinating or dispensing dangerous ad ice ha e made headlines, schools are ar
of steering students to AI-onl solutions. Sonar sa s Sonn s selling point is that humans ith backgrounds
in ps cholog , social ork and crisis-line support are al a s in the mi , re ie ing the chats and taking cues
from AI to inform their o n replies to students.
It s like a co-pilot or assistant to the human, sa s Sonar Chief E ecuti e Dre Bar ir, ho co-founded the
compan ith a classmate hile attending the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
At a time of rising rates of outh an iet and depression, Bar ir is betting that meeting teens here the are
on their phones is the a to catch problems earl . And speaking to teens like a cool older sibling, he
sa s, carries more cred, hich is h the AI has learned to talk in teenspeak.
The h brid chatbot is no a ailable to more than 4,500 public middle and high school students in nine
districts across the countr , man of hich are in lo -income and rural areas here mental-health ser ices
are lacking. The American School Counselor Association recommends schools emplo at least one
counselor for e er 250 students, but sa s the national a erage is one counselor for e er 376 students.
And 17% of high schools don t ha e a counselor, according to the Education Department.
The AI suggests responses to student te ts, but humans can edit them or rite their o n. Sonar s staff
monitors 15 to 25 chats at a time.
If students mention a desire to hurt themsel es or others, Sonar immediatel notifies parents, school
administrators and police, if necessar .
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The AI prompts the humans hen to check in ith students, and coaches them on ho to engage them.
Dra ing from prior e changes, the AI has learned hich local ernacular and emojis resonate best ith
teens. One disco er : Smile faces are cringe . Teens prefer more e pressi e emojis such as the melting
face.
Only focused on me
Michelle Herrera Rojas turns to a human/AI chatbot hen she has obsessi e thoughts she doesn t ant to
share ith friends. Maria Uriarte
Sonn , an AI-po ered chat companion that s been adopted b schools, checked in ith Michelle Herrera
Rojas recentl to see ho she as doing. Michelle Herrera Rojas
Schools around the countr are offering students Sonn , a part AI, part human chatbot that pro ides mental-
health support. Students like Michelle Herrera Rojas confide in Sonn about academic and personal orries.
PHOTO: MARIA URIARTE
Michelle Herrera Rojas, a 17- ear-old senior at De An a High School in Richmond, Calif., sa s she struggled
ith depression from a oung age and sometimes sa a therapist.
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When her school introduced Sonn in September, Herrera Rojas decided to gi e it a tr . She told Sonn she
as stressed about college and scholarship applications.
A cousin had recentl died, and Herrera Rojas as tr ing to distract herself b going out ith friends. After a
fe da s of not interacting ith Sonn , she recei ed a te t from Sonn asking ho the college applications
ere going. She then told Sonn about her cousin and ho she hadn t made much progress. Sonn told her
that distraction is a normal coping mechanism but encouraged her to continue orking on her applications
hile also gi ing herself time to mourn.
Hearing from Sonn , she sa s, made her feel someone cared and it moti ated her to focus on her
applications.
Herrera Rojas also began leaning on Sonn hen she found it hard to turn to friends. I can become er
obsessi e about situations and I kno I can anno m friends hen I talk about a certain situation o er and
o er again, she sa s. I don t feel like I m anno ing Sonn .
Students ha e access to Sonn bet een 8 a.m. and 2 a.m. in Eastern time, hen si people on staff, across
shifts, monitor the chats (Bar ir hopes to e entuall hire enough people to enable 24/7 access). The AI has
been built on se eral different large language models and trained in moti ational inter ie ing and cogniti e
beha ioral therap techniques b a team of mental-health clinicians and research scientists at Stanford and
the Uni ersit of California, Ir ine.
Bar ir created the compan because, he sa s, he ished something like Sonn e isted hile he as
atching his mother undergo mental-health struggles. He lost her to suicide hen he as in his earl 20s.
Sonar teamed up ith its first school in Januar 2024 and has raised $2.4 million in pre-seed funding from
enture-capital firms, grants and a Stanford fello ship.
Bonnie Mitchell, a licensed professional clinical counselor ho has studied the use of AI in mental health,
sa s chatbots can be a good supplement if the are designed properl , but the still can t compete ith face-
to-face interactions. Therapists can take cues from bod language to recogni e signs of depression and
an iet . AI depends on being fed that information, but it can be fooled, sa s Mitchell, ho is based in San
Diego.
Bar ir sa s he makes it clear to schools and students during introductor meetings that Sonn isn t a
therapist, and Sonn frequentl encourages kids to talk to the humans in their li es. Students can also
choose to share their social media handles ith Sonar, hich uses AI to monitor their posts for an thing that
might indicate mental-health problems. If the staffers determine a student could benefit from professional
help, the ork ith schools and parents to help find a therapist.
Outside of self-harm or iolence, Bar ir sa s staffers don t disclose the content of the e changes students
ha e ith Sonn . If students close their account ith Sonn , the compan t picall retains their data for 60
da s. Bar ir sa s students or families can request to delete an chats at an time.
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Sonar pro ides schools ith aggregated data on the t pes of concerns students share, so administrators can
better meet kids needs. The compan charges districts $20,000 to $30,000 a ear for the ser ice, hich
districts usuall pa for out of mental-health grants.
Herrera Rojas likes that Sonn has unlimited time for her. Our school counselors are er bus , she sa s,
but I ha e someone to talk to one-on-one ho s onl focused on me.
A judgment-free zone
At Berr ille High School in Berr ille, Ark., there are t o counselors for the 565 students. It isn t enough to
meet students needs, sa s Ashle Sharp, ho orks for a federall funded program that supports student
mental health. She helped bring Sonar to the district s onl high school last fall to see hether it could help
fill in the gaps.
Of the 175 students ho ha e signed up for the ser ice, 53% te t Sonn se eral times a month. Sharp has
noticed an increase in te ts ahead of testing periods, hich she said has helped the school reali e it needs
to offer e tra emotional support to students at those times. The school has brought in e perts to teach
students skills for coping ith stress.
Sharp sa s the school has seen a 26% drop in student beha ior infractions since students began using
Sonn . Man students ha e told her the appreciate ha ing a companion. The feel it s a judgment-free
one, she sa s.
Mar s ille Public Schools in Mar s ille, Mich., began using Sonn last month. The district has alread
responded to a high-school student ho e pressed thoughts of suicide. The parents and administrators ere
notified immediatel and the school as able to get the student help, sa s Karrie Smith, the district s
e ecuti e director of special education and state and federal programs.
I think e re going to be able to see students ho need mental-health support ho other ise ould ha e
flo n under the radar, Smith sa s.
Write to Julie Jargon at Julie.Jargon@ sj.com
Corrections & Amplifications
The h brid chatbot is no a ailable to more than 4,500 public middle and high school students. An earlier
ersion of this article incorrectl said that the h brid chatbot is no in use in more than 4,500 public middle
and high schools. (Corrected on Feb. 22) Also, students ha e access to Sonn bet een 8 a.m. and 2 a.m.
ET. An earlier ersion of this article incorrectl said students had access bet een 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.
(Corrected Feb. 22)
Cop right 2025 Do Jones & Compan , Inc. All Rights Reser ed. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the Februar 25, 2025, print edition as 'Schools Turn to a Ne Chatbot To Help Support
Students'.
