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As schoolhouse districts struggle to support the mental wellness of their students , a startup calledSonar Mental Healthhas built a “ wellbeing associate ” called Sonny to help .
Asdescribed in the Wall Street Journal , Sonny is a chatbot that bank on a combination of human staff and AI . When students text their questions to Sonny , the AI suggests a response , but it ’s humans who are ultimately creditworthy for the message .
Sonar signed its first shoal partnership in January 2024 and enounce it ’s now useable to more than 4,500 halfway and high school student across nine territorial dominion . The company says the New World chat are presently being supervise by a squad of six the great unwashed with screen background in psychology , societal workplace , and crisis - business living .
CEO Drew Barvir told the Journal that he have it clear-cut to students and schools that Sonny is n’t a therapist and that Sonar staff member will work with schools and parents to detect therapists for bookman when appropriate .
A big reason why this approach might appeal to school districts is a current shortage in counselors — the Education Department suppose 17 % of high school do n’t have a counsellor at all .
