Fredericksburg Parent

20 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • November 2025 This school year, Fredericksburg City students in Grade 4 and above whose parents did not opt them out have been enrolled in Alongside, a mental health support app with an AI component. Division leaders last week acknowledged, in response to con- cerns raised by parents, that the app was not adequately intro- duced to families—but they said it's already resulted in "safety plans" being created for 10 students with significant mental health challenges. "These are kids who were not on our radar for other issues," said Matt Eberhardt, deputy superintendent. "This is an app to catch kids who are slipping through the cracks. It can catch kids when something bad is going through their heads." Eberhardt stressed that Alongside is "a skill-building platform and a resource, not a replacement for an adult." "Always, we want kids talking to a human, not a pamphlet or a program," he said. According to its website, Alongside is an AI wellness platform. The company's head of product and clinical director is Elsa Friis, a Ph.D. and licensed psychologist who earned her degrees at Duke University. A licensed therapist, clinical counselor, and clinical psychologist make up the rest of Alongside's clinical research and development team. For students, Alongside features personalized coaching and skill- building activities where students can track their mood, write in a journal, set goals, and work on "superpowers" to help them deal with specific issues such as rebuilding friendships, meeting new people, making decisions, and practicing self-care. The personalized coaching happens through a chat with Kiwi, Alongside's llama mascot. This is where the AI component comes in—but the app's website and Fredericksburg school division leaders stress the difference between chatting with Kiwi and chatting with an open-source AI companion bot. "[Kiwi is] a chatbot with a scripted mental health response from a clinician's point of view," said Maris Wyatt, director of special education for City schools. "It's not an AI open source platform where you can put in anything and get an answer. It won't search for an answer for you." For example, a student can ask Kiwi for help managing test anxiety or what to do after fighting with a friend, and receive a response, tailored to their concerns, reading level, and lan- guage, with tips for working through the issue. But Kiwi won't provide the answer to a math problem. It also won't provide medical advice or a diagnosis. "The horror stories you hear about [around AI chatbots] occur when you can go outside the system," Wyatt said. "This is a closed loop. It will only recommend activities that have been vetted by the mental health professionals." Wyatt said that since the COVID-19 pandemic, "We have expe- rienced a lot of mental health needs in a short period of time." She said her team looked at several similar mental health sup- port platforms and chose Alongside after learning about it from the developers at a mental health conference last year. A pilot group of about 200 students—made up of two 4th grade classes and English language learners at Walker-Grant Middle School—used the app during the spring semester last year and "the feedback was very favorable," Wyatt said. The division purchased Alongside for $10,000, using funds from a five-year mental health grant received from the Virginia Department of Education. Fredericksburg was among eight divi- sions in Virginia chosen to receive a portion of the $15 million federal grant awarded to the VDOE in 2023. So far this year, Wyatt said lack of sleep is the #1 issue that Fredericksburg students—and students across the country, according to Alongside—are asking for help with. After sleep, students in the City are asking for help dealing with some spe- cific challenge, followed by help balancing school work and activities. According to data the division has gathered so far, 40% of students using Alongside are accessing the chat, and 60% are accessing the other activities, such as journaling and superpow- er-building. Fredericksburg Students Get Extra WRITTEN BY ADELE UPHAUS Mental Health Support Through the App Clinician-designed platform flags concerns early and connects kids to real people when they need help.

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