Why School Psych AI? My Brutally Honest Take.
- Byron McClure
- Sep 2
- 11 min read
By Dr. Byron M.L. McClure, NCSP
AI will not define the future of school psychology. Our willingness to lead in mental health, strength-based practices, and learning will. AI is not the destination. It is a means that can allow us to finally practice within our full scope. ~Dr. Byron McClure
What sets School Psych AI apart from other platforms like ChatGPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), MagicSchool, and other report-writing platforms?
I'm glad you asked. In this article, I share my unfiltered response to this question. Beware, it is my brutally honest thoughts.
For the sake of this article, I am not going to be humble. Respectful, yes, but I’m gonna keep it real. In fact, I will not use AI to edit this. If you see a typo, or a subject doesn’t agree with a verb, know that was me!
By now, you have heard or seen articles declaring that youth mental health is trending in the wrong direction. We also know that efforts such as providing mental health supports in school, improving mental health literacy, teaching coping strategies, supporting educator wellness, and targeting a sense of connectedness show promising results. If you agree that youth mental health is trending in the wrong direction, but we can reverse those trends by doing what we know works, then you will likely agree that we need staff who are experts in these areas.
School psychologists are experts who should be leading the nation's effort to improve student and staff mental health. But, we are not. School psychologists must lead, and not be confined to practicing within a limited scope. So, what sets School Psych AI apart from other platforms?
TLDR: Our driving force is to position school psychs as leaders and expand our scope of practice. I believe we should leverage this powerful technology as a means to expand our scope of practice. Doing so will reduce stress and burnout and bring meaning to the work that we do.
Let’s get real!
Reason #1: I have done the work for 15 years
It goes without saying that this platform was launched by a school psychologist for school psychologists. If you didn’t know, I am a Nationally Certified School Psychologist with real, practical expertise in schools.
I began practicing in schools back in 2010. I have practiced at the elementary, middle, and high school level. I have worked in suburban, rural, and urban settings. I have worked in alternative schools, self-contained settings, and all areas in between. I have experience in district office leadership at the central office. I was part of a team elected to radically redesign a high school, and my focus was on student experience, improving culture, and climate. You can watch this short documentary that documents the work I helped lead, and I am tremendously proud of.
I have served as a 504 coordinator, PBIS coach, and MTSS coordinator. I have been part of school-based mental health teams, crisis response teams, and leadership teams. I have led work in implementing restorative practices, trauma-responsive schools, and led system-change initiatives. I have provided direct services to students in the form of social skills groups, SEL groups, individual counseling, and group counseling. I have had check-in check-out groups with boys identified with Emotional Disabilities. I have provided staff training on every topic imaginable.
In this work, I have experienced overwhelming joy, and I have also wrestled with the deep pain and grief this role can bring.
I have had high testing caseloads where I have had to decide between writing a report to get it out within the 5-day timeline OR support that student who I see on the verge of tears, sitting alone in the lunch room… (Spoiler alert, I chose that kid every single time). Personally, I have had meetings with supervisors where they told me I am doing good work leading initiatives, creating programs like the Students With A Goal (SWAG) program or the Student Athlete Education Program, or implementing restorative practices and facilitating circles but that I am behind on writing reports, and I needed to focus more on reports.
I'm not going to pretend like I was this rebel, who was anti-report writing. I wasn't. Pretending to be anti-report writing would be disingenuous. I also understand the compliance issues and the ultimate job that we have as school psychologists. But for me, it was never the only part of the job. Practicing within the full scope of the NASP Practice Model is how I believe we should and must practice.
I believe deeply that our job as School Psychologists is to bring hope and solutions to the school communities we serve so that we can make a meaningful difference. However, this belief often runs incongruently with how the field operates at large currently. That is why I created School Psych AI, because this imbalance of priorities is robbing us of true impact in the field.
I believe that we can and should leverage AI, as a technology so we can practice in the full scope of our role. I believe this will reduce stress and burnout, and decrease the exodus of good practitioners from our field.
So, reason number one is my personal deep love for this work. I have committed the past 15 years of my life to this work. It means something to me (and my team, especially my CTO Ed, who is married to a school psych) when I receive messages saying they love Sophia or share that they finally have their weekends back.
Reason #2: Customer Service
Think about your last customer service experience with any of the big publishers?
Were you able to even get in touch with anyone without getting a run around? Probably not. At School Psych AI, we are an EdTech company. But what happens when tech inevitably glitches out or doesn’t perform the way it should? To me, that’s where having the best customer service matters.
I believe, that we hands down have the best customer service and it’s not even close. Are we perfect? No. That’s not what I’m saying. In fact, we might miss an email or message here and there, because we are human. Here’s the thing, we have a small team, where you have the CEO and CTO both providing customer service. We now have an exceptional customer service lead who responds to your requests daily. We take pride in handling each customer service request with love and care.
We understand School Psych AI has become a platform you rely on and depend on, so when it behaves wildly or incorrectly, that disrupts your day and caseloads, and may lead to frustration. We take your frustration with a deep passion for what you do, and we work hard to ensure we get it right for you and resolve the issues promptly.
At some point, a member of our team has likely offered to hop on a call with you to troubleshoot and support you until the issue is resolved. Again, we aren’t perfect, but we are personable and human, and that makes our customer service experience second to none. You won’t get that with ChatGPT, Gemini (Google), and you definitely won’t get that with any of the big publishers… yeah I said it!
Reason #3: We invest back into the School Psych Community
Kendrick Lamar said that sometimes you have to pop out and show folks. Too often, we remain humble in this work and that usually leaves you overlooked.
Stepping out of the humble box for a second, me and my team have poured in soooooooo much to our community. Some things you will never know, but I have purposed that as School Psych AI grows, we will always pour back into our practitioners and school communities. That might be a gift card, it might be a donation, or it might be a free PD (let’s not get carried away here, we have to keep the lights on haha). We have been deeply committed to reinvesting in the profession to support the advancement of our field.
Reason #4: We partner and collaborate
I believe no one company will “win the AI race”. Therefore, I don’t view others as competition. In fact, we need to figure out how to collaborate even deeper so we can make this work more manageable.
As an example, we convened a multidisciplinary partnership that produced our ethical guidance document.
We convened university professors to discuss the role of AI in academia and presented our findings at the Trainers of School Psychologists conference, during NASP 2025.
Partnered with various state associations.
As I have said, the biggest threat to our field is stress and burnout, not AI, and certainly not one another.
I am always open to partnerships, collaborations, and discussions that move the field in the right direction.
Reason #5: We can admit when we get it wrong (transparency)
We are almost transparent to a fault. We openly share our failures and mistakes.
Our team is truly building in public. We do some things really well. At times, we don’t. One of our core values is to fail fast. As a young, agile startup, we have the luxury of moving quickly. While our company is still in startup mode, it’s also ironic because we have thousands of people who rely on our platform. So, when we get it wrong, the impact is felt. Because we pride ourselves on being transparent, we often share this with you. We post banners on our website when bugs are impacting the platform and across social media. When we get things wrong, we listen to understand how to do it better next time.
We welcome and take feedback, which helps us improve every day. Admittedly, it can be challenging to receive feedback at times, but we take it, learn from our mistakes, and continue to grow so we can get it right for you.
Reason #6: Independently FERPA evaluated
We are the only independently evaluated FERPA-compliant platform designed explicitly for school psychologists.
When we first launched, one of the biggest questions was whether we were FERPA compliant. I would tell people we adhere to the highest standards. That is good, but not good enough.
I also know that, for some reason (which we can discuss if you really care to know), people scrutinize my platform without the same level of scrutiny for others. But I am built for this, which is why, since the inception, the plan was not only to adhere to, but to be independently evaluated and audited. The key differentiator is that others claim to be FERPA compliant, but how can you be certain? How can you trust that they are?
That’s where an independent evaluation comes in. An independent evaluation involves an external party conducting a comprehensive audit of your platform, technology, and security to confirm whether you are compliant or not. IKeepSafe has independently evaluated us as a FERPA-compliant platform. MagicSchool has also been independently evaluated but is designed for general education teachers and now has a platform for students.
Again, when it comes to an AI platform designed specifically for school psychologists, others might proclaim to be, but ask them if they have been independently evaluated and by whom.
Also, don't blindly trust ChatGPT. Google is indexing conversations with ChatGPT that users may have privately shared, turning what one might have thought to be a private conversation into search results visible to millions of people. Simply put, your personal conversations where you shared deeply personal information might be found on Google. Let me be clear, those billion-dollar companies do not care about you, they care about your data. You have an ethical obligation to protect student data and privacy. It will be devastating if a student's personal identifiable information is made public because you shared a conversation with a colleague or because you blindly trusted ChatGPT. I am not saying you can not use ChatGPT, but I am saying you must use it ethically and responsibly.
Reason #7: Bootstrapped and independent
In the tech and startup world, “bootstrapped” means you have not received any investments or outside capital from investors or private equity.
Other platforms, such as MagicSchool, have all received millions of dollars. To date, we have taken $0 dollars from anyone. When I say School Psych AI was built from the ground up by our community, I mean it.
You might ask, what is the big deal about not having received funding. Well, it means that all the technology updates, platform builds, marketing efforts, and everything else are based on the work of our small team and community. We also don't answer to a board of profit-driven investors. Instead, we answer to our community.
We don’t have millions, tens of millions, and in the case of big-league companies like OpenAI and Google, we don’t have hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. So when we get compared to ChatGPT or Gemini, I take it as a compliment because we are in the same conversation. To me, it also shows the power of being mission-driven, built by school psychs, and deeply human-centered in our work. Now, this isn’t to say we will never take funding, if you have a rich uncle or auntie, send them our way haha! But the point here is to provide a perspective of what we have built, in the short time we have, with literally an idea and a dream and no funding, compared to behemoth private equity-backed companies.
Reason #8: Focused on Equity, Inclusiveness, and Action.
I am a Black male school psychologist. I am in rare atmosphere being a school psychologist, and I am in even rarer air being a Black male school psychologist who is also an EdTech founder.
It matters deeply to me that School Psych AI is built ethically, uses inclusive datasets, and sources models that are environmentally and ethically conscious. Part of our tech stack leverages AWS, as it is one of the more morally conscious cloud providers that prioritizes equitable access without requiring expensive local infrastructure. AWS has committed to run entirely on renewable power and to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. That aligns with our values. We also deploy smaller, efficient models, which emerging research shows reduces energy use compared to very large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT or Gemini.
I get it, there are so many reasons to be anti-AI, and still so much to learn that we yet don't know. I choose to be solution-oriented and on the forefront of what's possible, while ensuring that voices that have been historically omitted are prioritized and involved in this technological advancement.
Look, it's easy to critique from the sidelines. What's impressive to me is getting in the game and being part of the solution you want to see. Advocate for what you believe to be right, and stand on it. For me, I refuse to let others, who have less information about our field and communities, make decisions and influence policy without being actively involved. The reality is, this technology is here. I will fight to ensure it is used responsibly, does no harm to historically marginalized communities, and that our education community uses it to reduce gaps and improve outcomes, especially for historically marginalized communities.
So, Why School Psych AI?
School Psych AI is not perfect. Our strengths are in our community. We listen deeply to your needs and strive to meet them. My CTO, Ed, and I are laser-focused on getting this right for you. We are both achievers and relentless in the pursuit to not only get this right, but to be the best. New companies will arise, and I'm glad. Hopefully, we can collaborate and push the field forward together. But they don't know what they don't know yet and will have a ways to climb.
We are David compared to some of the Goliaths out there, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and even MagicSchool. We have been out-resourced, under-funded, and out-manned, and that hasn't mattered.
Listen, I can keep going, but you probably have a report to get to, so I will end with this... Here's what matters. When I’m asked what sets School Psych AI apart, it's this.. Our team. Our community. Our mission. It's our focus and our drive. It's my personal commitment to be of service to you.
More than anything, I am driven and on a relentless pursuit to move our field forward so we can do the work we have been called to do.
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