Many companies now sell AI chatbots for school websites. Ask every vendor these ten questions before you choose.
1. Where do the answers come from?
A school chatbot should answer from your school's own information: your website, handbooks, calendars and newsletters. A general AI model that "knows about schools" will guess. Ask the vendor exactly which sources it reads, and whether you can see and change that list.
2. Does every answer show its source?
Source links let a parent check an answer in one tap. They also let your team see why the bot said something. If a vendor cannot show where an answer came from, you cannot check it.
3. What happens when it does not know?
Every chatbot meets questions it cannot answer. A good one says so, and gives the family a next step, such as your office's phone number or email. A poor one makes up an answer.
Test this one yourself
In the demo, ask something that is not on your website. Watch what the chatbot does.
4. How does it stay up to date?
Schools change dates all the time. Ask how often the chatbot re-reads your website, and how long a changed date takes to show up. "When you upload new files" means your team must remember to do it. A scheduled daily re-read does it for you.
5. Can it read your calendar, lunch menu and athletics schedule?
Date, menu and game questions are often the most common. These usually live in separate systems, not on normal web pages. Ask which calendar, lunch and athletics sources the vendor supports, and test a real date question. Read how a calendar chatbot works.
6. Do families need an account or an app?
Every login step loses families. The best option lets parents ask straight away, on any phone, with no account and no download.
7. What happens to family questions?
Parents may type names, health details or other private information. Ask the vendor:
- Who can read the conversations: the vendor, the school, or nobody?
- Where is chat history stored, and for how long?
- Is personal information removed automatically?
- Is family data used to train AI models?
Get the answers in writing, in the privacy policy or the contract. If students under 13 may use it, also ask how the vendor handles COPPA, the US law that protects children under 13 online. Read what COPPA asks of a school chatbot.
Built for COPPA
School Compass is built for COPPA. 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
8. What does your team see?
A useful dashboard shows how many questions families ask, how many were answered, and which questions went unanswered. The unanswered questions tell you which website pages are missing or unclear.
9. Does it work on your current website?
You should not have to rebuild your website. Ask whether the chatbot works as a widget on your current site, and whether families can also use it from a link you share in newsletters and texts. Check that it works with a keyboard and a screen reader, and on small phones. See how to add a chatbot to your school website.
10. What does it cost, and can you leave?
Ask for the full price per year, including setup fees, and what happens if usage goes up. Check the contract length. A one-year plan is less risky than a multi-year contract. Also ask how long setup takes, and who does the work.
A quick test for any demo
Ask each vendor to show their chatbot answering these questions about your school, from your real website:
- "Is there school next Friday?"
- "What is for lunch tomorrow?"
- A question whose answer is only in a PDF handbook.
- A question that is not on your website at all.
Check each answer against the source. The fourth question shows you what the chatbot does when it does not know.
How School Compass answers these questions
- Built for COPPA: no student accounts, names or emails, and what families type is not kept unless they choose to send a question to your school.
- It answers from your public pages and PDFs, Google Calendar or iCal feeds, Nutrislice lunch menus, EventLink athletics schedules, and newsletters from approved senders. Answers include links to the pages they used.
- When it detects that it cannot answer, it offers your office's contact details.
- Your website is scheduled for a daily re-read.
- Families need no account and no app. Chat history stays in the family's browser. A question reaches your school only if the family chooses to send it.
- It works as a branded answer site and as a widget on your existing website.
- It is a yearly subscription per school: School ($1,499 a year, 5,000 questions a month) or School Pro ($2,499 a year, 15,000 questions a month). You can cancel at any time; it stops at the end of the paid year. Our usual setup target is 2–3 business days.
Run the test on our demo
Ask Brightwater Academy, our made-up demo school, the questions above.
