Feb 25, 2025 21:00:00

To alleviate the shortage of school counselors, schools are introducing 'AI-human hybrid chatbots.'

Teenagers often experience mental anxiety due to issues such as academics, family relationships, and friendships, so it is important for them to receive mental care from teachers and professional school counselors. The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States is moving forward with the introduction of 'AI-human hybrid chatbots' to alleviate the shortage of school counselors.

When School Counselors Aren't Available, a Human-AI Chatbot Answers - WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/student-mental-health-ai-chat-bots-school-4eb1ba55

The American School Counselor Association recommends that schools employ at least one school counselor for every 250 students, but the average number of counselors nationwide is only one for every 376 students. Furthermore, 17% of high schools don't even have a single school counselor, creating a shortage of staff to provide mental health care for students.

To solve this problem, American AI startup Sonar Mental Health has developed a hybrid chatbot called 'Sonny,' which combines AI and humans. Sonny's strength is that rather than relying solely on AI to handle conversations with students, humans with backgrounds in psychology, social work , and mental health support intervene to review chats and respond to students themselves based on AI hints.

Sonar Mental Health staff monitor 15 to 25 chats at a time and notify parents, school administrators, police, and others as needed if a student hints at self-harm or suicidal thoughts.

Drew Burville, who founded Sonar Mental Health while studying at Stanford Graduate School of Business, said, 'Sonny is like a human co-pilot or assistant.' Burville believes that with the rising rates of anxiety and depression among teenagers, being able to contact them at any time via smartphone is a way to detect mental health issues early. Sonny learns the language teenagers use and the emojis they find acceptable, so that young people can talk to him or her comfortably, and chats with them like a 'cool older brother or sister.'

Sonny has already been adopted by nine school districts across the U.S., serving a total of more than 4,500 students attending public middle and high schools. Many of the districts using Sonny are in low-income or rural areas where mental health services are scarce.

Michelle Herrera Rojas, a 17-year-old high school student in

Richmond , California, has suffered from depression since she was a child and has frequently seen a therapist. When her school introduced Sonny in September 2024, Rojas tried it out by sending a message saying, 'I'm stressed about applying for college scholarships.'

At the time, Rojas' cousin had passed away, and he was spending his days hanging out with friends to distract himself. One day, he received a message from Sonny, concerned about the progress of his scholarship application. When Rojas mentioned his cousin's death and the lack of progress he was making, Sonny replied, encouraging him to continue working on his scholarship application, while explaining that distracting himself was a normal way to cope and that he needed to take time to grieve his cousin's death. Rojas says seeing this message made him feel like someone cared about him, and it motivated him to focus on his application.

Since then, when Rojas felt it was difficult to turn to friends, he began chatting with Sonny. Regarding using Sonny, Rojas said, 'I know that I can get attached to certain situations and that repeating the same thing over and over can be annoying to my friends. With Sonny, I don't feel like I'm annoying them no matter what I say.' It seems that he finds Sonny easier to talk to than a human friend.

At the time of writing, students can chat with Sonny from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time . Mr. Barville said he hopes to increase staff and make the service available 24 hours a day.

Sonny's AI was trained by a team of mental health clinicians and researchers from Stanford University and the University of California, Irvine, using techniques from motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy. However, unlike a human therapist, who can spot signs of depression or anxiety from body language and subtle gestures, Sonny relies on text entered by students.

For this reason, Barville makes it clear during information sessions for schools and students that 'Sonny is not a therapist,' and encourages students to talk to people in their lives. Students can also share their social media accounts with Sonny, which can monitor posts on those accounts for mental health issues. If a student's mental health is affected, a human staff member will work with the school and parents to help them find a therapist.

'Sonny staff will not disclose the content of conversations between students and Sonny unless there are signs of self-harm or violent behavior. If a student deletes their account, the conversation history will be deleted after a 60-day retention period. Sonny's services cost between $20,000 and $30,000 per school district, and school districts pay for them with mental health support grants,' the company said.

In fact, at a high school in

Berryville , Arkansas, which introduced Sonny, 53% of the 175 students enrolled in Sonny sent messages several times a month, and after the introduction, student misconduct decreased by 26%. Furthermore, an increase in the number of messages before test periods helped the school realize the need for emotional support for students during those periods. Furthermore, at a high school in Marysville , Michigan, Sonny was used to identify and provide support to students who had considered suicide.

'We believe Sonny will help us identify students who need mental health support that might otherwise go unnoticed,' said Karrie Smith, Marysville's executive director of special education and state and federal programs.