Chat with schoolAgent

schoolAgent is where you ask your district's AI agent for help: how to reset a password, when the library opens, why your laptop won't charge. It answers from what your district has taught it. When it can't help, it hands you to a person.

You need Use schoolAgent (chat.view) to chat, and your plan needs schoolAgent. The page also holds My tickets, My devices and My tasks, which open when your plan has schoolHelpdesk, schoolAssets or Tasks. The page opens when your plan has any one of them.

schoolAgent always opens on the chat, even if you were looking at your tickets last time.

The header#

• Your district's logo and the agent's name. Your admins choose both, along with the colors. Select them to open the menu.
• Chat. On My tickets, My devices and My tasks, and on a ticket's, device's or task's own page, one tap takes you back to the chat. It isn't there on the chat itself, or when you can't use the chat.
• AI assistant — not a person. Always there next to the agent's name, so you know you're talking to software. On a narrow window it shortens to AI assistant or AI. It can't be turned off.
• Talk to a person. See Talk to a person.
• Help articles. Opens your district's help center in a new tab, when your district has one. On a wide screen.
• Notifications. The bell lists what's new for you, such as "Your device is ready for pickup" when a repair you left at a repair kiosk is done. Select one to open it. The bell is on every schoolAgent page.
• The light and dark mode switch, just left of your account menu.
• Your account menu.

Every schoolAgent page wears your account's colors: its buttons, links, labels and highlights. They follow the agent's colors, which are your account's branding when the agent uses it (Admin › Agent › Branding). Text on the colored buttons stays readable: if the chosen text color doesn't stand out enough against your color, black or white is used instead. Buttons keep the standard square-cornered shape used across schoolOS.

The menu#

Select the agent's logo and name to open its menu:

• Chat. The conversation with the agent.
• My tickets. Your requests for help. The number counts your open ones. Each card shows its status and when anyone last replied. See My tickets.
• My devices. The devices assigned to you. A device that's been repaired and is waiting for you says Ready for pickup. See My devices.
• My tasks. The work your school asked you to do. The number counts what's still to do. See My tasks.

Every page is in your account's colors; each has its own icon.

Use the arrow keys to move through the menu and Enter to open a page. Each page has its own link, so you can bookmark one.

A page only shows when there's something behind it. Chat needs schoolAgent in your plan and Use schoolAgent, and hides when your admins turn the chat off. My tickets needs schoolHelpdesk in your plan, and My devices needs schoolAssets. My tasks needs Tasks in your plan, and either View tasks or a task assigned to you. Each follows its own product, so a plan without schoolAgent still gets the others here. When the chat is all you have, the agent's name isn't a menu.

The chat terms#

Before your first message, the agent may show its terms, such as "This chat is recorded and monitored…". Your admins set the wording, and whether it's asked at all.

• Agree to the chat terms. Saves your agreement and lets you chat.
• Not now. You can't send messages until you agree. The agent explains that the chat won't be recorded.

Start a chat#

The welcome message greets you by name. Under it are suggested prompts your admins picked. Select one to send it.

Or type in the message box and press Enter, or select the arrow. The microphone turns speech into text, in browsers that support it.

You can't attach files to a chat.

While the agent works, you see what it's doing, such as "Thinking...". Its answers can include buttons to pick from and links to your own devices. Ask about a school menu without naming your school, and it lists your district's schools: type part of a name to narrow the list, then select yours. Ask about this device, on one of your devices, starts a new chat with the device already named in the message box.

If the agent asks which school you mean and your account has multiple schools available, it shows a Schools table with that reply. This applies to school-specific information such as meals, fees, bell schedules, office numbers, principals, and clubs when the school is missing from your question. Use Search schools to narrow the list, then select the school row to continue the original question for that school. For fees, the agent may still ask which fee or program you mean after you choose a school. Each school question has its own table; its search and rows lock after you choose or move on, including when you reopen the chat.

When an answer comes from one of your district's help articles, a card under it shows the article: its title, a line about it, where it sits, how long it takes to read and when it was updated. Read the full article opens it beside the chat, in your help center's colors, so you can read the steps while you keep chatting (on a phone it covers the chat; × closes it). Was this article helpful? at its foot tells your district. Open in new tab opens it in the help center. Other sources stay in Sources.

Under an answer, Was this helpful? asks for a thumbs up or down. A thumbs down offers ways to reach a person.

Talk to a person#

Talk to a person in the header lists the places your district routes requests to, with the best match first. Pick one, and the agent passes your chat along. Start a chat first: the button waits until you have one.

Your admins can hide the button, or turn routing off.

Under the places, Create a ticket (if you can create tickets) writes your request up from the chat and opens it beside the chat: a subject, the problem, and under What I've tried what you already did, including articles the agent gave you. Pick where it goes if your district has more than one helpdesk, and the device it's about.

When the agent asks Send it? for a request going to a helpdesk in schoolOS, Review and send opens the same form, with that helpdesk already chosen; Cancel still sends nothing.

Whose device? is Mine or Someone else's. When the chat names someone else ("Julie's iPad"), it starts on Someone else's and searches for them.

• Tag on the device. Type the asset tag (or serial number) from the sticker and select Find, or select the camera and scan the tag's barcode: the device and its person are filled in at once.
• Or find the person. Type their name. With several of that name, add a last name or a grade: "Julie P" or "Julie 4th". Each match shows their role, grade and school, and In your class marks the students in the classes you teach, listed first. When there are more than fit, it says how many and asks you to narrow it. Pick the right one; nothing is picked for you, even when there's only one.
• Their devices. Picking the person lists their devices, the kind the chat named first ("iPad"). When there's only one of that kind it's chosen for you; with two, each shows its tag, or the end of its serial number if it has no tag, so you can tell them apart.

You can find people at your own school; staff who work tickets or see assets can find anyone in the district. About shows the topic it reads the request as.

When the ticket is about a device (its topic needs one, it's a device topic like Devices or Chromebooks, or the chat named a device), Submit waits for the device:

• They have devices (you, or the person you picked): pick one of theirs.
• They have none: scan or type the tag on it, or fill in Describe the device ("Silver iPad, blue case, room 12").
• No one by that name: it says so, like "No Julie at your school — scan the tag or describe the device.", and waits for the tag or a description. It never goes without one.

When you picked the person, the ticket says it's for them: the technician sees Requested for with their name, and you stay the requester. A tag that doesn't find a device you can file about, the description, and the name you typed for someone else all go on the ticket, at the end of its description. Only you and anyone CC'd are kept in the loop; the technician decides who else follows it.

Fill in anything your district requires (the fields marked required); Submit waits until they're done and Still needed says what's left. Change anything you like, then Submit. You get a confirmation with the ticket number, it shows under My tickets, and you're emailed as it moves along. Cancel closes it without sending anything.

A ticket you file here, from the chat or from New ticket on My tickets, comes in as a schoolAgent ticket, and one from a chat is linked to that conversation so the technician can read it.

When your district offers it, a phone number to call shows beside the places too, like Call the IT help desk, or the department's own number, like Call the Facilities office. On a phone it dials; Copy copies it.

When the place you pick needs to know which device it's about (your district decides, by topic), the agent asks before passing your chat along, and lists your devices to pick from; or type its asset tag, or its make and model. When the chat is about someone else's device ("Julie's iPad"), it lists that person's devices instead, or the people the name could mean so you can pick, among those you can find in Whose device?. If it finds no one by that name, it says so and asks for the tag or a description. When nothing like that is needed, it asks nothing extra.

Ask the agent first when it's a question ("When is the library open?"). Use Talk to a person when you already know someone has to act, like a repair or a records request: it skips straight to the people who can.

Examples:

• A teacher whose classroom projector won't turn on asks the agent, which suggests the checks your district's IT team wrote up. It still doesn't work, so the teacher selects Talk to a person and picks the IT route. The chat is passed along, and the request shows under My tickets if your district routes IT questions as tickets.
• A guardian with two students asks "What time is early release on Friday?". The agent answers from the district calendar. Nothing is sent to anyone.

If you or someone else is in danger#

If you write about self-harm, a threat, abuse or an emergency, the agent answers with crisis resources first, like the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or 911 if someone is in danger right now. It then tells you the conversation was flagged to your school's safety contacts by email. It may offer to share your contact details with them too.

The agent is not a counselor, and nobody is called automatically. If someone is in danger right now, call 911.

Your chats#

The panel on the left keeps your past chats, newest first. On a phone, open it with the menu button.

• New chat. Starts over. The + at the left of the message box does the same while you're in a chat. Your current chat stays in the list.

• After an hour away. A chat you haven't used for an hour ends. Your next question starts a new chat, so each one stays on one subject. The earlier chat stays in the list. This is the same on your district's website.

• Search chats. Finds a chat by its title.

• Delete chats. Select Edit, choose one or more of your chats, then select Delete selected. You can only delete chats in your own history. This also works while a schoolOS admin is viewing the page as you.

• Drag the panel's edge to make it wider or narrower.

When the chat is off#

When your admins turn the chat off for your account, Chat leaves the menu and My tickets, My devices and My tasks stay. If the chat was all this page had for you, it says "schoolAgent is turned off". "Nothing here yet" means your role doesn't include the chat: ask your admins if you need it.

At the bottom#

Terms and Privacy link to schoolOS's terms of service and privacy policy.

Choosing a school#

When a school-specific question needs you to choose a school, the chat can show a searchable school table. Type part of the school name to narrow the list, then select a row to continue your original question. The count shows how many schools match your search. Searching the list does not send another chat message.

Answered choices remain visible in your chat history and cannot be selected again. To ask about a different school, send a new question. The same school picker is available in the website chat widget.