Student AI Safety

Pip's Study Hall is the only place in WiseBoard where students chat directly with an AI. It is opt-in per class, off by default, and has six layers of safeguards: a distress detector that emails the teacher, a per-class age-appropriate content filter, a school-wide strictness floor an admin sets, a sensitive-topic redirect to a trusted adult, full transcript visibility for the teacher and parent, and one-click parent opt-out. Pip is not a counselor, therapist, doctor, or substitute for an adult ; every safety message tells students to find a real grown-up.

Every student message is scanned for distress language (self-harm, abuse, severe depression). If it matches:

• Pip immediately replies with a 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline message and tells the student to talk to a trusted adult.
• The student's teacher is emailed in real time with the message and a link to the transcript.
• The event is logged to an immutable safety-events feed visible to the school admin.
• No banned-keyword filter or strictness setting can suppress this. It always fires.

Each teacher chooses an age tier for their class:

• Elementary ; simple vocabulary; refuses anything off-topic from schoolwork.
• Middle school ; middle-grade vocabulary; redirects sensitive topics; default tier.
• High school ; adult vocabulary; still redirects on sensitive topics; supports independent research.

The filter is enforced inside the system prompt, in addition to the banned-keyword list and per-student daily message cap. Teachers can also add their own banned keywords on their class settings page.

A district or school admin can set a minimum strictness from the school safety dashboard. Teachers can pick a tier at or above the floor, but never below it. This lets a district pin every elementary building to "Elementary" without touching individual class settings.

Distinct from distress, "sensitive" topics are mental health, substances, sexuality, and violence. Per class, a teacher chooses what Pip does when one comes up:

• Clarify (default) ; Pip names the topic, recommends the student talk to a parent, school counselor, or doctor, and offers to keep helping with schoolwork.
• Block ; Pip refuses the topic outright and points to a trusted adult.

Both outcomes are logged to the safety-events feed.

Every parent gets a secure no-account link to their student's WiseBoard portal. From that link, a parent can:

• Read the last 30 days of their student's Pip transcripts (up to 100 messages), with safety flags shown inline.
• Toggle Pip access off for their student. Once opted out, every Pip session attempt is refused with a "your parent disabled this feature" message ; even if the teacher has Pip enabled for the class.
• Re-enable access at any time. Both opt-out and opt-in actions are logged.

Teachers always see, for every student in their class:

• Full Pip transcripts, organized by date.
• Real-time email when a distress signal fires.
• Daily-cap status (so they can spot a student who is using Pip excessively).
• Per-class kill switch to disable Pip for the entire class instantly.

Org owners and admins see a school-wide safety dashboard with the last 50 safety events across every classroom (student name, class, teacher, type, time). Every Monday at 12:00 UTC, owners and admins receive a weekly safety digest email with last-week's counts: total turns, distress signals, sensitive topics redirected, sensitive topics refused, banned-keyword refusals, and parent opt-outs. The email contains counts only ; never any student message text ; so it carries no FERPA-sensitive payload. Admins can disable the digest from the dashboard.

Pip transcripts are kept for the academic year and purged 90 days after a student is removed from a class roster. Safety-events are kept for 24 months for compliance reviews. Distress emails to teachers are retained per the teacher's own email-provider policy (we do not store a copy after sending).

Pip is a study assistant. It is not a mental-health counselor, doctor, lawyer, financial advisor, or substitute for any human adult. Every distress and sensitive-topic response makes this explicit and points the student to a trusted real-world adult and, where applicable, to 988. If you believe a student is in immediate danger, call 911.

• AI Usage Disclosure ; what AI does across all of WiseBoard, not just Pip Study Hall.
• COPPA notice ; how we handle data for students under 13.
• Trust Center ; security, compliance, and subprocessors.