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Georgia Appleseed, a legal advocacy organization, has a new artificial intelligence-powered chatbot for parents in need of round-the-clock guidance on school disciplinary matters and special education rights.
And it just might help kids stay in school and get the help they need.
Seedmore, a parent-focused “civic tech” platform, was built in coordination with students at Emory University.
The goal is to provide 24/7 reliable legal information and procedural support for parents navigating school disciplinary processes. It can also answer questions related to enrollment and children with disabilities. This is important for parents of the nearly 130,000 Georgia students who are suspended from school each year, often for minor, nonviolent offenses that could be addressed through less punitive measures.
The chatbot was built to fill a gap in the educational system. It is built on top of over 2,000 hours of research. Insights was also provided by Appleseed’s attorney network, including lawyers at firms like Eversheds Sutherland, Alston & Bird, King & Spalding, Kilpatrick, and Jones Day.
“Seedmore focuses on how to navigate special education (and disability rights) school discipline proceedings, particularly situations where the child may be facing long periods of suspension out of school, and school enrollment challenges,” Michael Waller, Executive Director at Georgia Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, told Hypepotamus. “A single suspension reduces a child’s chance of graduating by 12% on average. So, the stakes can be very high. We often see proposed suspensions of over a year for vaping and other offences. If parents know their children’s rights and have some advocacy tools, they can often get their kids back in school with better supports in place.”
Chatting With Seedmore
Seedmore was born out of the undergraduate Emory University course “Building AI Solutions.” The class was taught by David Schweidel, Goizueta Chair in Business Technology and Professor of Marketing.
Penelope Gallardo, one of the Emory University students who worked on the Seedmore project, told Hypepotamus that working on Seedmore taught her “a lot about balancing tech with real-world needs in a way that makes a difference. Because of my computer science and business background, I was able to think about both how the chatbot should work technically and how it could best serve the parents who use it.”
Additionally, Gallardo said the project opened her eyes into how AI can make tangible impacts on people’s lives.
“It showed me how powerful AI can be in helping more people get the information and support they need, especially those who might not always have easy access. Working with Georgia Appleseed made me even more passionate about using technology for good, and it also taught me how important it is to work closely with different teams and to keep the user’s needs front and center when building something like this. I’m excited to keep building and developing these skills as I grow in my career,” she added.
Building Tech Solutions For Parents
Artificial intelligence tools are rapidly gaining adoption across professional industries. But many non-technical users who could benefit from such technology lack meaningful access to these resources.
Consumer-facing AI applications raise particular concerns when users depend on them for legal guidance or critical life decisions.
Addressing those issues was important for Waller and the team behind Seedmore.
“I was worried about Seedmore hallucinating or some of the dangers that you see in the press, particularly since children and youth might be using Seedmore. But I had two other big concerns—we couldn’t have Seedmore providing legal advice (he’s not a lawyer) and we didn’t want Seedmore straying from the topics we’d trained him on. (Early iterations would do your homework for you and discuss a wide range of topics.) We’ve got him focused now,” Waller said. “He provides the guidance parents can use to advocate for their children without straying off topic.”
