How AllHere’s Joanna Smith Is Tackling America’s Education Problem | Forbes

Published 3 years ago
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“Panicky” was how Smith felt when all her customers shut their doors as the pandemic took hold in mid-March. AllHere Education, which she founded in 2017, works with schools to address the longstanding problem of chronic truancy. “It was like, if schools are closed, are we going to have a business?” But as classes moved online, Smith quickly released a sophisticated chatbot system that keeps students in their virtual seats. The bots not only help with truancy, they can assist students who are struggling academically, provide confidential healthcare referrals and troubleshoot computer problems. Since Smith’s pivot, AllHere’s client base has ballooned to 2,000 schools in 15 states who pay an annual subscription fee of $2 per student. “My goal over the next 12 months is a land grab,” Smith says. “We want to help students get to school every day and put them on the track to success.”

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