When is the next early dismissal? What is the dress code? How does extended day work? Who coaches the team? School Compass answers these questions from your school's own website, calendars and newsletters, with links back to the pages it used.
Why private schools get more questions
Independent schools often have more to explain than a public district does. Families pay tuition, so they expect quick answers. Many schools have their own calendars, dress codes, lunch programs, extended-day care, buses and athletics schedules. That information usually lives in many places: website pages, PDF handbooks, calendar feeds and weekly newsletters.
The result is familiar to every front office. The same questions come in by phone and email every week, and the answers are already on the website. Families just cannot find them.
The answer is usually already published
Many repeat questions are about information your school has already put online. The problem is finding it, not writing it.
What School Compass answers
School Compass reads your public website and the sources you connect during setup. Families then ask in plain words. What it can answer depends on what your school publishes and which sources you connect. Typical questions include:
- Calendar (Google Calendar or iCal feeds): days off, early dismissals, breaks and conferences, with "add to calendar" buttons.
- Tuition and financial aid: what your public pages say about cost, payment and aid.
- Admissions: visit days, application steps and deadlines, for families who are not yet enrolled.
- Athletics (EventLink schedules): game times, places and schedules.
- Lunch (Nutrislice menus): today's menu and the week ahead.
- People: who teaches what, and whom to call.
- Handbooks and policies: dress code, phones, attendance, bus routes and forms, including PDFs.
- Newsletters: recent family newsletters that your school forwards from approved senders.
Answers include links to the pages they came from, so families can check them.
Two ways families can use it
1. A branded answer website
Your school gets its own site at your-school.compasschat.org, with your name, colors and logo. Share it in newsletters, texts or with a QR code. Families need no account and no app.
2. A chat widget on your existing website
Keep the website you have. Add the School Compass widget, and families can ask questions from any page. Both the widget and the answer website use the same assistant and the same sources.
Built for the trust a school needs
- Answers from your sources. School Compass uses the sources you connect. You can also turn on selected outside sources.
- A next step when it cannot answer. When it detects that it cannot answer, the chat offers your office's contact details.
- No family accounts. Chat history stays in the family's browser. A question goes to your school only if the family chooses to send it.
- Kept up to date. Your website is scheduled for a daily re-read, so changes on your site are picked up without extra work from your team.
- Honest about limits. AI can make mistakes. Families are reminded to confirm important information with your team.
Built for COPPA
Many private schools start in Pre-K. School Compass is built for COPPA, the US law that protects children under 13 online, so your youngest students can use it too. Students and families need no account, name or email. What they type is used to make an answer and is not kept, unless they choose to send an unanswered question to your school. It is never used for ads, profiles or AI training. Your school authorizes use on parents' behalf, as the FTC's COPPA guidance allows. How School Compass protects students
What your team sees
Your dashboard shows how many questions families ask, the percentage that were answered, and the questions families chose to send to you. Those unanswered questions show you which information is missing or hard to find on your website. You can change the assistant's name, colors, logo and sources, and manage newsletter senders, at any time.
Setup takes days, not months
- Tell us your website. We look for your school details and supported sources.
- Confirm them, choose your address and branding, and complete the agreement and payment.
- We read your site and check that it finds the right pages. You get a preview link before launch. Our usual target is 2–3 business days.
You pay a yearly subscription per school, by card or by invoice: School ($1,499 a year, 5,000 questions a month) or School Pro ($2,499 a year, 15,000 questions a month). You can pause the assistant from your dashboard and cancel any time; it stops at the end of the paid year.
See it with a real question
Ask our demo school, Brightwater Academy, about winter break, tuition or 5th grade teachers.
